[mav1178]

Originally Posted by Future240

It's a date if you are ever in ATL haha.

I see your example and I will concede that point on volume. I would still beg to question the QA though. Even if HKS, greddy, Tomei jp etc have out source to taiwan etc. There quality has not changed just their manufacturing costs.

Can we say the same about Tomei USA?

I can almost say the same... only because we are equating unknown vendors/suppliers with poor(er) quality.

There's honestly not enough data out there to prove one way or another. Additionally, the part number shift was not done because they wanted to tell everyone the suppliers changed, it was done because they were fighting Japan and wanted to shift products away from what Japan was doing so there was no IP infringement in case they lost a lawsuit.

In any case, when I was at FR I had some high level discussion with Tomei Japan about possibly selling Tomei Japan directly into the US, since they basically were contingency planning. I wasn't around long enough to see this project through, but it was a lot of waiting around.

The amount of politics and behind the back practices in this industry is even crazier than OE corporate politics, but all the consumer sees is the brand. It's why groups like Backshelf on Facebook thrive, because people get glossy-eyed over an old logo and pay absurd amounts of money for it.