45 replies to this topic

[JonnyBMX]

i think the bigger picture hear is that much of the UKS once huge manufacturing industy has slowly but surely moved over to china and the qaulity has been replaced by cheap parts at a poor qaulity.

yes some chineese things can be good qaulity but not much of their mass production stuff it as its just made to a budget rather then a quality.

my dad is a precision engineer and has been all his life, he has seem manufacture slowly drop away and i always hear him moaning about the qaulity of even the precision tools that he buys isnt as good as it used to be.

he has always taught me to buy the best i can afford which is what i do but yes many poor qaulity products are not always fit for purpose and wont last long just gota deal with it i guess as manufacturing aint gunna be coming back here any time soon as they keep knocking down factories and building houses!

[Rosslin Racing]

also the raw materials that are used have turned down for the worse. door and window seals shrink chrome wipes off or fades metal breaks and so on. As a retailer its almost inpossible to tell beforehand if the products crud or not even using the parts yourself cant determin if the next batch will be good or not. personal example: Gaz shocks. chrome lamp rings. tex wipers. thats why i say it a female dog!

Edited by Rosslin Racing, 07 December 2012 - 01:20 PM.

[Jacksdad]

I also run a TR6 and the parts problem exists there as well. Modern repro parts are crap and you try finding NOS parts for a car that was last produced in 1976!! Probably most of you weren`t even born then At least you can still find NOS Mini bits at auto jumbles etc. Complaining to the retailers doesn`t really help, alot of it is down to price versus quality and the majority will want to pay peanuts. In many respects we (mini/classic car owners) are our own worst enemy. My advise is to buy NOS where you can and even if you don`t need a particular part right now buy it and store it for a later date.

[tommypope]

just a list of parts i need and a comparison i made

suprisingly m machines is the cheapist in most cases

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[Cooperman]

The longevity of body panels is really down to how they are fitted & finished. With body parts the accuracy of fit is what is most important. It's parts like ball joints, trim parts, brake parts, etc, where the quality issues really surface. But then, if someone were to offer top quality parts at 100% more than other suppliers are selling their mediocre stuff, who would buy it. To be viable, the expensive parts would have to be sold in volume, but the question on here is usually 'who is cheapest for such-and-such a part?'
If, say, 'MiniCrap Ltd' sold an oil pump for £18 and MiniQuality Ltd' sold a really top quality precision one for £50, who would sell the most?

[leroy26]

is it worth restoring a mini then??

[Chance]

Theres needs to be a middle ground costwise

A good quality part that doesnt cost the earth!!

[Cooperman]

Theres needs to be a middle ground costwise

A good quality part that doesnt cost the earth!!

Not really possible as the sales volumes are too low to cover the low-run manufacturing costs.

[mab01uk]

the question on here is usually 'who is cheapest for such-and-such a part?'

This is very true.........it should be 'who offers the best quality part' especially when your life and safety relies on the part, but is probably most often asked on here in relation to the fit of body panels.

Edited by mab01uk, 07 December 2012 - 07:40 PM.

[jd24-7]

The longevity of body panels is really down to how they are fitted & finished. With body parts the accuracy of fit is what is most important. It's parts like ball joints, trim parts, brake parts, etc, where the quality issues really surface. But then, if someone were to offer top quality parts at 100% more than other suppliers are selling their mediocre stuff, who would buy it. To be viable, the expensive parts would have to be sold in volume, but the question on here is usually 'who is cheapest for such-and-such a part?'
If, say, 'MiniCrap Ltd' sold an oil pump for £18 and MiniQuality Ltd' sold a really top quality precision one for £50, who would sell the most?

i think the other problem is not knowing whether the £50 pump is any better than the £18 one. Unfortunately price is not the best indicator of quality. A good marketing guru Will set a price that suggests a reasonable perceived quality.
Im not sure what the answer is, buyer beware i guess .

[Cooperman]

The longevity of body panels is really down to how they are fitted & finished. With body parts the accuracy of fit is what is most important. It's parts like ball joints, trim parts, brake parts, etc, where the quality issues really surface. But then, if someone were to offer top quality parts at 100% more than other suppliers are selling their mediocre stuff, who would buy it. To be viable, the expensive parts would have to be sold in volume, but the question on here is usually 'who is cheapest for such-and-such a part?'
If, say, 'MiniCrap Ltd' sold an oil pump for £18 and MiniQuality Ltd' sold a really top quality precision one for £50, who would sell the most?

i think the other problem is not knowing whether the £50 pump is any better than the £18 one. Unfortunately price is not the best indicator of quality. A good marketing guru Will set a price that suggests a reasonable perceived quality.
Im not sure what the answer is, buyer beware i guess .

That is absolutely right. You can bet your life that as soon as someone sells, say, a really top-quality oil pump for £50, everyone selling the cheapie crap ones will claim them as the same 'top-quality' and ask £40 for their junk. Then we would be back where we started.

[JustSteve]

That is absolutely right. You can bet your life that as soon as someone sells, say, a really top-quality oil pump for £50, everyone selling the cheapie crap ones will claim them as the same 'top-quality' and ask £40 for their junk. Then we would be back where we started.

I think the only answer is for mini suppliers to make sure that parts ARE good quality before selling them. Maybe to only sell one brand too.

If you ask minispares what is best, they will tell you ''these parts are much better'', so why not just sell those parts? It would probably mean that they would be able to sell them at a slightly cheaper price too, because they would sell more of them

[Cooperman]

That is absolutely right. You can bet your life that as soon as someone sells, say, a really top-quality oil pump for £50, everyone selling the cheapie crap ones will claim them as the same 'top-quality' and ask £40 for their junk. Then we would be back where we started.

I think the only answer is for mini suppliers to make sure that parts ARE good quality before selling them. Maybe to only sell one brand too.

If you ask minispares what is best, they will tell you ''these parts are much better'', so why not just sell those parts? It would probably mean that they would be able to sell them at a slightly cheaper price too, because they would sell more of them

What could happen then is that we would get threads on here like "Why are Mini Spares more expensive than Mini *******"? Then they would buy from Mini******* anyway.
I do agree that it's a real problem for Mini owners as it is for almost all classic car owners these days.

[Chance]

I always ask whether theres been any problems with the non gen stuff and they always say there hasnt been any complaints or whatever

This is at minispares, ive only ever bought from minispares and have zero complaints in my year of ownership and ive spent loads in there!!

[JustSteve]

That is absolutely right. You can bet your life that as soon as someone sells, say, a really top-quality oil pump for £50, everyone selling the cheapie crap ones will claim them as the same 'top-quality' and ask £40 for their junk. Then we would be back where we started.

I think the only answer is for mini suppliers to make sure that parts ARE good quality before selling them. Maybe to only sell one brand too.

If you ask minispares what is best, they will tell you ''these parts are much better'', so why not just sell those parts? It would probably mean that they would be able to sell them at a slightly cheaper price too, because they would sell more of them

What could happen then is that we would get threads on here like "Why are Mini Spares more expensive than Mini *******"? Then they would buy from Mini******* anyway.
I do agree that it's a real problem for Mini owners as it is for almost all classic car owners these days.

I supose you are right cooperman. It just really gets on my tits that these places do this. Most people don't realise until they go for their MOT with their 3 month old CV boot and it fails because it's split. The mini then sits on their drive until it's turned to dust.

I also hate seeing some of the poor quality work that a lot of 'specialists' carry out, but I'll leave that for another thread