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Car Forum / GMC Cars / September 2006

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GM Stopped making USA - Delco Spark Plugs ???.

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Brian Bower - 23 Aug 2006 05:47 GMT
I heard from this forum that GM has stopped making Delco Spark Plugs and
NGK ( China or Korea made spark plugs) is now making the Spark Plugs
stamped for AC Delco ???.  Is this true.  If it is I guess I will have
to use AutoLite as they are made in the USA and seem pretty good and
good performance.  What is happening to GM these days ??
What about Delco Oil Filters - GM still making them ????.
What about Delco Batteries is GM still making them ????.
What about genuine GM Parts like fuel pumps , water pumps, geneators,
etc... are they still making them ????.
What is happening to Good Ol USA Products ????.
Brian - Las Vegas, NV
Brian Bower - 23 Aug 2006 06:31 GMT
Champion - Spark Plugs im sure are made in the USA I might try them
also.
Brian - Las Vegas , NV
Mike Marlow - 23 Aug 2006 11:39 GMT
> Champion - Spark Plugs im sure are made in the USA I might try them
> also.
> Brian - Las Vegas , NV

Feel free, but that would be a mistake.  Champion plugs are pure junk.  NGK
has long been an excellent plug.  If you're losing sleep over products not
being made in the US, you're in for a very long sleepless life.

Signature

-Mike-
mmarlowREMOVE@alltel.net

Scott - 23 Aug 2006 14:11 GMT
>> Champion - Spark Plugs im sure are made in the USA I might try them
>> also.
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
> has long been an excellent plug.  If you're losing sleep over products not
> being made in the US, you're in for a very long sleepless life.

Years ago, while keeping two stroke oil burning motorcycles running,
I found the opposite to be true.  NGK would foul for who know
what reason, while you could install the oldest Champion in your
bike and it would run.  Also, Harley Davidson uses Champion plugs
with their name, and seem to have nearly zero spark plug issues.
Those Nippondenso plugs seem to be good too.
Brian Bower - 23 Aug 2006 22:55 GMT
What the hell is wrong with GM ???.
GM needs to get back to its ROOTS and make things in the Good ol
fashioned USA like they did in the good ol days.

Brian - In Very HOT Las Vegas, NV
Edwin Pawlowski - 24 Aug 2006 00:30 GMT
> What the hell is wrong with GM ???.
> GM needs to get back to its ROOTS and make things in the Good ol
> fashioned USA like they did in the good ol days.

So does Ford, Chrysler, Whirlpool, Black & Decker, and every other
appliance, tool, and auto maker. It won't happen.  Only way to assure you
buy only goods manufactured in your country is to move to China.  What is
even worse, we demand that these companies buy cheap overseas.  We vote with
our dollars and keep buying cheaper and cheaper merchandise.

Pogo said it best, "We have seen the enemy . . . . . . .
ROY BRAGG - 25 Aug 2006 07:25 GMT
Does this mean our Impalas and Monte Carlos built in Canada are no good?  I
don't think so. BTW, GM was building their New Departure brand bearings in
Japan as far back as 1957.
Roy
> What the hell is wrong with GM ???.
> GM needs to get back to its ROOTS and make things in the Good ol
> fashioned USA like they did in the good ol days.
>
> Brian - In Very HOT Las Vegas, NV
<RJ> - 25 Aug 2006 15:48 GMT
It's just that the song we hear so often is;
"Don't buy Japanese cars, because of "foreign parts" "

but when GM outsources, suddenly it's OK
because of "GM Quality"

>Does this mean our Impalas and Monte Carlos built in Canada are no good?  I
>don't think so. BTW, GM was building their New Departure brand bearings in
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
>>
>> Brian - In Very HOT Las Vegas, NV

<rj>
Brian Bower - 03 Sep 2006 08:16 GMT
Let's Bring this back up in the Group What do you all think about GM has
stopped making their own replacement parts.
Lets Discuss.
Edwin Pawlowski - 03 Sep 2006 13:45 GMT
> Let's Bring this back up in the Group What do you all think about GM has
> stopped making their own replacement parts.
> Lets Discuss.

Not much to discuss.  None of us like to see jobs going out of the US, but
as long as we want cheap, that is what we will get.

