New Honda Oil Filter 15400-RTA-003 Cut Open

[DuckRyder]

Primus,

I'm going to confess that I do not completely follow what you are saying. I though that you were saying that the subject filter isn't genuine (is a counterfeit) but 2 filters sourced form Honda dealers in North America appear the same. I'm confident they are genuine.

As to whether they are in fact made in Japan, I believe they would have to be at least 51% Japanese in order to be legally labeled "Japan" in the US.

 

[Primus]

DuckRyder,
I expected I was clear with my thoughts:

Originally Posted by Primus
[Given wide availability of this filter's variant, it is hardly possible that fakes are everywhere - I am not paranoic. However, there should be something behind it. ..... Based on my subjective experience an indication just of a country like "Japan" instead of "Made in Japan" always meant that product was not made in this country and it was just an indication of a company's origine.


As for 51%, I have also pointed out this possibility with two important remarks: 1) it should be 51% of product value to be classified for Country of Origin and, 2) "Made in Japan" and "Country of Origin: Japan" don't have the same meaning. Personally I don't not care of how a manufacturer spits cost of parts and labor, and I hate when manufacturers exploit names of countries known for quality products in their business purposes. If Honda's supplier really assembles filters outside Japan, it should not print "Made in Japan" on these products and even put "Japan" on its labels. If it does, this may be viewed as misleading customers.

 

[DuckRyder]

Originally Posted by Primus
DuckRyder,
I expected I was clear with my thoughts:

Originally Posted by Primus
[Given wide availability of this filter's variant, it is hardly possible that fakes are everywhere - I am not paranoic. However, there should be something behind it. ..... Based on my subjective experience an indication just of a country like "Japan" instead of "Made in Japan" always meant that product was not made in this country and it was just an indication of a company's origine.


As for 51%, I have also pointed out this possibility with two important remarks: 1) it should be 51% of product value to be classified for Country of Origin and, 2) "Made in Japan" and "Country of Origin: Japan" don't have the same meaning. Personally I don't not care of how a manufacturer spits cost of parts and labor, and I hate when manufacturers exploit names of countries known for quality products in their business purposes. If Honda's supplier really assembles filters outside Japan, it should not print "Made in Japan" on these products and even put "Japan" on its labels. If it does, this may be viewed as misleading customers.


I know you thought you were clear. I'm not trying to be difficult, but it is seems that US English isn't your primary language. There isn't anything wrong with that but it can make the train of thought hard to follow.

In my experience American Honda is pretty good about marking country of origin. In fact this filter is marked "Made in Japan" on the filter itself. A01's are marked "Assembled in USA" and A02 are marked (now) "Made in USA". I've had Honda air filters marked "China" among others. I have a Honda oil pump marked "assembled in USA". I'll grab some example later today.

 

[Primus]

DuckRider,
You are very polite and thank you a lot for your patience. Naturally, given English is not my native language and I have never lived among native-speakers, my language can hardly be perfect - it's far from it. However, I believe the difficulty comes mainly from different mentality: we think differently and express our thoughts differently. Many years I tried to learn and still learning how to improve understanding, but sometimes I miss where I am. Given last 8-10 years I was a rare guest here, please, forgive me. As for "Made in China", I have nothing against it because there are many products assembled in China which are perceived of higher quality than that of their European or American counterparts, including filters. Unfortunately this is not a case of given sample. So, my frustration came for a build quality of a particular filter followed by my unnecessary speculations what could be reasons. Sorry for this.

 

[ZeeOSix]

Originally Posted by Primus
Naturally, given English is not my native language and I have never lived among native-speakers, my language can hardly be perfect - it's far from it.


Your English is much better than people I know who only know English.

 

[DuckRyder]

No worries Primus we are totally fine, its always nice to have another perspective.

Your English is quite good, probably too good and too well structured for typical US English. Your word choice is atypical too, I had to look several of them up. LOL.

I'm sure you are correct with respect to the thinking, I had an acquaintance who spent time in Japan and said that one of the hardest parts of learning/teaching was "thinking japanese" another acquaintance learned Russian and said something similar (along with it was very hard).

At anyrate.

I went through my spare Honda parts and found "Made in" on only 2 labels, one being an O2 sensor (Japan) and the other the case box for HAMP filters (USA). The HAMP filters are not normally sold in the US as you probably know and are assembled here.

This is all pretty curious.

 

[Primus]

ZeeOSix, DuckRyder, thanks a lot for your encouragement. I shall try to stay focused.

 

[SlavaB]

I know it's kinda an expired convo here, but I think I know what Primus is referring to (having the fact I was born in Ukraine and seen "things" haha)
SO, he refers to "Japan" on the box being a indication of the brand origin, not where the filter was made. I highly doubt it here, but there is a foundation for this theory.
Some companies in Eastern Europe (Ukraine/Russia etc) use this trick in 2 situations (there might be more, really)
1. Convince people to pay more for a local brand. How it works - a person registers some business in Europe, then claims it works closely with a local company on a product, sells it as using a European brand.
There's a personal care Ukrainian brand (Irene Bukur) that claims to be a Swiss company, in fact all the development and production takes place in Ukraine. It's still a good brand, but I just dont like this dirty trick. My wife still buys sh#t tons of their products every time we visit Ukraine.
2. Second example has to do with politics and not related to the Honda filter, but I'll still explain

After 2014 when all of the problems between Ukraine and Russia began, Ukrainians started avoiding buying anything Russian. There was a chain of Lukoil gas stations which revenue was heavily hit because of it,
so Russian management did smth interesting. They established a brand in Romania which nobody knew, then on paper they sold the ukrainian chain to the newly created company and rebranded all of the gas stations have the new brand.
So now what a consumer sees is that Russian company quits and gets bought out by a European company. In fact nothing has changed, but business doesn't suffer anymore.
Hope it was useful, if not - at least entertaining haha.
Now back to the point about the "Japan" label.
I think Primus refers to the fact that it might be either produced somewhere in China by a manufacturer who is not related to Honda at all (fake), or even some legit manufacturer (who knows); but just to convince a consumer to buy that label says "Japan" as the origin of Honda as a brand. Again, I don't know if it's true or not, use your common sense to judge

 

[DuckRyder]

Primus, no worries man, always glad to hear something.

Hi SalvaB, I agree I sort of have a working theory that how the external label is worded may have something to do with how acceptable the wording is worldwide, assuming the product contained is sold worldwide. I've got no proof, but that is my theory.