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Date:         Wed, 6 Aug 2008 00:10:15 -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:      German brands and quality (RE: FAG or SKF wheel bearings?)
In-Reply-To:  <327474.58671.qm@web82701.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

> How does FAG wheel bearings compare to SKF brand? > I have quite a few wheel bearings to replace from my > 83.5 Westy. These two brands of bearings seem to be most > popular and available. Are there any significant quality > differences or issues with each brand of bearings? > They are both German. FAG seems make their own bearings. > SKF looks like a business that sources automotive parts from > thousands of manufacturers all over the world. I may be wrong. > I am trying to decide which I should buy from.

You cannot assume that bearings from SKF, FAG, PEX, Febi, or any of the other German brands will necessarily be of German origin. Most of the German companies now source worldwide, including such countries as China, India, Taiwan, Malaysia, Mexico, the U.S., you name it. In some cases they have factories in those countries; in other cases they outsource. I have opened up "German" boxes from all of these companies and found bearings from all over the world. In one case I opened up a box that I had imported right from Febi/Germany and found a U.S. made Timken bearing inside! Jeez, I just bought that bearing a round-trip ticket to Europe and back! :-) Sometimes the variation can exist even within the same shipment. I have found bearings of various origins within the same pallet, and with the same markings on the outside of the boxes. The suppliers produce the product wherever the excess capacity is at a given time, and that can vary monthly or even weekly.

This is not limited to bearings, of course. The same applies to many other parts for VW's and other vehicles. We live in the era of multinational corporations and global sourcing. It is no longer realistic to assume that a German company makes their parts in Germany. For several years now, my website has had a footnote on most pages drawing attention to this, noting that the country that a manufacturer is based in, and the country of origin of the part, may be two different things.

Does this mean that quality is suspect? Not necessarily. The major brands have invested decades and millions of dollars building their reputations. They're not going to throw that all away to save a few cents on a bearing. In fact the well regarded brands tend to be rather picky about what they put their names on, no matter where they source it. They recognize that customers are paying a premium for their product, and if it fails prematurely they are out of business.

The same cannot be said about no-name manufacturers. A factory whose primary source of income is selling car wheel bearings in U.S. market this month, and tractor wheel bearings in the Philippines next month, has no reputation to worry about. They may sell their product under half a dozen different names. If there is a reliability issue today, there's a new market tomorrow and a new brand name. They haven't invested anything in their reputation so they have nothing to lose. Emerging markets such as China are full of suppliers like these. I would much rather have a Chinese made wheel bearing sold by, say, Febi, than one sold under a generic name. Even if Febi doesn't own that Chinese factory directly, they have a tremendous amount to lose if they don't inspect the factory and its output carefully. The no-name supplier has nothing to lose at all; he can simply change his name and start again.

I was a Vanagon hobbyist long before I started the Bus Depot. When buying parts for my own Westy, my criterion for choosing the name brand versus a lesser known brand has always been this: If the generic part was considerably cheaper, and it would be unlikely to cause much hardship if it failed, I'd try it. I'd ask myself these three questions:

1) If the part fails, will it cost much to replace (considering both the cost of the part and the cost and/or time to replace it)?

2) If I fails, can it be dangerous?

3) If it fails, can it leave me stranded?

If the answers to all three were no, I would try the generic. (A lens might be a good example; cheap and easy to replace if it fails, and not dangerous/risky.) If not, I'd stick to the name brand. I did not, and have not since then, noticed tremendous differences in reliability among the German/OEM/name brands as a rule.

Now that I sell the parts myself, my standards remain pretty much the same. If an aftermarket part is offered to me by a supplier, I consider the above criteria before I decide to carry it. If I'm on the fence, I'll let other retailers carry it for a while first and then pick it up after it's established a track record. After all, why should I make my customers guinea pigs, when there seems to be an endless supply of other auto parts retailers willing to test the parts on their customers instead? Once I'm at the point that I'd trust the part on my own Vanagon, then I'm comfortable putting it on my site.

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

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