Exactly right. Not too long ago I was a product development manager. Unfortunately my boss didn't like to let his employees do their actual jobs; he'd started the company back when god was still in elementary school, and he wanted to keep making all the decisions, just leaving the actual work (and blame) to the employees. So the order came down that a certain product had to be sourced in "a low-cost country", by which he meant China or India. In order to justify my paycheck I had to at least try to prevent the inevitable trainwreck, so I devised a specification that was physically impossible to build and shopped it around. The vast majority of job shops responded "Yes, yes, no problem, you sign here now, we make for you, hundred percent quality!". Har-de-har-har, yeah, right. A tiny few shops said "We have to talk to you about your specification", and those were the only ones worth talking to. The trainwreck happened anyhow (at enormous expense because duh, price and cost aren't the same thing), because that's just how things work in that part of the world. All the ISO certifications in the world aren't worth usiing as toilet paper, let alone for any kind of quality assurance; if you don't have
your own boots on the ground, calling the shots and exposing the bribes and making sure each and every spec is followed in each and every detail, you will get garbage. Yeah, the spec calls for glass-filled Nylon-66, but the factory owner's brother-in-law gave him a super bargain on a material that's the same color and looks about the same. Yeah, the spec calls for a 4-minute part cooldown between two steps, but that part of the spec is obviously optional. Yeah, the parts (or at least a representative sample) are supposed to be tested, but that's just a formality, part of that funny Western obsession with "quality", so just fill out the test sheet and change the numbers a tiny bit up or down so it doesn't look the same on each sheet.
Then there's the counterfeiting industry itself in China, which is of truly mind-blowing scale.
Any product you can possibly think of, every brand in the world. There are
whole, entire towns where the entire industry is counterfeiting. And we're not talking about obvious Magnetbox/Sorny/Panaphonic types of knockoffs -- we're talking about each and every last little tiny detail copied. Typefaces, surface finishes, packaging, product literature, approval stamps, tax stamps, everything.
But wait, there's more; stuff that's already made in China (with always less-than-strict Western babysitting) doesn't even have to be counterfeited; the factory already has all the plans and machines and blueprints; so when they've finished making the official order they just keep making more. The genuine customer gets his parts...except the ones that are sold through non-official channels. They don't discard the rejects that can't be squinted into "meeting" the spec, either; those get sold through non-official channels, too. Ever notice how you walk through Chinatown and find name-brand kitchen appliances and stuff, new in box, at about 1/3 to 1/2 the price the same model costs elsewhere...? That's why.
Back to filters: Yeah, Wix has a big, impressive, modern glass office building in a Chinese place called "Times Square". Perhaps they make filters there, and perhaps they don't. Walk through the AAPEX auto parts trade show in Las Vegas (or Automechanika abroad) and collect catalogues from every Chinese filter company (or headlamp, or belt, or hose, or gasket, or...). By the end of the day you'll have forty pounds of paper in your tote bags and twenty USB keys or mini-CDs. Spread 'em all out on your hotel bed and take a look: a different company name on the front of each catalogue, and a photo of a different building on the back, but other than that the catalogues are all identical. Same photos and same part numbers on the same-numbered pages. Go back the next day, pick any part number and ask if they make that part themselves or buy it from another company. Each and every time, the answer from 60 different booths will be "Our part! We make! The others buy from us!". Again: Har de har har, yeah right.
But even if I give Wix the benefit of the (slim) doubt and assume they're bringing in quality materials and engaging in rigourous quality control at every step of the process...that still means they're "only" taking advantage of the cheap slave labor readily available in China, and I don't care to support that, either.
Leaving aside the Western world, I have very few problems and very little hesitation about using parts from Mexico, Argentina, South Korea, Brazil, or Taiwan. Not every part from those places is good, but not every American-, Canadian-, or German-made part is good, either. Junk can be made in any country. But I think it's especially interesting how Taiwanese quality is a whole lot more reliably good than Chinese quality. I'm sure it's more complicated than I make it when I say "Amazing the difference a little freedom makes", but I think that's at least a large chunk of it.
Meanwhile: Fleetguard's filters are
good stuff. They tend to be priced higher, but there are bargains around if you hunt. I use their severe-duty, synthetic-media LF3487 oil filter on everything that I used to use a Wix 51515 on (that is the standard large oil filter). To take apart an LF3487 is to look upon an item designed and built to do a good job for a long time. And they're made in America, so
that's what I'm buying.
