Originally Posted By: SLO_Town
You cannot compare a Weber grill to a tire. A tire is a complex thing that needs proper design and manufacture. The Chinese have not demonstrated a consistent ability to do such things. I would not put a Chinese made tire on my wheelbarrow! I just trashed a BRAND NEW Chinese made Kenda compact spare tire. It looked suspect, just looking at it. It looked like an inflated inner tube with a tread pattern stamped into it, noticeably different than the German made Continental I replaced it with!
Well, that's quite a statement.
People do realize, or course, they wouldn't even be here on BITOG, or online at all, if they were not relying on a Chinese-made electronic device or componentry, right? And consistently produced on an astonishing scale, given the tight time frames, frequent design changes, and quantities involved in precision manufacturing required of things such as smartphones, flat-panel displays, circuit boards, and integrated circuits.
Much of it more complex to manufacture than placing some steel and fabric sheets, plus some rubber into a mold and cooking it a couple times.
China (or pick other country), will produce a product at a level of cost and quality to that demanded by the company that creates it. If some companies wish to pocket more of the cost savings allowed by overseas manufacturing, loosen their standards, or otherwise not ensure that the COO is taken out of the equation, that doesn't mean that the country in question is incapable of producing quality goods.
If a company is only willing to pay for low cost, low quality junk, than that's what it will get. The converse is also true. Those are conscious business decisions, irrespective of COO.
Weber is now making their Genesis II line in China. The Genesis II LX and Summit lines are made in the U.S.
While they've improved the burner system, and the main vessel is still solid, the rest of the grill exhibits some signs of cost cutting. Yet nobody in China forced Weber to go to an open cart design, switch to plastic fasteners, or eliminate the side burners and other features compared to the previous generation; those decisions were made in Illinois. Even the American-made II LX has seen feature reductions.
If a Chinese-made Cooper is not up to par compared to its American equivalent, that's Cooper's responsibility.
