Gates, made in china

Well so much for Gates quality products. I ordered a Gates water pump for my 250. I had to wait 4 days because it wasn't in stock. That was ok to me because I expected quality. HA!... Made in china, the casting had a web between the lower hose outlet and the heater hose outlet. No biggie, I ground that out.
When I went to install it, the casting wouldn't clear the timing cover. S.O.B.! I guess that's what I get for buying a new pump instead of a rebuilt.

Rock auto refunded my $ and dosen't even want the part back. Good on them. Still sucks everything apart and there it sits. End of rant!

 

everything is made in china. this is not news.

 

This should come as no surprise. A publicly traded company has one, and only one fiduciary responsibility, and that is to make money for the shareholders. Everything else is secondary, if it is thought of at-all.

 

Yeah, I guess brand name loyalty dosen't mean much anymore. Too bad the price dosen't reflect the quality.

 

Did it ever?

 

It did when the names were synonymous with quality products.

 

When I was in the trucking business, I tried to stay with parts that worked good for me. Same tires, belts, oil, filters, hoses, all the consumables. Maybe that was just because I knew the part numbers!

 

I went through the same thing with master cylinders recently. New ones were made in China. I refused them all,and ordered a rebuilt. I did buy a really,really nice Guide traffic light veiwer,that says "Designed in U.S.A." but does not say where it was made. Is that legal?

 

I bought a shop light said assembled in USA. Opened box mostly just a bunch of parts good thing I don't live in Mexico.

 

This subject comes up a lot on this forum. We all get really discouraged by all the Chinese crap for sure. What gets me is that why isn't everyone else in the country tired of the cheap crap? You would think by now there would be a huge outcry from the public about the inferior junk.
I guess if the economy picks back up after November then maybe people will start crying for better quality products once they can afford them.

 

Nope, because we, the people, want cheap over quality. What's a new water pump cost? How much do you think it would be it it was made here? As for November, let's not wax political.An election isn't going to quell venture capitalism, so let's stay on topic

 

gates sells water pumps ??? where ...........advanced auto zone ?

 

I would guess rock auto, I wouldn't think they would give him his money back if he had bought it at autozone.

 

I bought Gates fuel hose "made in India" printed on it, but luckily it was Chinese ink and it washed off easily.

 

Would you want that shit back if you were selling it?

SIDE NOTE: Has anybody seen an American Flag that was made in China? I did, in WallyWorld! I was so pissed I don't even walk into the store anymore.

 

This will be my first and only rant. I am trying to make a better, stronger, good looking product. The "sellers" want a 100 percent mark up. The cost to make it is not cheap, the 100% mark up puts it out of reach for normal people. You want quality, the seller wants a profit. What does a manufacter do? Now I only make custom ones. Don't make much money but everyone gets what they want.

 

Yup, they were passing them out at the 4th-of-July parade!

 

i get a lot oh CHINA Junk at work
brake rotors are a big one
Napa Brake spec book said 3thou on rotors ron out ok i buy roters from them
get 2 and they are miss matched get a 3rd one to match. now they are installed with out packing the berrings. measure the runout 1 is 7tho out the other is 14tho
call them they send 2 more 1 is with in specks other is way out.so they send 1 more and its good
ther salesman comes buy twice a weak to help service the account.
he said have them send 4 rotors at a time so we may get good ones
i am in a privet shop we spend between $1000 to $3000 per day
this is a private school and collage with over 300 vehicles and equipment
4 full time mechanics and 2 helpers we are short handed
motor mounts a different storey for a diferent day

 

You guys do realize that in China and Mexico, most parts are made on brand new CNC machines instead of the tired, re-built a dozen times, transfer lines in the old Rust Belt plants of the U.S. don't you? I've done tooling trouble shooting down in Delphi plant in Saltillo, MX. Brand new state-of-the-art equipment (totally different than the 45 year old transfer lines shut down in Dayton, Oh) run by Mexicans making $2.50 a day, supervised by $40K a year GM engineers who if doing the same thing back in Dayton, OH where the part used to be made would be making 80K a year.

I wish they were made in America by Americans using new CNC machines but that's not how the world works. I do worry about the metallurgy that has gone into the chinese parts, not so much the Mexican ones. A CNC program is a CNC program whether started by a Chinese, Mexican, or American. ISO 9000 and 9001 are world standards for quality followed in every country.

Somebody said it already, Americans want cheap and they want quality. They are willing to sacrifice quality for cheap. Look how Sears and Craftsman are barely hanging on while Harbor Freight is expanding more and more.

 

Harbor Freight expansion is just a temporary thing. There stuff is almost all totally crap.
There's a few things that qualify as reasonable quality but you only figure it out after you have bought 80% crap.
Same rule applies to pretty much everthing these days it seems.

 

Yep!

Just look at all the threads on the H.A.M.B. about Harbor Fright this and Harbor Fright that. I've seen so many people on here endorse Harbor Fright products so much, Harbor Fright could cut their advertising budget.

I myself.... Don't own a single piece.

 

Everybody, 100%, sez they want to buy American and they complain about Chinese junk but almost everybody, maybe 98%, won't pay the price for American. You ever notice how many things have never really gone up in price, or even gone down? Looks at cheap washing machines, window air conditioners, DVD players and, yeah, all sorts of auto parts. How did they get brake rotors to be so cheap that it isn't worth machining the old ones? Cheap labor, cheap labor, cheap labor...and you just can't get labor that cheap in the good old US of A.

 

in the future we will be the cheap labor for China.

who has the picture of the guy beating the dead horse?

 

Maybe then the unemployment rate will drop.

Bob

 

bet you guys didn't realize most of your aftermarket rods and cranks come from china but you still use those. if you have shit QC it doesn't matter where on planet earth it was made it's still a junk product!

 

Depressing. Speaking as a CA business owner, I can tell you outsourcing will only grow worse as time passes. In a perfect environment it is difficult enough to remain competitive and actually make a profit, but when you factor in the state of California it is nearly impossible. Union costs, insurance, material increases, capital expenditures and so on and on...... we are doomed......Which is one more reason to love hot rods and take your mind off of the BS!

 

Selling cheap crap that people wont buy again is no way to show that fiduciary responsibility! Long term, repeat business is how to do that. What is a company that can't keep customers because their products are sub-standard? It a short lived one. I'd rather be in it for the long term, make less on ea piece, but sell MANY more pieces to more people and have them encourge others to buy from them as well. If you sell crap, people don't reccomend your products and the slow death begins.

 

Only short-term profits count these days. If a CEO does not show quarter-to-quarter positive results, he or she will be fired. This is life in our modern reality.

As for the fiduciary responsibility issue, that is codified into modern corporate law.