My Napa Pro Select filters are Made in China...

[Shagger]

Originally Posted By: sparkplug
Originally Posted By: LT4 Vette

Why should they continue to make them in the USA if they can produce it cheaper in another country ?


This is one of the reasons out economy sucks. CEO's realize they can put more coin in their pocket if they outsource to China or some other country. Price stay's the same, we lose jobs and CEO's get richer.

+2

As long as the shareholders are happy companies don't a flip.

 

[rkpatt]

I usually buy Wix from http://www.filter1.com . I hope that this is fluke situation (bad batch) and only in their budget filer line distributed as NAPA-Pro . They should not let filters like that period .

 

[Jimmy9190]

OK so I checked an old ProSelect from my last OCI and nowhere on the filter does it say Made in China. It says like the box, "Affinia Gastonia NC" and it says "US Patent #" with the patent number after that.

Maybe the 21085 for my engine is built here in the States, but some other applications are built over in China? I emailed Wix last year asking were their filters are built and they had a pretty cryptic reply, just answered something like "in a number of different places".

The BITOG world may never know for sure. That is unless Pete C. will chime in and solve the mystery for us. He has been known to be tight-lipped at times..

 

[JPayne6128]

Your points are all very valid. It is a monumental task to keep the quality the same. The benefits of manufacturing in that part of the world are not only labor savings, but material, freight, and capital savings. I used Cat as an example in another post. Their manufacturing facilities in China produce equipment to the same quality standards as their US factories, but they can do it at a lower cost with labor, material, and freight savings. Couple that with the fact that the US is no longer the largest consumer of these products, and you have an attractive business model. We produce filters in China for the same exact reasons.

 

[JustinC25]

Originally Posted By: mrsilv04
Korean car.... Chinese filters....

I guess I don't see a huge issue here.






(However the Korean car may have been built in Alabama)


I do, Korean products have quality approching, or equal to Japanesse made products. Chinesse made products typically have lower quality, because they don't spend the money on QC.

 

[doitmyself]

JPayne6128,

Welcome to BITOG and I hope you stay on to share your knowledge from Baldwin. We see very few mfg. here.

On a similar vein to this thread, I purchased a Filtran "OEM" tranny filter from CarQuest only to find out it was made in China. What bugged me was how CQ was marketing the "made by Filtran" so much, but not indicating on the outside box "made elsewhere".

For no good reason, I returned it and bought the exact same filter ($5 more) from the dealer, only it said made in USA. Two exact filters, one U.S., the other China.

 

[DieselTech]

I love Baldwin filters and their product line is very extensive. I do wish in the gasser applications that Baldwin would step up to Silicon ADBV. They are slightly more expensive then other filters that include them. Is there any chance this might happen to keep up with the Market?

 

[labman]

Originally Posted By: JPayne6128
Hi to all. I have been a memeber here for some time, but have never posted. I work in product management for Baldwin Filters based in Kearney Nebraska. I will tell you that doing business in China is a [censored] at best. It requires a dedicated purchasing/quality/engineering team to make sure that the production product is the same as the test products received before an order is placed. With that said, we have a manufacturing location in China that produces product that is identical to the product we produce here in the United States. I am not sure if Napa's suppliers have their own manufacturing in China. If they do not, the chances of problems go up substantialy when product is sourced from a third party.


I appreciate your honesty. Maybe you will eventually earn the respect Johnny has. Be nice if an insider can help us with the great mystery of how good different medias are. I will be installing a made by Hastings in America Pronto on my truck soon. I hear they are not made in China by Botsh.

Could it be that Baldwin's market is in the commercial area where a filter is going to be replaced long before a nitirle ADBV goes bad?

 

[NightRiderQ45]

Why do people keep bashing China products? I know that some of their products have bad qualitly but to bash WalMart or China Mart as some say...because they sell China products is silly. People scream about products made in china but seem to forget where their shoes are made from...overseas! Are any of you walking around bare foot? Didn't think so.

 

[doitmyself]

Originally Posted By: NightRiderQ45
Why do people keep bashing China products? I know that some of their products have bad qualitly but to bash WalMart or China Mart as some say...because they sell China products is silly. People scream about products made in china but seem to forget where their shoes are made from...overseas! Are any of you walking around bare foot? Didn't think so.


On behalf of the "almost" old geezer guys here (I'm only 53), we have earned the right to be bitter about some things regardless if it is rational or not....like driving slow just to annoy the "hurry up" crowd.

I acknowledge that good things can be made in China. Raybestos brakes, Redwing boots,Levis, Carrhart, and Gearwrench come to mind. At other times, for no good reason, I get upset about the IDEA of ALL of our manufacturing base moving to China and all of the implications surrounding that.

We are still in denial and we hate each time one of our all American hero's falls off the podium and moves to China. That's why I/we/some of us bash.

