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Date:         Tue, 24 Sep 2002 12:54:20 -0400
Reply-To:     The Bus Depot <vanagon@BUSDEPOT.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         The Bus Depot <vanagon@BUSDEPOT.COM>
Subject:      Re: Are There Junk Ball Joints?
Comments: cc: Derek Drew <derekdrew@RCN.COM>
In-Reply-To:  <4.3.2.7.2.20020923115749.05116958@pop.rcn.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

> I went to research syncro ball joints and noticed massive price > differences. The cheapest I could find from VW was about $90 each. But > our vendor friends had them for about $25. Unfortunately, there was > scant information on who the supplier was of these joints and how > they compare to OEM joints. Importedcarparts.com said its joints > were from Lemforder, but this name is not familiar to me and I am not > sure that is a good thing. Importedcarparts.com also mentions that its lower > syncro joints are made by Febi. Is that good? > > So my question is whether one is safe to order any of these joints willy > nilly and buy by price, or whether there are different manufacturers > of the joints and if so, who is the OEM manufacturer of them. > > Ron, if you are reading this, could you comment on the manufacturer of > your joints and what it means OR by the cheaper of your two joints > I tried to find the key to your part numbers to see what OR meant but was > not successful.

There are several German brands who supply Vanagon ball joints, most notably Febi, Meyle, and Lemforder. There are also a couple of Italian ones (most commonly Ocap, which is also rebranded under various other names including Beck-Arnley). Finally, there are lesser known suppliers in Mexico, Brazil, India, and Taiwan.

As has been noted before, a German brand does not necessarily guarantee German manufacture. In this age of corperate multinationalism, most of the brands manufacture in a wide range of countries, regardless of where they are headquartered. For example, Bosch's Vanagon spark plugs are now made in India! I have seen German-branded ball joints made in Italy, Turkey, and Spain, among others.

That said, as long as you stick with a name brand such as the ones mentioned above, I feel that you are reasonably safe even if the product is not actually German made. I say this for a few reasons:

1) I have had just about a zero percent defective rate on all of the name brand ball joints. This is generally a reliable product overall; no matter what name brand you buy the rate of failure is negligable. In fact I can't recall ever taking back a single bad ball joint. (I can't comment on the off-brand ones from non-German suppliers, as we have never sold them.)

2) I have generally found, when dealing with the more established name brands (such as the above), that they tend to be somewhat careful about what they put their name on, German or not. These are established companies that have a reputation to uphold and want to build repeat business from their dealers (such as us). So they don't just put the cheapest part they can find in a box and attach their name/reputation to it. This may partially explain number 1) above.

3) You will find it difficult if not impossible to obtain true German ones anyway. A brand may source the identical product from multiple factories. So if you pulled ten Febi ball joints off the shelf, some may be made in Germany and some not. Some may even be labeled "Germany" but not in fact be German. (Yes, this happens. I have seen two boxes containing visibly identical products, right down to the castings, with one box labeled "Germany" and the other "Italy.") Therefore, even if you ask a mail order supplier to check the country of origin on what he is selling, unless he ships you the exact one he happened to look at, when it comes time to ship your order, the ones put in your box may or may not be from the same country. This is also the case if you buy the $90 ones from the VW dealer, as VW, too, sources from multiple countries now. Someone recently commented on this regarding water pumps. He returned another vendor's water pump (which was new but Italian made) and ordered one from the dealer instead. When it arrived, he discovered that for twice the price, the one he'd gotten was not only Italian as well, but remanufactured to boot! Your only chance of being sure to get a German one would be to buy one over-the-counter where you could examine the part at time of purchase. (Even then, this assumes that the labeling is accurate.) But why go through all that hassle, considering number 1) above? Save your trouble for a product where there _is_ a significant difference in quality.

So, my advice would be to stick with one of the name brands mentioned above, but beyond that I can't see any reason to recommend one over the other (nor can I see any reason to pay the dealer price).

Incidentally, the ones we are currently shipping are from Meyle/Germany (although we have shipped Febi and Lemforder in the past). To answer your other question, the alternate ("OR") version listed on our site would be an aftermarket, non-German brand. Since the savings is minimal in this case, and availability on the German brand is not a problem at the present time, I wouldn't bother with it.

As usual, when ordering, don't forget to request your 5% listmember discount (since the order will exceed the $50 minimum for the discount).

- Ron Salmon The Bus Depot, Inc. (215) 234-VWVW www.busdepot.com

_____________________________________________ Toll-Free for Orders by Part # 1-866-BUS-DEPOT


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