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Gladiator Factory Parts - where do they come from?

Klutch

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- Today's economy is a Global economy. No getting around it.

- Nothing wrong with buying a used vehicle, but there's nothing patriotic about it. Buying a used vehicle doesn't help anyone other than the lot or person selling it. No manufacturing workers benefit in any way whatsoever. Any supporting parts you buy likely come from Mexico or overseas.

- As mentioned, buying a "foreign vehicle" isn't necessarily bad for American workers. Many Japanese vehicles are fully assembled in the USA. A Ford, GM or FCA vehicle might be assembled overseas. Such things are constantly changing.

- It doesn't even make sense to say, "If I buy an American vehicle, the money stays here". Nope. Consider Buick has a gigantic factory in China and they didn't build it with Chinese money. Ford has been manufacturing and selling vehicles in Europe since post-WWII. GM has owned Saab and Opal at times.

Therefore, I would suggest you buy the vehicle you like and want and tell anyone criticizing you for it slag off. Whatever points they're making are likely completely bogus.
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- Today's economy is a Global economy. No getting around it.

- Nothing wrong with buying a used vehicle, but there's nothing patriotic about it. Buying a used vehicle doesn't help anyone other than the lot or person selling it. No manufacturing workers benefit in any way whatsoever. Any supporting parts you buy likely come from Mexico or overseas.

- As mentioned, buying a "foreign vehicle" isn't necessarily bad for American workers. Many Japanese vehicles are fully assembled in the USA. A Ford, GM or FCA vehicle might be assembled overseas. Such things are constantly changing.

- It doesn't even make sense to say, "If I buy an American vehicle, the money stays here". Nope. Consider Buick has a gigantic factory in China and they didn't build it with Chinese money. Ford has been manufacturing and selling vehicles in Europe since post-WWII. GM has owned Saab and Opal at times.

Therefore, I would suggest you buy the vehicle you like and want and tell anyone criticizing you for it slag off. Whatever points they're making are likely completely bogus.

Yes, I acknowledged all that. I emphasized which parts were made/assembled here. How many US citizens were employed? I know gross profits are going to globalists, but the choice of a car being built that employs more -Americans than foreigners abroad, then I will always chose America
 

Klutch

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Yes, I acknowledged all that. I emphasized which parts were made/assembled here. How many US citizens were employed? I know gross profits are going to globalists, but the choice of a car being built that employs more -Americans than foreigners abroad, then I will always chose America
Likely FCA employs more people abroad than in America.
 

Anderson

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FCA might, Jeep doesnt. I make a distinction between the two
You realize that the Gladiators fall under FCA? There is no distinction. Placing your own distinction is on you, not FCA.
 

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like every Merican company.. manufacturing is outsourced overseas in order to remain competitive...
You really need to open your eye’s ppl. Are you kidding with the “remain competitive”? We are paying the same amount of money for a steering box(example) regardless of where it is made. The difference is how rich can they get off of us! They could have that same steering box manufactured here, lets say for $100 per unit and it would Never have been a problem because it would be made with precision and have quality control.
Instead: manufacture overseas for $5 per unit and they pocket $95 per unit that they all get rich from. WE STILL PAY THE $100 regardless of where/how it is made. Meanwhile, they try their hardest to cover up the obvious garbage steering box by saying “its a jeep thing”.
Sad part is most 🐑 dont even see the truth when it is spoon fed to them. “Remain competitive” actually means remain wealthy.
 

Klutch

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You really need to open your eye’s ppl. Are you kidding with the “remain competitive”? We are paying the same amount of money for a steering box(example) regardless of where it is made. The difference is how rich can they get off of us! They could have that same steering box manufactured here, lets say for $100 per unit and it would Never have been a problem because it would be made with precision and have quality control.
Instead: manufacture overseas for $5 per unit and they pocket $95 per unit that they all get rich from. WE STILL PAY THE $100 regardless of where/how it is made. Meanwhile, they try their hardest to cover up the obvious garbage steering box by saying “its a jeep thing”.
Sad part is most 🐑 dont even see the truth when it is spoon fed to them. “Remain competitive” actually means remain wealthy.
This isn't the case. The logic doesn't hold up if it's more than one part.

