[Vwdiesel] PROTHE on ebay??

[Erik Lane]

On Sat, Sep 24, 2011 at 6:15 PM, Tony and Lillie <
tonyandlillie1 at earthlink.net> wrote:

> This is all from experience, my own that is. I know nothing of what Cessna
> is doing, nor does it affect what I think of Chinese parts for European
> cars. I bought those chinese made wheel cylinders about two monts ago, and
> they did not fit. Now, unless the Chinese have made nearly impossible leaps
> in the last two months, their quality control in this regards to VAG parts
> is not anywhere good enough for me to consider for my own car, much less a
> customer car. Cessna is probably over there overlooking the build of those
> planes, BTW. Something you and I cannot do with regards to our auto parts.
> My neighbor in the business complex is designing computer game seats, and
> they are being manufactured in China. Guess how many problems he has had to
> deal with so far? He has just started with the first run, and I think has
> lost nearly all of his hair in just a couple of months. However, they build
> things so inexpensively (and cheaply in many cases) that he will use them to
> get the product to people very inexpensively.
>

Saying that all Chinese made things are bad quality just isn't fair to them.
Yes, a lot of things made there have had quality issues, and people avoid
Chinese made things from having bad experiences with them. But saying that
they as a people can't make good quality things is too broad of a statement.
It's like a foreigner eats at a 7-11 and then goes home saying that they
know why Americans are fat, because all of their food is low quality. Plenty
of things are made in China that last just fine. Heck, there are sure to be
pieces of some of those parts that come from the European places that
originally were made in China. With the way current manufacturing is run,
parts and sub-assemblies can cross the ocean multiple times before getting
the final assembly and "Made in ..." sticker/stamp.

Though I have also had problems with getting the cheapest part and seeing it
was made in China and later having problems with it. But if a part is cheap
because the person running the show is only focused on bottom line and
ignores quality control to shave off a dollar or two then that's what you'll
end up with. If it is a quality run plant, no matter where in the world it
is, they won't do shoddy work and the failure rate will plummet. Just like
you'll get different results going to some random guy on the corner or going
to a specialist who takes their time with your car problems.

My main concern with all of this is your statement: "Now, unless the Chinese
have made nearly impossible leaps in the last two months, their quality
control in this regards to VAG parts is not anywhere good enough for me to
consider for my own car, much less a customer car." There are how many
million people in China? That you got a bad part last month, or even
yesterday, doesn't mean that the Chinese don't know how to make a good part.
It might mean that the company that made the part you bought cuts corners
like crazy and isn't worth doing business with. But how can that have any
bearing on a company next door to that one, or on the other side of the
city, or even on the other side of the country? Would  you want to be judged
based on the work of some guy you've never met, whether they were from your
area, or even a thousand miles away?

So all I'm saying is that the Chinese, or any other country, is as capable
of doing fine work as anyone else. They need the right tools, and people who
are trained to use them, and then allowed the opportunity to take the time
to do a good job at it. If you want the absolute cheapest product that you
can, and don't care about anything else, then you're not going to get
quality. All too often they get a bad rap because someone has thrown a bunch
of underpaid people into a factory and told them that the only thing that
matters is numbers and pushed them to get as many parts out the door as
possible, and punished them if they didn't meet quotas.

I just couldn't help responding to that. It just didn't seem fair to go that
far, is all.

Erik