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I realize a lot of people don't care where their parts are made, but I spend a lot of money every year to avoid buying Chinese junk. It's not always possible, sometimes there's no Western-made option, but I try. Most manufacturers now have moved their cheaper components to China or elsewhere in SE Asia, but you can still get good parts if you buy from their more expensive lines. What prompted this post is that I recently bought a couple MOOG lower control arms for my 2000 Maxima. I bought the most expensive versions available from MOOG, in fact they were the most expensive sold by this particular online retailer, who carries a number of brands. Despite that, they arrived with "Made in China" labels on the boxes. Really disappointing.
It's not cost effective to return the arms at this point, but if I had known this in advance, I would have just bought the bushings and saved my money. At the very least, it would have been smarter to buy the cheap Chinese parts instead of paying twice as much because pricing is jacked up by a big name marketing team.
Hope this is helpful to other Maxima owners trying to keep their cars as original as possible. I've definitely learned a lesson.
I agree with your sentiment to "buy US-made" parts.
However, most parts are still made in Chine, in spite of Trump's promise to bring manufacturing back. So, we'll be stuck with Chinese parts for a wile longer. Second, you should be aware that the quality of some Chinese parts is very good. For example, the PowerStop brakes (sold by RockAuto/others, made in China) are excellent.
Instead of making broad-brush statement and venting your frustration, perhaps you can do a bit more research, get some real insights, and then let us all know.
If i need parts like NOW i will get them from my local Oreillys, if i am planning on replacing parts in the future i will either go OEM or get them from the website i listed .
I have used Chinese parts in the past and TBH for the price they aren't that bad , it's hit or miss though. If it works it works great and you only have to replace it once, if it sucks it will continue to suck until you get a quality part.
Last edited by Amave; 10-08-2020 at 04:15 PM.
Reason: wording
Over the decades I’ve personally done a good amount of investigating, including phone calls to the regional headquarters of some of our very well known and respected “U.S.” parts manufacturers.
My bottom-line conclusion is this ... we’d all be very disappointed to know where our OE and name brand auto parts are actually manufactured and we’d all be quite surprised and disappointed to know where our OE/dealer parts counter items fall in the manufacturer’s line of quality.
with something as simple as a control arm I wouldn't be concerned with where it's made. with the control arms on these cars all you need to do is get the energy suspension urethane bushings and change the lower ball joint if it's bad. some of the aftermarket lower ball joints actually have grease fittings on them. Plus as old as these cars are there's no point in paying top dollar for certain parts, save that money for when the big repairs come. I have an 02 6 speed that just had a throwout bearing go bad for the 3rd time in 8 years. I have the skill to do the job so I pulled the tranny the other day, for someone who can't that is a costly job. the 3 throwout bearings that failed before were OEM Nissan so this time I decided to try another brand SKF. she's at 290,000 miles and still running like a champ...
10-08-2020, 11:31 AM