Automotive parts are sources from many locations to include China. Manufactures do this to keep prices down, to uphold contracts and to keep unions happy. FCA couldn't source every part in the US if they wanted to. Many parts simply aren't made in North America and nobody is interested in doing so.

So, in the case of the steering box, multiply it times 100. (Just an example with a nice round number.) If all 100 parts cost 400% more because they are made in North America, there's no way their vehicles could be competitive.

And I think you're greatly exaggerating FCA profit margins. FCA a mass producer. They make money by manufacturing and selling a LOT of their vehicles. I don't know about FCA, but some manufacturers actually lose money on smaller cars. They make them to be in compliance with government economy regulations and hoping to introduce people to the brand.

Like it or not we are in a global economy. Them's the facts.
 

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You really need to open your eye’s ppl. Are you kidding with the “remain competitive”? We are paying the same amount of money for a steering box(example) regardless of where it is made. The difference is how rich can they get off of us! They could have that same steering box manufactured here, lets say for $100 per unit and it would Never have been a problem because it would be made with precision and have quality control.
Instead: manufacture overseas for $5 per unit and they pocket $95 per unit that they all get rich from. WE STILL PAY THE $100 regardless of where/how it is made. Meanwhile, they try their hardest to cover up the obvious garbage steering box by saying “its a jeep thing”.
Sad part is most 🐑 dont even see the truth when it is spoon fed to them. “Remain competitive” actually means remain wealthy.
No, that's not the case. If these were made in MN, for example, you can bet your bottom dollar they'd be more expensive. They don't say "this is the price we will sell at, now how cheap can we make it" it's more like "where can we get this made to come in where we need to be" and then they price from there.
My father worked in a factory until they moved to remain competitive - they had to LOWER their prices to compete. They didn't move to make things cheap and keep the same price, they moved to make things cheaper so they could SELL cheaper, at a lower price.
But it ultimately cost them as they went bust due to poor quality.

Also - not all of these factories are Chinese owned - Many are OWNED by the manufacturers like FCA. But for CORPORATE TAX reasons, they move their plants, including people, to countries where the tax rates, labor rates and cost of living are lower.

And that bit about quality - LOL - that's funny. Because to make the same part here the quality actually SUFFERS.
I could point to a number of things I have that are BETTER from China than the same thing made in the USA. Castings are finer grained, fewer voids, machining is better, smoother, etc.
I've compared water valves in the past and that's what started me actually researching this very topic. And as my son has lived and worked in Korea and knows they ALSO do manufacturing in China these days, we've compared how this stuff actually works in reality..............
Sure, some stuff is absolutely cheaply made - meaning poor quality, but I have things I could show that are BETTER quality from China because they can afford the extra steps and care.
My son also has a friend who found he could BUY a factory in China for under 50 grand - OWN and OPERATE it over there far cheaper than here and have full control over quality. That means he could be making steering gear of BETTER quality over there for the same price or less than it would cost over here.

There's too much BAD info out there from people who have never been directly involved with China, manufacturing, whatever. My family has seen all sides, and as a mechanic who still to this day does restorations, I can tell you that there's stuff coming from China that's just as good.
I could show Ford 4.5" direct drive starter field coils from China that are as good as and in some ways better than those I can get from the states (and higher torque from the starter in the end)
And I can show starter drives made in the USA that fail after one use.
 

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Funny this thread would pop up today. I just unboxed a set of Genuine Mopar 2" lift lower control arms that came yesterday. I was surprised that there were Made in China stickers on it. Maybe not too surprised, because they were only $30 each!
 

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I'll take made in China most days over made in Mexico and I have proof and reasons - again, my son being one of the people with first-hand knowledge. I could give examples of appliances, too, with consumer ratings, and more.
So much depends on WHO owns the factory, how it's run and more - more-so than where the factory is.
 

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Where are the coveted LED headlights made? Iam guessing based on price they are made by seasoned American artisans with the best health insurance and 401k plans.
 

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I'll take made in China most days over made in Mexico and I have proof and reasons - again, my son being one of the people with first-hand knowledge. I could give examples of appliances, too, with consumer ratings, and more.
So much depends on WHO owns the factory, how it's run and more - more-so than where the factory is.
Speaking as someone who know, china can and will build whatever it is you need at what ever price point you need.

