Are new parts crap?

It certainly is frustrating to purchase parts that don't work. I believe the root of the problem is that there is not enough demand for these parts to warrant companies investing in tooling or modern manufactuing processes to produce them. So they wind up being manufactured with worn out tooling or in some back room sweat shop. On the positive side places like Autozone or Advance give you lifetime warranties so at least you don't keep paying for them.

You have to applaud outfits like Laysons that do invest in reproducing parts. If it wasn't for them I would still be runing around with faded and cracked tail light lenses on my 68 Barracuda.