My favorite was a wheel bearing assembly that would set a wheel speed sensor fault. Long painful diag story later, the new bearing had a plastic tone ring.
My favorite was a wheel bearing assembly that would set a wheel speed sensor fault. Long painful diag story later, the new bearing had a plastic tone ring.
i know a big DotCom place in SF Bay area that sees its own products for sale at the electronic shops in china, not even trying to hide them , its just part of doing business in China ,
As said above do not put a part number or what the part is for "might" help you cut down on the "leakage"
In reply to californiamilleghia :
Tell them its for something completely different. If you want to steal the intellectual property, your ass is gonna have to work for it.
Appleseed said:In reply to californiamilleghia :
Tell them its for something completely different. If you want to steal the intellectual property, your ass is gonna have to work for it.
I know of some forged cranks that were deliberately spec'ed with two easily-fixed yet critical dimensions wrong. This was twofold: fixing that was enough final machining to be legally "Made in the USA", and it would be a good way to tell a counterfeit from the real thing.
Actual USA-forged cranks were not possible, nobody forges cranks in the US anymore!
Where are your brake parts made? While I enjoy watching these guys work, I have my doubts about their metallurgy, quality control, or even their ability to machine critical dimensions correctly. I have never seen a precision measuring instrument in any of these videos. This is not what I would call high-tech manufacturing and I bet a lot of the cheap parts we get are made in shops just like this.
ProDarwin said:1SlowVW said:In reply to ProDarwin :
I co own and manage a small auto parts store.
When I took it over 18 months ago it was the value shopping flaps in the market. It's taken 18 months of work with product reps , and local shops to go from stocking the economy version of the part and offering to order the premium to stoking the premium ( on many lines anyway) and offering customers to special order the economy version.
I can tell you as a parts store guy that I always suggest premium where possible, even though we often make more gp selling the economy products.
It comes down to education, you explain to the customer why that skf hub assembly or east Penn battery is the one you stock "Because it's the industry standard for quality."
Sell quality and you will cultivate quality customers. Sell economy and your in a race to the bottom and you may as well lock the doors.
Awesome. I wish a shop like yours existed near me. But surely you recognize that most people dont have a shop like this around them OR if they do, they are not aware it exists. Advance, Autozone, OReillys all sell similar garbage under different brand names in my experience.
That said, I'm skeptical that a "premium" version of a part exists for many vehicles other than the OEM. For common wear items, sure. But for example, motor mounts, alternators, radiators, etc. for many vehicles there are zero quality aftermarket components. What do you tell people in those cases?
On a related note, do you ship? I would gladly support a business like yours over any of the others.
I'll be transparent, I run under the Napa flag.
I can't speak to the differences in suppliers from Canada to USA but I know there are certain parts we can only get from certain suppliers. For example if dorman is the only non oe making the part that's all you can offer. But on the common stuff, brake, chassis, and bearings you definitely have options. It does get tough because national chains want to deal with national level suppliers and for better or worse sometimes only certain companies can supply at that level. I won't name names but when I was a territory manager for Napa I got a pretty good look behind the curtain. Let me tell you within the industry it's known who provides quality and who misses the target warranty return rates. I know for a fact that one NAPA went to one of its prefered suppliers a few years ago and told them they needed to start remanufacthring X product becaus the old national supplier couldn't get their warranty rates in check.
In reply to Toyman! :
Amazing to see tolerancing in action. I'm sure that they have their processes in place to be able to whip those parts out quickly and within spec.
Part of that is quality design, too. Anybody can make something that requires ultra precise machining to function, it takes engineering skill to create something that works well with acceptably wide tolerances for rapid production and fault-tolerance.
is Taiwan any better ? I know they are more expensive , but do they care more about the products they sell ?
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