By this I mean if you hand them an engineering package and say I need this widget exactly as shown, you get a price. What happens after that is completely up to you. If you are committed to quality you will fund a plant and install your own staff while hiring key local positions and you'll pay everyone well and buy loyalty and honesty. Or you can just bid the part out and specify delivery dates and then you fall prey to creative value engineering etc and while it may work and fit, it may not do it as you intended but hot damn it's so cheap.

About 15 years ago an associate of mine recounted a wonderful story about the shipping industry and the cost variance between China and Rotterdam. Rotterdam will design and build a ship that complies with the most stringent rule, regulations and is optimized for high build quality and longest in service readieness. And it is going to cost you every inch of the way. The Chinese will build you an optically similar and seemingly comparable ship. Then you can sail it to Rotterdam and flag every issue, failure and fuckup you can find and have it fixed in Rotterdam to be perfect and it would still be less than half the cost of the ship in Rotterdam.

China's manufacturing capacity and capability is impressive and this economy of scale has lured away many "heavy industries" from around the world. We can all talk a good game about returning the steel industry to America but in reality, who wants to actually live in a steel town? Who remembers vast swaths of forest slowly dying from acid rain? Places like Pittsburgh and Bethlehem covered in cinders and the air a fucked up color? Pro tip, the US specialty steel market leads the world in production of stainless and engineering metals using a fraction of the footprint and manpower. We still have a world leading special steel industry but it's not the bad old days of huge Bessemer furnaces. The reality is China is willing to take the environmental and social hit from big dirty industry; filthy soft brown coal, living in the shadow of plastics plants, mild steel foundries... Given the choice I'd say keep it over there.

But on the flip side, China as a haven for dirt cheap manufacturing is drying up. They've made so much money they have developed a middle class and they won't stand for that shit for long. They like being happy and healthy and raising happy healthy children and have started pushing back against old dirty China. China is now also seeing competition in the cheap shit markets, a stiff push from India, Bangladesh and the scary potential of industrial Africa.

So bitching that that a car would be attainability expensive if it was all made here is more a critique on us than them when you start peeling it back. Personally I blame ourselves for letting cheap shit skew our wage structure and the cost of goods sold. A good way to ease this is to raise the bottom. Increasing wages on the the low end helps to stimulate the economy as a whole by promoting volume purchasing and thus volume production. Chasing the loss leader junk out of the markets would help as well, force the standard of quality to rise and with it the costs associated.
 

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Depending on the industry, China can be a real quagmire. I spent my working life in the semiconductor industry. At one point, about 15 or 20 years ago my company spent about 900 million dollars building a manufacturing plant in China. Within a year that plant was closed - mostly because of government restrictions on having our intellectual property sent over there. That was one of the more glaring examples of poor decisions that caused the company to end up being bought out by a competitor right when I retired!
 

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Depending on the industry, China can be a real quagmire. I spent my working life in the semiconductor industry. At one point, about 15 or 20 years ago my company spent about 900 million dollars building a manufacturing plant in China. Within a year that plant was closed - mostly because of government restrictions on having our intellectual property sent over there. That was one of the more glaring examples of poor decisions that caused the company to end up being bought out by a competitor right when I retired!
A LOT has changed in the last few years there - even in the last 5.
A friend of my oldest son was looking at, and maybe he did it, buying an existing factory over there for under 50K USD.

Even Korea now has many of things "made in China" because Koreans want more money - they need it when apartments in the city can easily run $1,000,000.
And yet Korean appliances are among the top rated in the world, besting all others over and over and over.
 

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While I agree with some aspects of your responses to my post, the real problem here is where is this quality control you say exists?
I have now had 5, YES 5 bad boxes. FCA isn’t paying one GD cent for a quality product. The last box was the “New” steel version and it was worse than a previous one. I’m not being picky either. I would LOVE to have a fuckn box with under 4 inches of freeplay in the steering wheel before the tires respond. Currently im waiting for the 6th box to be installed. Chrysler’s useless tech was sent out to confirm I indeed had a brand new steel box that was dangerous because of the amount of play, 6 inches btw.
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