Autometer made in China!
Joseph, I appreciate you coming online and defending your employer. Wwe could stand to have a little more loyalty in business today.
I for one still like the look of the Autometer gauges and have begun purchasing the American Muscle gauges for my 73 Dart. I will take your word that they are made in America. But as someone before me said, "Made" may be open to interpretation. Is every part made in America, or are the smaller pieces made in China and the final assembly and troubleshooting sent to America to be finished in Illinois? I'm not making accusations, just confirming.
So thanks again for coming on and giving us your side. And just let me know when you need my address to send me a new set of gauges.:razz:
Jason
There's definitely some interpretation in the eyes of the law in terms of what can be called "made" or "built" or whatever terminology is used. I'll leave the legal stuff to those folks as it's not an area I know much about.
As for the actual specifics, the circuit boards, meter movements and physical components are manufactured from raw materials here in our shop (check out the pics; you won't see many US companies that build their own boards in any industry). This is basically everything. Most of the dials are hand screened and done totally in house (pics of that too). Some of the dial designs are done by an engraving shop right down the road from us.
In every instance it's possible, these raw materials are purchased domestically and as I stated before, if possible, in Dekalb County. It's a sad state of affairs and gets into a greater social commentary, but there are certain raw materials for creating circuit boards that simply can't be purchased domestically for any price. American industry has conceded defeat to cheaper off shore companies on some small electrical components. This is another topic for another conversation, but speaks to our commitment. If a US made component exists or even if we can convince a vendor to build us one, that's the direction we go.
Ultimately, as a company that has lead the market for 50+ years, we see small competitors come and go. Competition is an awesome thing. It makes us and everyone in our industry better. Choice is an awesome thing. We've got 3000+ active part numbers now plus (literally) trillions of combinations a person can design themselves through our Custom Shop website. But cars are about individual expression, and as much as we'd love to earn business, there may be another gauge out there that simply fits the character of the car better.
I hope it speaks volumes that we haven't ever found it necessary to bad mouth other manufacturers and spread completely unfounded lies in order to attempt to win a sale. We'll let the products and our history speak for itself. We're a bunch of weekend racers that build gauges so we can put parts on our cars. We build the kind of product we want for our own cars. Many thanks all!