Annoying car part day

[Rapier]

It is going to get worse, that is your car, wait until it is your house. Same story with you furnace, just went through that, two weeks for a pressure switch. The new federal, we will save you, furnace air switches, have a fresh air furnace switch. No switch, no heat. Every single one will die sooner or later and they are different by make.

[MT Gianni]

In 1998 if my employer kept a part in inventory for over 18 months the tax was equal to the cost of the part. Keep in mind that a 12" line stopper fitting was around $6,000 and if gas was blowing you had a choice of installing two of those or shutting down the town and an estimated 1 million dollar relight. At that time they paid 1/6 of all the taxes in the State of Montana. A break up happened and they now currently only pay 1/16th. They are a corporation and don't pay taxes, just collect them and pass them on.

Parts are not cheap to keep on hand.

[Brassmonkey]

I never understood the need to have 50 different brake pads for 50 different cars with the same amount of power, the same amount of weight.



They seem to be getting back to the same part on multiple cars, but ford through us a curveball requiring that part to be registered to the car something only a dealer can do.

Every Subaru I ever touched and looked at seemed it was built to be serviced, maybe the name Fuji heavy industries has something to do with that.

One thing I like about Toyotas I can reach into any of them from the 80s to the 2020s and grab the hood release because it's in the same location is the same size and shape on every Toyota and Lexus.

A few years back almost got asked to leave a parts store after getting the right part that was made wrong. I didn't even want the part. I wanted new brushes for the starter because that's all it needed but nope would you like a pack of M&Ms, or a soda or beef jerky how about a hot wheels car or a garbage flashlight? a ten cent packet of anti-seas for two dollars? Gaudy stick on plastic chrome? We got lots of that. Actual car parts? Yeah it's gonna be a couple days.

[gwpercle]

A 1968 Chevelle was my daily driver - pride and Joy ...from 1979 until 2022 ,
we kept road worthy and running fine for 43 years .
The problems I was having ...near the end ... Junk Chinese Electrical Parts .
Any and all parts from USA and even Mexico were good or at least usable .
China parts didn't work out of the box ... A brand New Part and it is made so poorly that it doesn't work .
I needed a simple on-off light switch . Ordered a part from a known big name car restoration company , part wasn't made right (Made Wrong ...heard that before ?) and didn.t / couldn't work the way it was made ...
called co. and fellow went to warehouse and checked every light switch in the boxes they had ordered... from a China co.... not one switch workd ... Not One . Said they weren't going to return them ...shipping cost too much ...got my money back but guess what ... a buddy ordered one a month later ...they were still selling the bad switches !
What's this country coming too ! Buying junk and knowingly selling it ...
us old car guys (Moterheads) just aint that stoopid ...that stuff isn't going to work .
We need Americans making decent goods not Chinese Trash .
Rant Over
Gary

[Winger Ed.]

We need Americans making decent goods not Chinese Trash .

Well, at least it's cheaper than US made stuff.

On the other hand--
Americans will make anything anybody wants--- however; getting people willing to pay for it becomes problematic.

As a society-- it's our own fault.
Look at how many people run down to Harbor Freight as their first choice of where to buy tools.

It's like 'going green', electric cars, gun control laws, or any of dozens of other ideas: 'It's for thee,,,,,, but not for me'.
If a few people feel that way, no big deal. When the majority of the population does- it gets us to where we are now.

[MaryB]

USA made isn't that much more expensive when you factor in how long it lasts. Sure I pay more up front, say double. But when that part lasts 10 years vs 9 months for the piece of Chinese garbage...

Ran into it at the casino where I fixed slot machines. One manufacturer started buying Chinese made power supplies because they were half the cost. I popped one open and it was missing many parts, others were the wrong value... the Chinese will "re-engineer" it to save 5 cents on production and they don't care if it makes it garbage. It is to expensive to ship stuff back to China while they ship here for pennies because the government pays the difference. We told that slot machine vendor they owned us 200 USA made power supplies or we would see them in court. They found them and went back to using them. In a slot machine every part has to be registered, change a value the gaming board MUST BE notified. If we made a mod at the casino we had to write up a report on why we did it, what the mod was, and what the outcome was... which always landed in my lap because I was the chief electronic tech making those mods. When we opened up a machine and found a power supply that shouldn't be there we had to report it to the gaming board. Got that company in big trouble, they paid some hefty fines over it!