Chinese made crap replacement parts
There are a few of different views on this. If we can see all sides, we might have a chance on getting to the truth, buried somewhere in the middle.
1. The American consumer...
American automotive manufacturing is, generally, union based. This is not a slam against unions or union employees in any way, shape, or form. It's just a fact. And those unions will always get the highest labor rates for their memebers that they can. Anybody working in a union expects their delegates to do that. But, the cost of labor is directly transferred into the wholesale & retail cost of the product made by those union hands. And that means higher prices for Made in USA. Even non-union shops make pricey goods. Guess where they don't have unions... China.
2. The American business owner...
I work in Engineering for a manufacturer in Texas that sources parts from Chinese companies. I go to China to negotiate and inspect. Currently, there is no cheaper labor source that can crank out the amount of "sold in USA" products, anywhere in the world. Even with the tariffs on Chinese parts and over seas shipping costs, US companies cannot build their products for less, using USA materials & labor. That means a company can use the extra profit to hire more people, pay them a little better, and keep dollars flowing into their local economy (where ever their employees live, and buy groceries, and eat out, and buy beer, etc). And, yeah, the CEO makes more too.
3. The Chinese factory worker...
We've all heard arguments about illegal immigrants in the USA, and how they will do the jobs that Americans won't. Let me tell you, in China there are people doing jobs that illegal immigrants here would never do. If they are lucky enough to get a factory job, their schedule is 6:00am-8:00pm, Mon-Sat. At around $15 USD/day. No joke. Do they care that some Yankee gets a part for his car from 1970, that doesn't quite fit right? Nope. He just wants to send some money back to the little rural village that he left his wife and kid in, 5 years ago. Honestly, the guy on the factory floor isn't trying to make us a sub-par quality part. He's working with the tooling that he has, because the company isn't going to spend $50,000 to tweak the die so the part is an exact replica of what came out of Detroit 50 years ago.
4. The Chinese factory owner...
These guys oversee, and perpetuate, a system of neglect that most Americans can't imagine. In a Chinese factory (at least none that I have been to) there is no Safety Compliance Officer, there is no Quality Control Department, there are no OSHA standards, there is barely a lunch break, and if you gotta take a piss... boss don't care, hold it. And, when you do get to go, here's where you do it...
Actually, this is one of the nicer ones. It even has a door!
And, when it's time to clean the floor....
5. Legal Recourse...
There are no intellectual property laws in China. So, a factory makes a product for a US company for a year or so. Then, they take that design and either A- sell it to another factory that has inferior tooling and they start making it too, or B- sell direct to the US market, if it's a profitable item. But they will under cut the original US company, hoping to draw in American consumers with a lower price.
So, all I'm saying is that there are many contributing pieces to this problem. Both America and China have their share of the blame. When that new part arrives, and it's not quite what you expected, just remember that there is some dude in China that doesn't even know what a Dart, Duster, or Barracuda is. Let alone what the part he's making is supposed to actually look like.
And, yeah, it sucks.
There are a few of different views on this. If we can see all sides, we might have a chance on getting to the truth, buried somewhere in the middle.
1. The American consumer...
American automotive manufacturing is, generally, union based. This is not a slam against unions or union employees in any way, shape, or form. It's just a fact. And those unions will always get the highest labor rates for their memebers that they can. Anybody working in a union expects their delegates to do that. But, the cost of labor is directly transferred into the wholesale & retail cost of the product made by those union hands. And that means higher prices for Made in USA. Even non-union shops make pricey goods. Guess where they don't have unions... China.
2. The American business owner...
I work in Engineering for a manufacturer in Texas that sources parts from Chinese companies. I go to China to negotiate and inspect. Currently, there is no cheaper labor source that can crank out the amount of "sold in USA" products, anywhere in the world. Even with the tariffs on Chinese parts and over seas shipping costs, US companies cannot build their products for less, using USA materials & labor. That means a company can use the extra profit to hire more people, pay them a little better, and keep dollars flowing into their local economy (where ever their employees live, and buy groceries, and eat out, and buy beer, etc). And, yeah, the CEO makes more too.
3. The Chinese factory worker...
We've all heard arguments about illegal immigrants in the USA, and how they will do the jobs that Americans won't. Let me tell you, in China there are people doing jobs that illegal immigrants here would never do. If they are lucky enough to get a factory job, their schedule is 6:00am-8:00pm, Mon-Sat. At around $15 USD/day. No joke. Do they care that some Yankee gets a part for his car from 1970, that doesn't quite fit right? Nope. He just wants to send some money back to the little rural village that he left his wife and kid in, 5 years ago. Honestly, the guy on the factory floor isn't trying to make us a sub-par quality part. He's working with the tooling that he has, because the company isn't going to spend $50,000 to tweak the die so the part is an exact replica of what came out of Detroit 50 years ago.
4. The Chinese factory owner...
These guys oversee, and perpetuate, a system of neglect that most Americans can't imagine. In a Chinese factory (at least none that I have been to) there is no Safety Compliance Officer, there is no Quality Control Department, there are no OSHA standards, there is barely a lunch break, and if you gotta take a piss... boss don't care, hold it. And, when you do get to go, here's where you do it...
Actually, this is one of the nicer ones. It even has a door!
And, when it's time to clean the floor....
5. Legal Recourse...
There are no intellectual property laws in China. So, a factory makes a product for a US company for a year or so. Then, they take that design and either A- sell it to another factory that has inferior tooling and they start making it too, or B- sell direct to the US market, if it's a profitable item. But they will under cut the original US company, hoping to draw in American consumers with a lower price.
So, all I'm saying is that there are many contributing pieces to this problem. Both America and China have their share of the blame. When that new part arrives, and it's not quite what you expected, just remember that there is some dude in China that doesn't even know what a Dart, Duster, or Barracuda is. Let alone what the part he's making is supposed to actually look like.
And, yeah, it sucks.
