Date: Sat, 24 Aug 2013 09:43:36 -0500
Reply-To: Tom Hargrave <thargrav@HIWAAY.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Tom Hargrave <thargrav@HIWAAY.NET>
Subject: Re: Subject: German quality?
In-Reply-To: <B46054DF-6F4A-401D-9856-1E7A5D1A814D@gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
I bet that one or more of the castings in the part were cast in a foundry in
China, the design was controlled by Meyle and all the machine work &
assembly was done by Meyle in Germany. And BTW, if I'm right this means the
part really was made by Meyle in Germany.
This isn't a recent thing. In the mid 1980's we manufactured a commercial
phone system. The isolation transformers on the line cards were manufactured
in Mexico and even though the transformers were our design and were being
manufactured to our specifications and we manufactured the line cards in the
USA we could not legally re-label the transformers. There were 4 isolation
transformers per line card. We received dozens of calls a week complaining
about our "Made in Mexico" phone systems!!!!
Thanks, Tom Hargrave
www.kegkits.com
www.stir-plate.com
www.towercooler.com
www.grow-sun.com
www.raspberryproject.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM] On Behalf Of
Bill Monk
Sent: Saturday, August 24, 2013 6:47 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: Subject: German quality?
To expand on this a bit and please don't take this as a negative comment
against busdepot as we have a long history. A customer of mine purchased
some Meyle components. On the box states made in Germany and on the part
stamped made in china. Not implying the part is sub par but I will no longer
install Meyle or PEX parts unless the owner signs a release assuming all
responsibility for failures.
Bill M
Sent from my iPhone
On Aug 24, 2013, at 1:21 AM, The Bus Depot <vanagon@BUSDEPOT.COM> wrote:
>> The Continental belt that inspired my original post on the subject of
>> German quality had "Made in Germany" stamped right on the belt. The
>> replacement that the vendor sent had the same part number stamped on
>> it but was not the same part at all. So the way see it, either
>> Continental has poor quality control or there are parts being sold as
Conti parts that aren't really Conti parts.
>
>
> Welcome to globalization. Continental has various supply sources, just
like most other major suppliers. I have received a single shipment of the
identical part number in the identical box (not Conti specifically) that
contained parts which were absolutely nothing alike inside the box
(different tooling marks, different countries of origin, sometimes branded
on the part itself sometimes not). I have seen the blatantly identical parts
(and I mean identical) variously labeled as made in the USA, Germany, or
Taiwan depending on who the distributor was. And don't even get me started
on retailers. There is one Vanagon parts retailer I know of who flaunts
"made in USA" products that I happen to know are not, and another that sells
Chinese made products as "Original German Quality." (The latter is at least
a value judgment and therefore could be debated, but I still find it a bit
misleading.) We list German companies as such, with a footnote that the
product itself may or may not be German made, and try to list in the
description those items that we actually know to be OEM or German. Even that
is a moving target, since who knows what the next shipment will bring,
making it a constant battle to stay accurate.
>
> So this is a long-winded way of saying that it is entirely believable that
both belts were Conti belts from two different batches and two different
factories.
>
> - Ron Salmon
> The Bus Depot, Inc.
> www.busdepot.com
> (215) 234-VWVW
>
> _____________________________________________
> Toll-Free for Orders by PART # : 1-866-BUS-DEPOT
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