 

[NightRiderQ45]

Originally Posted By: doitmyself
Originally Posted By: NightRiderQ45
Why do people keep bashing China products? I know that some of their products have bad qualitly but to bash WalMart or China Mart as some say...because they sell China products is silly. People scream about products made in china but seem to forget where their shoes are made from...overseas! Are any of you walking around bare foot? Didn't think so.


On behalf of the "almost" old geezer guys here (I'm only 53), we have earned the right to be bitter about some things regardless if it is rational or not....like driving slow just to annoy the "hurry up" crowd.

I acknowledge that good things can be made in China. Raybestos brakes, Redwing boots,Levis, Carrhart, and Gearwrench come to mind. At other times, for no good reason, I get upset about the IDEA of ALL of our manufacturing base moving to China and all of the implications surrounding that.

We are still in denial and we hate each time one of our all American hero's falls off the podium and moves to China. That's why I/we/some of us bash.

That I understand. It's either China or Mexico. My issue is with people saying not to go to "china mart" because of the products sold there when they themselves are wearing products that come from china.

The US is going down the drain if we don't change things. They ship all of the business out of US and then US gov't wonder why the unemployment numbers are high. Sheesh, I opened up a Now&Later piece of candy and that is now made in Mexico. I'm from a town in Alabama where textile was our bread & butter. They closed all of the plants and went overseas...leaving 60% of the town searching for jobs. My girlfriend with a Master's degree from Oklahoma State U. was denied a job IN THE US (Cali) because she couldn't speak Spanish! [censored]!? If they come over here, they need to learn how to speak English! I'm off my soap box.

 

[Shagger]

To quote Lou Dobbs - "It's a race to the bottom".
When the US economy rebounds later this year, all this mess about lost jobs will get swept under the rug. As long as the Stock Market is up, corporate America will tell the people of America to go pound sand. If they can get kids in a foreign land to make the shoes for a $1 a day the profits go up and the shareholders are happy, case closed.
"Oh, you lost your job overseas? Thats too bad, here's a govt program to retrain you. Oh? No jobs after you're retrained? Gee, thats too bad. Well, maybe you can be a greeter at Walmart or work in the paint department at Home Depot."
Why should we continue to make things in the USA that they can make cheaper overseas? Because you lose that revenue 2 times, you lose the wages, you lose the tax revenue. Now if the jags in China would actually BUY any of our products it might be different, but they don't. China continues to prop up its currency against the dollar to the tune of 40% and China continues to dump its goods here at a loss to run the competition out of business. I don't oppose FAIR trade, when the partners are on a level playing field, but with China's GOVERNMENT backing much of its industry, we cannot hope to compete.
The difference between the US and China is striking. They have an authoritarian govt. backing their desire to be #1 in manufacturing. It is a STRATEGIC desire for them. We just think that they are helping us out by providing cheap labor. They are helping us out by selling us the rope to hang ourselves with.

 

[mikeyoilnutt]

I am here to say I live in this country,the USA, and I want to support my fellow country men and women. I leave the imported stuff on the shelf and tell the seller why. I suggest everyone check out Roger Simmermaker's site, http://www.howtobuyamerican.com/index.php, and start really putting our economy back in gear.
Just to let everyone know on the apparel I wear:
1)T-Shirt made by American Apparel USA http://americanapparel.net/
2)Coveralls made by Round House USA http://www.round-house.com/index.html
3)Underwear made by American Apparel
4)Wallet made by Duluth Pack USA http://duluthpack.com/
5)Socks made by American Apparel USA
6)Red Wings by Red Wing #2156 USA http://www.redwingshoes.com/ProductResul...&Style=2156
By the way I took a WIX 51334 back because it used to be made in USA now made Mexico and I did send them and email why I am not buying it(price actually went up). So far no answer.
mikeyoilnutt (a consumer patriot)

 

[sw99]

To stir the pot more, Today I just picked up a brand new 21334 NAPA Pro Select filter (Same filter as the OP) that says "Product of Mexico."

 

[Steve S]

NAPA store have lots of stuff made in China, I would prefer made in Mexico ,Canada or anywhere else if there was a choice.

 

[labman]

I was rather happy to find an American Pronto filter for my truck, but right after I bought it, somebody reported Pronto had gone Chinese. As long as I can find something made in America by Champ, Wix, or Clarcor, I won,'t be buying foreign. Have yet to find a cartridge for my Ecotec made in America by an American company. I want the high paying jobs to be American too.

 

[sw99]

I bought this out of curiosity so I'll give it a try. Looks like a quality filter and the outer shell is very stout. It costs cost me $2.24 for these NAPA Proselect filters.

 

[labman]

Originally Posted By: Steve S
NAPA store have lots of stuff made in China, I would prefer made in Mexico ,Canada or anywhere else if there was a choice.


One nice thing about American owned plants in Mexico is that they often use American made materials. At one time I managed a vinyl compounding plant. Much of our production ended up in wiring harness assembly plants in Mexico. Much of it went to a plant in the USA that insulated wire and the molding compound for plugs went directly to Mexico. There were many Americans making money supplying the Mexican plants. I doubt much American steel goes into filters made in China.