Originally Posted By: MC5W20
Originally Posted By: NHHEMI
Originally Posted By: MC5W20
I'll address a few issues here from the above posts.
Champion is owned by Federal Mogul = Felpro, Wagner brakes, Moog
Autolite is Allied Signal = Fram, Bendix, Prestone
I am using Champion in my Ranger. I want to try something new and see if I can tell a difference. I am leaning towards NGK. I will probably use Motorcraft in the Explorer and haven't decided yet for the Freestar, since the Freestar is a huge pain to change I may go iridium.
I found the Denso website and they had some really good info on their, I recommend it if your hunting for basic info. My memory hasn't served me well. As I had heat range and spark plug gap backwards until I read the Denso site info.
As far as 99gt issues. I believe he got correct plug. His failure was probably a quality issue specific to that style of plug. The ground electrodes on those are not as robust as they are on convetional plugs.
The parent company of a parts brand is not always releveant. Parts brands get sold and traded around like banks. Just because a company owns Fram and brand XXX does not mean brand XXX will be poor like Fram. And the same applies to whatever company owns Champion and brand XXX if you consider brand XXX a premium product.
I do believe the parent company of a brand is always relevant. The part brand name can be put on other products that the parent company doesn't even make, yes, but the turnover rate for the sale of such companies is actually quite low, to be measured in only a few every several years. I never tried to imply that because the "perception" that Fram is lower quality means that all of the products that company makes are also poor quality. I am just stating the facts about who makes what, as it was clear from other posts some don't know this info.
Each individual plant that manufactures a product controls their own quality. Now, what you must understand, how the parent company ties in, is that they control the management at the factories, they control the capitol expenditures, the technology research, and most other resources they need to manufacture there products. So to think a parent compnay is irrevelant is not to understand how a company operates on a daily basis. So in short part of what you say is true, just don't be fooled into rash generalizations that you think should be the case in some perfect world that don't exist.
I sold auto parts for years( not anymore but I did ). I saw a lot of brands being traded around like credit card companies and banks. You had part brand XXX that may have been owned by 2-3 different parent companies in a 5 year span. I never saw the quality of the part change nor was there really a tie in between part quality and the parent company. Just was not an issue with auto parts and that is what we are discussing( not general business ).
It is a lot like credit cards and bank constantly being sold. You as the consumer seldom notice any difference. A small change here or there may be observed but overall the parts brand name represents a standard the doesn't really change much regardless of what conglomerate(sp?)owns the brand company at the time.
Feel free to disagree just relating my experiences. It matters not to me that Allied Signal owns both Fram and Autolite. I know the parent company, in regards to auto parts, is almost a non factor. I know through actual experience Fram is poor quality and Autolite plugs are decent quality regardless of the parent company that owns them. They are 2 totally different levels of part quality wise. The same applies to Champion and the other brands mentioned being owned by Federal Mogul. All 3 of those brands make excellent parts yet Champion plugs still flat out stink!
Parent company in auto parts generally means squat when you are talking one big company owning a bunch of established brands. The fastest way for that parent company to lose money on the purchase of brand XXX is to screw around with the quality of the part( unless it is raised )which is what made it popular and a good investment to begin with.