buy USA stuff

John ED Renstrom

PCS Member
Super Site Supporter
will today the big box I was looking for came off the FedX truck.
when I ordered these parts I went a little extra for the AC Delco parts. just because that would be original and a few bucks more from Rock auto is all it is. they were all in the lovely red white and blue boxes we all now . but I got to looking at them the brake hoses were in a bag with a generic part number on them made in china. the strut bushings were made in china in one box with two bushing in the box. the other was assembled in the USA with one in the box. manufacture unknown. I need 2 so got two now I have 3. the brake drums were made in chine. one took one pass to true up the other took 2. but they look good and fit. as long as I was down to the parts store I picked up a sway bar link kit . it was a AC one also, it was made in the USA. I thought part of bailing out GM was to save the parts suppliers jobs? who would have though the only job that Americans will do is make Sway bar bushings!
 

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Ed you again are so right.the saddest thing I saw recently was on the Hamilton Ont news ,Hamilton home to Dofasco and Stelco 2 of the biggest steel makers up here and the news showed a ship arriving from China loaded with coils of steel.:(
 
AC Delco is mainly a marketing entity today. The spinoff and creation of Delphi was the beginning of the end IMO. GM sold off most of their parts supply divisions long ago, even before the bankruptcy.

That being said I deal with AC Delco parts on a daily basis and usually the quality is high. I feel that in the case of brake rotors and drums that Delco keeps a pretty tight rein on the overseas suppliers. That bad drum may have been dropped somewhere in the pipeline, I can't think of one bad one that I have pulled off the shelf for a long time. Can't say that for a lot of the aftermarket Chinese manufactured ones.
 
Quality was good. The drum was not bad just needed one more clean up pass then the other.
The point is all these parts were made here or in Canada no more then 10 years ago. And some of them are the same as generic, gypsy parts as they say. I will say the price at least the wholesale price has dropped a lot.
 
The new economy. The day it really hit me was while working at my part time job at a Harley Davidson dealership.

Tech needed a engine mount for a "bagger". Part number went through a few changes denoted by the suffix letter attached to the part number. Latest and greatest revision was tagged "Made in China".........and yes it was genuine H-D.
 
If given the option I would have no problem paying a bit more if it was guaranteed that the product was being manufactured in North America. Put the two options side by side and let the consumer decide.
 
I locate NOS parts whenever I can, and there is never a problem with the old parts that were produced in the good ole US of A. If the consumer didn't demand lower prices, and the workers demanding higher wages, the factories would still be in the US, but you can't have it both ways. American auto works buying foreign made cars and driving to work in them at the US auto assembly plants goes a long way to telling management that they don't support the company that pays their wages.
 
NOS is always best............ except when it comes to anything rubber or paper. That is also why I snag old auto parts catalogs from the '70s and '80s whenever I can find them.
 
This is even true for the company my brother work's for, Motown Automotive of Michigan. they are a federated dist., along with many other company's that have parts made in the usa and in china , and I do agree with paul on NOS part's
 
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