People complain about Wal Mart importing so much, yet we go to the Wal Mart
store and buy it every day.  If GM stopped using imported parts we'd
complain more about the price of cars.

GM, like most companies, subcontracts a lot of material. I doubt there are
any 100% integrated businesses.  Why try to make something yourself if you
can buy it cheaper, better, faster from a company that specializes in that
type of part. I've worked for manufacturing companies for 45 years. Every
one of them bought certain items from other sources.
Signature

Ed
http://pages.cthome.net/edhome/

John Horner - 04 Sep 2006 00:23 GMT
> Let's Bring this back up in the Group What do you all think about GM has
> stopped making their own replacement parts.
> Lets Discuss.

It is an old subject.  The reason GM spun it's parts making businesses
out into Delphi was so that GM could source parts anywhere.  The whole
point was to get out of the business of making parts which are readily
available on the market.

The union labor dynamic is part of the situation as well.  For years the
UAW has negotiated for top labor rates at the integrated manufacturer
level while wages at the unaffiliated parts makers have long been lower.
 Thus even in an all-us-made scenario it is cheaper for GM to buy spark
plugs from Champion than it is to make them itself.  Now add in newer
(to the US) non-union suppliers and their costs are lower still.  Moving
further on, parts made in China, Mexico, etc. are lower cost yet.   So,
there is no economic reason for GM to make things itself nor to have
them made in the US.   The end customer has proven that they by and
large could care less where something is made.

Oddly enough, there will probably continue to be spark plugs factories
in the US, but they are likely to have names like Denso or NGK on the
front door and employ non-union labor.

Remember the story about killing the goose which laid the golden eggs?
In the auto industry the US unions have pretty much done so.  Of course
poor management decisions haven't helped either!

John
grappletech - 04 Sep 2006 06:58 GMT
John Horner <jthorner@yahoo.com> wrote in news:YtJKg.2334$%75.967
@trnddc05:

>> Let's Bring this back up in the Group What do you all think about GM has
>> stopped making their own replacement parts.
[quoted text clipped - 25 lines]
>
> John

There's a Delphi plant near here that makes electrical components for GM
cars.  The wages are ridiculous.  $30-$40 hour plus an expensive
benefits package.  So Delphi's in bankruptcy.  They have to scale back
operations.  After paying these huge salaries, it's cheaper for them to
scale way back then be in full operational status.  It seems so
"either...or".  There are either people making $40/hour doing assembly
work or the co's paying $8 hour.  Should be some happy medium.  $20/hour
would still be a comfortable living here in the midwest and would allow
the business to stay solvent.
John Horner - 04 Sep 2006 15:46 GMT
>  Should be some happy medium.  $20/hour
> would still be a comfortable living here in the midwest and would allow
> the business to stay solvent.

Those are the kind of wages many of the non-union so called transplant
factories are paying.

John
C. E. White - 05 Sep 2006 23:51 GMT
> There's a Delphi plant near here that makes electrical components for GM
> cars.  The wages are ridiculous.  $30-$40 hour plus an expensive
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
> would still be a comfortable living here in the midwest and would allow
> the business to stay solvent.

Without overtime, a guy making $30 an hour is making $60k a year.
Significantly higher than the average US salary, but is it really that bad?
Compare that to the guys running the corporations who make as much 100 times
that much (or even more in some cases). In the end, what will make GM (or
Delphi) more competitive - firing 1000 $60k a year guys or firing 10 $600k a
year guys? I am living through upper management firing workers in a
desperate effort to make the numbers for one more quarter so they can get
their fat bonuses and cash in there stock options. It isn't pretty. Until
the stockholders of corporations wake up and take control of the
corporations back from the good old boys who award each other huge salaries,
I don't expect things to improve. Until GM out sources the CEO job to India,
or pays Japanese style compensation to executives, I don't expect to see
much improvement at GM (or Delphi).

Ed
Edwin Pawlowski - 06 Sep 2006 01:01 GMT
"C. E. White" <cewhite@mindspring.com> wrote in message
> Without overtime, a guy making $30 an hour is making $60k a year.
> Significantly higher than the average US salary, but is it really that
> bad?

In and of itself, no.  If it is a low skilled job then yes, it is not a good
thing compared to other business in the workd that we must compete against.
Should we pay supermarket baggers that much?  Skilled machinists?  Doctors?

