Part quality declining?

[Redright9]

I have been talking a bit to various automotive inclined people around me and this topic comes up a lot. One person I know says he has had to nearly shut down his specialty automotive business because the parts he uses have had such big quality slips he does not feel he can guarantee the work anymore. I know I have felt I have seen some things getting worse than they used to. I hate to say Napa branded parts feel like they are not as good as they used to be. So I thought I would post this here, what are your feelings? Are quality parts getting harder to find? Or is it just easier to pass off substandard parts as quality now?

 

[Lubener]

Part quality has been going downhill for years since manufacturers shifted their production to China. I have yet to see anything superior in quality come from China.

 

[FowVay]

Pay the price and buy OEM. This will greatly increase your odds of having a successful repair.

 

[Skippy722]

Everything anymore is being built down to a price, not up to a specification. You can still find holdouts that still build to a spec, but even quality holdouts like Toyota partially caved, reportedly starting in 2019.

Please don’t take this as me bashing Toyota, it’s just kind of sad to see.

Toyota OKs Use of Imperfect Parts to Keep Production Going

Cosmetic defects on parts people won't see are no longer a deal-breaker for the famously quality-focused carmaker.

www.thedrive.com

 

[billt460]

I don't think there are ANY products out there, (not only the automotive variety), that haven't fallen victim to the whole lesser quality argument. There is a thread in this forum about how crappy home appliances have gotten over the last few years. Not to mention plumbing fixtures, small gas powered lawn and garden equipment, many types of tools, etc.

A better question would be, is their ANYTHING built better these days? There is still "good stuff" available out there. But you have to hunt for it, then pay a small fortune when and if you find it.

 

[Redright9]

Everything anymore is being built down to a price, not up to a specification. You can still find holdouts that still build to a spec, but even quality holdouts like Toyota partially caved, reportedly starting in 2019.

Please don’t take this as me bashing Toyota, it’s just kind of sad to see.

Toyota OKs Use of Imperfect Parts to Keep Production Going

Cosmetic defects on parts people won't see are no longer a deal-breaker for the famously quality-focused carmaker.

www.thedrive.com

Very good point, I agree and feel it is all about how much cheaper can we get it for. The bad thing is people buy the garbage rather than the quality.

 

[billt460]

Very good point, I agree and feel it is all about how much cheaper can we get it for. The bad thing is people buy the garbage rather than the quality.

Because today much of the time they're being deceived. Most people who take their cars to the dealership, as opposed to places like Big-O, Goodyear, Pep Boys, and the like, is because they are led to believe they're getting better quality parts and service there.

That is becoming not the case more and more. Now the auto makers are going for cheaper parts as well. Yes, it may be partially caused by the current supply chain disruption. But they like a better profit as much as anyone. So if they find cheaper, lesser quality parts providers, they'll stick with it, providing they can get away with it.

It's like Joe Pesci said in the movie Casino...... "The dollars, always the dollars". Quality has always cost money. Today fewer are willing to pay for it. And that's across the board. Customers as well as manufacturers.

 

[BISCUT]

Everything anymore is being built down to a price, not up to a specification. You can still find holdouts that still build to a spec, but even quality holdouts like Toyota partially caved, reportedly starting in 2019.

Please don’t take this as me bashing Toyota, it’s just kind of sad to see.

Toyota OKs Use of Imperfect Parts to Keep Production Going

Cosmetic defects on parts people won't see are no longer a deal-breaker for the famously quality-focused carmaker.

www.thedrive.com

Could be argued Toyota got acclimated with subpar parts after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2010 or 11 IRRC. China really stuck it to Japanese auto manufacturers with some really crummy parts, knowing China suppliers were all they had as an option.

I think you are right on the "build down" to a pricepoint statement. When GM took the Walmart stand (I dictate the price to you!!) with Delco, the only option for Delco was cheap China parts. The rest of the world seemed to follow.

 

[RooflessVW]

I personally feel that OEM or specialty aftermarket has been the only way to get quality parts for some time.

I have never had good luck with parts store parts beyond the most basic items like rotors and cut-to-length hoses, etc

 

[Trav]

I am finding many OE parts at similar prices to aftermarket, sometimes a bit higher and sometimes even lower. In general aftermarket quality with the exception of specialty parts makers has dropped to the point that I prefer not to use them unless the price difference is so great it would be foolish.

 

[billt460]

Another thing is today people are more attracted to fluff, than they are basic simple quality and, "built to last". Put a plain ordinary top and bottom, 2 door freezer / fridge, with a superior guarantee, next to a fully fluffed model with more doors and compartments than a SUV, with water and ice in the door, super fast ice maker, built in $50.00 filter that requires changing every 15 minutes. Along with a TV screen that let's you "see through" the door to see what's inside.

