Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[emmerson]

My recently bought Bosch coil and Lucas rotor arm were made in China and Brazil respectively. Both have now been replaced, but I haven't checked the country of origin of the replacements.
Re the British parts being cheaper when imported from USA reminds me of my pal in 1993 buying a new Discovery, RHD, in Germany £2000 cheaper than here. All he had to change were the headlights.

[alanb]

Remember when Japan made cheap & nasty copies of German cameras and cheap tinny cars, my how things have changed.
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old tourer


Morris 8 two seater

[Ray White]

[Clactonguy]

nothing new it seems. world over buying whatever is cheaper. human nature and common sense as in a way why pay for for same thing? few are aware cost of production or if slave labour is used or may not even care. profit is the name of the game and if you look at Cadbury's being bought by Americans promising nothing will change..well it did a few months later when inferior ( American style and cheaper) chopolate was then. replacing traditional UK stuff. all about bottom line. business do not care about your living costs . employment , environment etc unless it makes business sense to do so.eg laws or. social pressure etc . hence China exports very cheap stuff to a standard 'we' accept.. using very cheap labour and not worrying about mass pollution or environmental costs or if it had to meet same standards. of hourly pay as in other countries and stringent air and other pollution standards of some countries it too would be around same price as others and with real shipping costs possibly more expensive. we drive things by buying all this stuff but our own government are to blame as well by not having international standards that include carbon footprints etc sorry bit political abut have myself bought cheap Chinese stuff as limited competition and price ( pensioner but no excuse) is a determining factor .

[Ray White]

In my MG rebuild I am having to source a great many items. I am not trying to claim some moral high ground but I consciously try to avoid buying anything that is made in China. It is not always easy, however, because there are companies which exist simply to import goods and sell them here with a British address and dressed up in the Union Jack.

[Longstroke]

Chinese stuff isn't necessarily bad quality, but to be good it needs careful quality management as any company will tell you that now have their manufacturing done offshore. Talking human rights and Japanese stuff, what I find fascinating is that within twenty years of the end of the Second World War, where captured Allied troops and countries overrun were treated so badly, and they were found guilty of the most monstrous of crimes, people were queuing up to buy their products. I guess the people buying the products weren't the same ones that had been starved and tortured, or kidded themselves that the character of the people had changed overnight even though the same Emperor was at the helm. Or didn't care. Same as today with Chinese stuff etc, I suppose.

[alastairq]

The same could be said for the rest of the world buying British goods.....especially after the way we treated indigenous populations in the countries we ourselves exploited?

I guess we really learnt the lessons of not trying to destroy a beaten opponent after the debacle following WW1? [Look what happened 20 years afterwards?]

But change did occur.

Which is,after all, what everybody fought for?

On the topic once more.....

Buying non-Chinese manufacture is going to be almost impossible in our particular field these days.

When for decades, major manufacturers[like Ford, for example?] sold OEM spares under their own labels....made in China, Taiwan, Korea, etc.
It is easy to specify who label is stamped on components....

Heck, even the great & glorious Lucas had parts manufacture outsourced to 'furrin' companies {PAL in Czechoslovakia as once was, for example]....probably wouldn't admit to it, but they did!
Yet the non cognoscenti of the motoring world thoroughly decried the quality of Skoda, for example..{]it got worse, IMHO, once they became part of VAG}...Skoda, who used almost identical parts [electrically speaking] as could be found in Lucas/BL parts inventories!

Speaking as someone living solely off a pension....[soon to be labelled a 'Dangerous Driver' if the gutter press would have us believe?]......I welcome the availability of cheap Chinese components.
Much of the 'cheapness' comes from over-production[being sold off cheaply anyway, in China] of quality components for all the quality brands we know and love.....whose component manufacture would have been outsourced to China...
[I have purchased ridiculously cheap electric motors, wth geartrians, made for the most expensive brands of camera and audio equipment.....which will have uses elsewhere.]

In many ways, I bless the Chinese government for subsidising as they do.....for I am not going to gain any advantage by cutting off my nose to spite my [British-made] face...
Moral high ground is all well & good...as long as it can be afforded.
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Dellow Mk2, 1951 built, reg 1952.
Fiat 126 BIS
Cannon special [1996 registered. Built in 1950's]
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Ford Pop chassis, Ashley 1172 bodyshell, in pieces.

[alastairq]

The only thing I would warn folk about, when buying 'machined/cast' spares, which may or may not have been made in China, or India....is to check the items for precision [where needed], and to conduct one's own 'quality control'......

I purchased [a few years ago] a 'new' oil pump for a sidevalve Ford....at a price which was a lot cheaper than a NOS item [which would still have not had any guarantees...why, NOS, for example??]....

I had previously 'been warned'...so I stripped the item down, checked appropriate machined faces [all good]....but found the body to be full of casting sand [dried hard].

Now,if I had been an 'average' classic car enthusiasts, that component may well have been bunged straight on an engine, with the potential for disastrous consequences. [it may have worked fine for a few thousand miles....or several years, judged by today's classic car mileages over time?]

Thus, I thoroughly cleaned the body out, re-set all the appropriate gaps, etc...and so far it has proven to be fine & dandy.
{The 'original' pump was a modified item,so I had to buy 'new & original' to replace it when it bust.}

Sadly I found I had a spare sitting in a box in my shed.......some months afterwards!! so could have saved myself 50 quids! But, I wasn't a pensioner at that time!!
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Dellow Mk2, 1951 built, reg 1952.
Fiat 126 BIS
Cannon special [1996 registered. Built in 1950's]
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Ford Pop chassis, Ashley 1172 bodyshell, in pieces.

[badhuis]

Low postage costs from China also comes from the fact that in the Universal Postal Union, China is still classed as a "development" country thus able to have such low postal rates.
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a car stops being fun when it becomes an investment

[JohnDale]

Check any tech equipment,tv, etc & it will have some connection to China. Try & buy something that wasn't made in China....not possible. I have a Nokia mobile designed in Finland by HMD Global OY which in very small print states made in China. Any Apple users shouldn't be smug as iphones are marked designed in California.... & in very small print assembled in China. You won't find any advertising from either company with regard to China. The same applies to computers & lap tops etc. Where would we be without them?
Keep smiling anyway(or grimacing) all the best to all,JD.

PS, anybody got a modern Volvo? Also built in China.
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1958 Ford Zephyr Mk2 Convertible
1976 Ford Granada Ghia.

[Ray White]

We used to get quite a lot of cheap imports from Poland. I bought a three jaw and a 4 jaw chuck for my lathe which were made in Poland and the quality was excellent.\

Polish imports seem to have increased recently but I don't see many bargains...