At 01:03 5/10/2000, Ray Hunnam wrote:
>When he opened it, I can imagine what he was thinking.  This Mercedes part
>had been manufactured in Japan.  YES JAPAN !!.
>
>The point is  Dont trust genuine parts to be made by the manufacturer even
>they sub contract out their parts to cheaper sources.

Cheaper?  Probably, but not necessarily.  But if you offered me a German
part or a Japanese part for the same application, I'd probably be willing
to pay 50% extra for the Japanese part, because it would probably last
three times as long (not a water pump, though, they fail after 150 or
175,000 miles like everyone else's).

David
ps -- I freely admit that my dream of heaven would be that VW built a
prototype Vanagon without power, took it to Toyota and said "Make us
something that looks and behaves exactly like this.  You figure out how to
make it go.  A boxer would be nice, but it's up to you.  Do not under any
circumstances put pinstripes or belts of chrome on, that's our
department.  You build the thing, we'll decorate it if we feel like it.  Do
not reduce the tare weight more than 20 per cent, and do not reduce the
gross weight at all -- increase it if you can.  And see if you can lose the
14" wheels...."
I'm drooling all over the keyboard.

David Beierl - Providence, RI
  http://pws.prserv.net/synergy/Vanagon/
'84 Westy "Dutiful Passage"
'85 GL "Poor Relation"