And they'll go for it hands down over simple and, "built to last", every time. Cars are the same way. Most everyone want them, "loaded". The more buttons, windows, switches, power this and that, the better. More parts = more problems = more money all the way around. Sure the engines will last longer...... Assuming anyone keeps them long enough to find out.

But the point being, is there are more avenues for cheap, crappy parts to make their way into products today. Add to that the fact that today they design electronics into most everything, every way possible, that used to be simple and mechanical. Still more chance for failure, with additional complexity and cost. I'm not condemning people for this, it's just the way we roll today. Hell, I'm as guilty of it as anyone.

I had an expensive Samsung fridge / freezer that went through 3 ice makers at $350.00 a pop in just a little over 6 years. That's 2 years average each. Preposterous, but true. Not to mention that each one took over 3 weeks to get.

We've become a society addicted to technology. And we and LOVE the latest and the greatest. When Mikhail Kalashnikov designed the AK-47, one of the most successful battle rifles ever built, he said that he built it around the principal that, "Things that are complex are not useful, things that are useful are simple". That philosophy is long gone in today's society.

 

[Pelican]

Part quality has been going downhill for years since manufacturers shifted their production to China. I have yet to see anything superior in quality come from China.

There was a study done years ago and they found that China can produce parts of the same quality as US made ones, but at the same price!
So there would be no advantage to manufacture there, also WE are guilty with our obsession of low price, hardly anyone today is shopping by quality. WE made China's economy, or rather Sam Walton started it, China did nothing on its own if not only stealing manufacturing methods and secrets.

 

[billt460]

China did nothing on its own if not only stealing manufacturing methods and secrets.

I wouldn't quite go that far. They got their citizens to work for peanuts. That's an accomplishment that could never be achieved here.

 

[Barkleymut]

Was talking with the parts department manager of a large local dealership yesterday and he said that the OEM parts have taken a nosedive in quality recently.

 

[willbur]

There was a study done years ago and they found that China can produce parts of the same quality as US made ones, but at the same price!
So there would be no advantage to manufacture there, also WE are guilty with our obsession of low price, hardly anyone today is shopping by quality. WE made China's economy, or rather Sam Walton started it, China did nothing on its own if not only stealing manufacturing methods and secrets.

Yep. I read, maybe 20 years ago, that Walmart all by itself was buying 13% of China's total yearly GDP output. Walmart made China.

 

[willbur]

I wouldn't quite go that far. They got their citizens to work for peanuts. That's an accomplishment that could never be achieved here.

They had no choice. Do or die. Conditions were so bad ppl were committing suicide by jumping out factory windows. China's solution? Put nets up around windows.

 

[rob1715]

Incrementalism. Let's start cheaping out with this very small piece and keep the same price. People don't notice. Then another very small piece. Then another. All the while keeping, or slightly raising the price. Bottles with product have been doing this for year. 15.25 oz. bottle used to be 16 oz.

 

[930.engineering]

.....also WE are guilty with our obsession of low price, hardly anyone today is shopping by quality.

Yep, guilty! Remember that when we're talking about oil choice next time.
Same with brake pads and almost anything else car parts.
.

 

[Passport1]

Agree 100% that parts quality is declining. Bought a Delphi mass air flow sensor for my Volvo and it crapped out about 6 months later. Cleaned up the original Bosch unit with proper solvent and reinstalled it. Three years later still working. Replaced the oil filter on my Ford with the correct Motorcraft filter and after 2K miles it began leaking. I buy them in bulk from RA so replaced with another from my stash. Only the second time in 50+ years of oil changes that had a leaky filter. Remember the first on was a Fram.

Imagine once these EVs need replacement batteries and electronics what the quality might be like.

 

[OVERKILL]

I had a whole thread on the "Walmartization" of society years ago, nothing has changed since then. As long as consumers continue to buy junk, this will persist. We are a society that not only celebrates but encourages consumption and the shift has been from goods built to last and repaired to one that fires the broken unit in the dumpster and heads to Walmart to buy another. Companies are catering to that cycle, producing "flash" garbage with poor QC that they know Joe or Jane consumer will be inclined to buy the latest version of two years from now rather than fix it when it inevitably breaks.

Of course this hasn't happened in a vacuum. Simultaneously, we've experienced the erosion of the blue collar middle, which has been going hand-in-hand with this as we move to a "global" economy, but not one that yields the best result for the consumer as we are encouraged to believe, but rather one that exploits 3rd world labour to make corporations more money while they terminate the employment of their own consumer base.

The result is a growing chasm between have and have not with those most impacted (and who can least afford) by this transition stuck in a cycle of consumption, which is exactly where these corporations want them to be.

Nothing will change as long as consumers are content with how things are and by and large, they seem to be, despite much griping. Consumers are the ones with the power to change their behaviour (despite the conditioning) and I see no evidence that we are set for a shift way from the present path.