> Compare that to the guys running the corporations who make as much 100
> times that much (or even more in some cases). In the end, what will make
> GM (or Delphi) more competitive - firing 1000 $60k a year guys or firing
> 10 $600k a year guys?

Fire the 10 $600k guys and the few $1000k guys too. There certainly is an
imbalance in top management wages, sports figures, and celebrities. We
accept it and continue to drink a Bud and watch the big game so it will
continue.

> I am living through upper management firing workers in a desperate effort
> to make the numbers for one more quarter so they can get their fat bonuses
> and cash in there stock options. It isn't pretty. Until the stockholders
> of corporations wake up and take control of the corporations back from the
> good old boys who award each other huge salaries, I don't expect things to
> improve.

Often, the stockholders are part of the problem.  We want big gains now,
evenif it costs the life of the company down the road.  Too much of the
"live for today" thinking.
HLS@nospam.nix - 07 Sep 2006 02:08 GMT
> Often, the stockholders are part of the problem.  We want big gains now,
> evenif it costs the life of the company down the road.  Too much of the
> "live for today" thinking.

I have thought this in the past too, Ed.

But, BEING a stockholder, I have to say I dont do it for nothing.  If my
money
will bring me 5-6 percent in a secure loan, why should I put it into GM or
any
other company and expect nothing?

I must have either growth or dividends or both.

I   have seen a lot of companies fart off their profits in expensive world
gambits,
executive bonuses, etc, without concern for the actual OWNERS of the company
who are the stockholders.

Sure, I can wait a while for profit, but I am not a nonprofit enterprise.
And I have not,
and would not, invest in GM.
Edwin Pawlowski - 07 Sep 2006 03:22 GMT
<HLS@nospam.nix> wrote in message

> But, BEING a stockholder, I have to say I dont do it for nothing.  If my
> money
[quoted text clipped - 9 lines]
> company
> who are the stockholders.

The key is balance. Sure we all want stock prices up but it has to be done
at a sensible rate of growth.  What we have been seeing, is a flash-in-the
pan style where the upper management shows big stock increases and saves
money buy getting rid of 10,000 employees, thus justifying big bonuses, then
when it goes to crap they bail out with big settlements on their contracts.
The stockholder suffers for a few year until the next hot-shot comes in and
does his magic.  Next guy sells off the unprofitable division that are on
the skids due to the big layoffs, makes the corporation profitable again and
gets his big bonus and leaves. .  After a few cycles, the stockholders have
nothing left.

Sure you can get 5% in a sound investment and want more from you stocks. Do
you want 15% every year for five years and have it go belly up, or do you
want 9% stead for decades from prudent investments by management for solid
growth of the corporation? Should a corporation dump the R & D department
this year to show a big profit, or do they keep in going for new products
for sustained growth; albeit at a slower place?

The company I work for is 20 years old.  I've been there 18 years.  In the
beginning, we struggled and got by, but continued to invest in new equipment
rather than fancy showy stuff.  Today, we are solid financially, long term
employees get great benefits and rewards that would not be possible if
re-investment was not done along the way. The key employees demand and work
for profitability, just as a stockholder in a corporation would because it
is our future, our profit sharing, our income at stake.
John Horner - 23 Aug 2006 06:50 GMT
> I heard from this forum that GM has stopped making Delco Spark Plugs and
> NGK ( China or Korea made spark plugs) is now making the Spark Plugs
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
> What is happening to Good Ol USA Products ????.
> Brian - Las Vegas, NV

AC-Delco doesn't make anything anymore.  When GM spun off it's part
divisions into Delphi, GM kept the AC-Delco brand name for it's
aftermarket parts.  Now GM puts whatever they feel like in those boxes.

Many of the AC-Delco oil filters you see are now made by Champion Labs
(provider of the fine STP and WalMart SuperTech brands as well).  Delphi
was still making some of them, but I think Delphi has targeted filter
for shutting down.

The bottom line is that the box saying AC-Delco means nothing in terms
of who actually made the parts inside.

John
Edwin Pawlowski - 23 Aug 2006 11:15 GMT
"John Horner" <jthorner@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> The bottom line is that the box saying AC-Delco means nothing in terms of
> who actually made the parts inside.

Another good reason to use the higher priced "Genuine GM Parts"
 
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