Outdoor Power Equipment (Lawn Mowers, Snow Blowers, Chain Saws and more) Discussions

I was just in a Home Depot store and looked at the Sno-Tek's.  It is amazing they put a nice big sticker on the bucket that says "Made in the USA".  I guess the "Made in China engine" doesnt apply.  Good old marketing tricks.

Basically every American made product today from a Chevy Tahoe down to a Harley Davidson motor cycle has parts made in China nowadays.  It is just the reality in todays global manufacturing environment.  If he wouldn't have singled out one manufacturer as doing "marketing tricks" to call something American Made I wouldn't have jumped on his post, but its obvious from the tone of his post that he is just trying to slam one manufacturer for doing the same "marketing tricks" that nearly every manufacturer from cars to golf clubs in the US is doing.

I was gonig to buy the sno-tek with the chinise lct engine but where will i get parts for it if it breaks?

The original poster sounds neutral, no flaming tone was detected.  Did anyone else notice a flaming tone?  He also didn't sound "stupid", maybe a little vague in his intentions of the thread which can lead to a meaningful discussion, or something else.

I've seen the Sno-Tek at Home Depot.  They are priced low and built for economy.  To most people, buying a piece of machinery above a $1000 that is used 3 months out of the year is a serious consideration.  I don't think Ariens put these machines on the sales floor to piss off "snowblower aficionados and elitist."  There's money to be made from "average Joe" consumers. 

Fewer and fewer things are made in the USA.  Consumers in the USA wants it bigger, more powerful, better, and cheaper.  At the same time, they want to be paid more, receive more benefits, and more time off.  What a dichotomy.  How is this possible?

Adamj wrote:
Buy parts from the same store you bought the snowblower in the first place.  It will be already assembled to the snowblower.  No need to diagnose the problem and replacing part after the part.

Seriously, I don't know if there are parts distribution set up for these engines.  It may costs more to buy parts and pay somebody labor than to get a whole new engine.

I do think there is a flaming/trolling tone.  I don't think they sounded necessarily stupid though.

The point is the stickers that say "made in usa" don't mean that much.  I forgot the actual rule, but it depends on the a certain percentage of the invested cost in a final product.  In other words, a great deal of the product can be made somewhere else and still be labeled as made in the U.S.A. , as long as the final assembly or whatever is valued at the greatest percentage compared to the other components of the product.

B&S engines are made in China too. 

What matters is that Ariens put their name on the unit.  This means that they have at least some confidence in its success.

Ariens fan boys will see the original post as flaming. It's only normal for those who have an affection for a product (be it misguided or not) to resent anything that might possibly be construed as negative toward it. I'm certain that we all feel a little that way for brands of our preference. Nonetheless, I don't think the OP was outwardly bashing Ariens. On the other hand, if he/she are genuinely offended by the Chinese engine on an American built product, they're living a sheltered life. There are not too many things a person can buy these days without Chinese content. I'd be surprised if the LCT engine even has a "country of origin" sticker on it. I know that my Mitsubishi pressure washer engine doesn't and it's supposed to be from Japan. Yeah right! Japan via China. Same thing with my Champion engine on the generator. No mention of country of origin on it either. Although, the generator itself has a "Made in China" sticker on it. Not too long ago, I was ringing the alarm bell about the excessive amount of Chinese content in everything we buy. I was actually concerned about the well being of our manufacturing base. Considering how North American manufacturing in general have embraced Chinese productivity and cheap labour, I must conclude that my fears are unfounded.......

borat wrote:

Borat,

im curious what you mean by "my fears are unfounded"...

how is "North American manufacturing in general have embraced Chinese productivity and cheap labour" a *good* thing?

how is that good for the "well-being of our manufacturing base", when our manufacturing base is leaving..for China..

your comments seem to to contradict..

just curious..not trying to flame..just wondering what you mean..

thanks,

Scot

sscotsman wrote:

Tongue in cheek comment sscotsman. I do not condone the handing over of our manufacturing capabilities to a foreign country whatsoever. The point that I'm trying to make is that despite my outspoken disagreement with our country's dependence on a foreign country making all of our stuff, our manufacturers don't seem to mind it at all! One after the other they are sliding down the slippery slope to China. What's even more disconcerting, is that we're not even wise enough to spread the work around. We've pretty much handed the egg basket over to China. How many more years before they have us completely by the $#%*?

borat wrote:
oh good!
I was a bit confused, having read some of your comments from the last week or so..
I guess I havent been here long enough to pick up on the sarcasm! ;)

I agree with you 100%..

My wife worked for a big international company..
production went to Mexico and China..
her and 60,000 of her coworkers are out of a job..
those jobs will never come back..
she has found some temp work, but at half her previous salary..
our family income is down by 40%..and it will never go back to where it was..
my own job hangs by a thread..for these same reasons..

I refuse to buy anything at Walmart..I cant stand the place.

well..I dont want to get into a big debate..I was just confused by your post! ;)
thanks for clearing it up..
glad to see you havent slipped into complacency  yet..

Scot

yeah. Every once in a while, I have to vent. I've been commenting on "Chinese content" for years. Approx. twelve years ago, while opening Christmas presents, it became abundantly clear that even then, China had produced 80% of the gifts under our tree. I've been relentless in bringing this to light since then. It would appear however, most people do not share this concern, or if they do, they're pretty good at concealing it. Now, twelve years later, our manufacturing sector is even more at risk because with the flood of North American/Japanese/European "know-how" being supplied to China, be it legitimate or stolen, has elevated their productivity and quality to a level that is very difficult to ignore. Two years ago, I would go out of my way to avoid buying a Chinese built OPE engine because the build quality was inconsistent . Now, I have no qualms whatsoever. Their engines quality has improved that much. Being that some components in B&S engines are built in China, we have virtually no choice but to buy a foreign small engine, like it or not. You are correct in pointing out Walmart as being the catalyst that began the exodus of blue collar jobs out of our countries. They completely changed the way business had been conducted between manufacturing and retail. I like to refer to Walmart as the "Great Wall Mart".