Why is fortune auto coilovers the go to coils for so many Americans?

[strat61caster]

Originally Posted by DarkPira7e

Protip- my last comment is not to be interpreted as disparaging of any country in particular. Take it at face value please

[Tk rocket]

Originally Posted by NoHaveMSG

But, they are not JDM bro.

I mean, god forbid we judge parts based on where they are manufactured vs. if they actually work or perform well?

I mean it's not like parts from Japan don't have a great track record of mostly high quality and prestige

[NoHaveMSG]

Originally Posted by Tk rocket

I mean it's not like parts from Japan don't have a great track record of mostly high quality and prestige

Doesn't mean that excludes anything else either. If you want to pay for "high quality" and "prestige" go for it. I am going to buy the best bang for my buck and spend the extra on more track days.

[Andyxin]

I never quite understand that why some people care about where the stuff is made over the brand name. people say you shouldn’t buy stuff based on brand but many times brand name is the only thing you can rely on. There is a reason why amazon put the brand name not specs in the title of every item. My parents run a factory back in China for more than 15 years and they have been supplying machined parts to Hitachi Japan for its CNC machine recently. You won’t believe how rigorous those Japanese engineers are and the quality control is insane. Most importantly, HITACHI pays top dollars to us. I would confidently say that the part we have supplied to HITACHI are top level compared to parts that made in any other places. Same thing for the coilover. If fortune auto is a brand that really cares about their stuff, willing to pay good money to its suppliers and have a good control of them, where it is made shouldn’t stop you buying it.

[Tk rocket]

Originally Posted by NoHaveMSG

Doesn't mean that excludes anything else either. If you want to pay for "high quality" and "prestige" go for it. I am going to buy the best bang for my buck and spend the extra on more track days.

I have a problem where my pride of how i mod my car doesn't allow me to pick price over it. It's not a cost effective way to do it but it feel it's right to do all jdm parts (when possible) for a Japanese cars

99% of the time you can't go wrong with it. Companies based out of China or Taiwan another story

[EAGLE5]

No way to know if it's good or if it's bad until you run it hard over curbs on the track. Car suspension is like mattresses and audiophile gear. You really don't know what the fuck you're getting.

[NoHaveMSG]

Originally Posted by Tk rocket

I have a problem where my pride of how i mod my car doesn't allow me to pick price over it. It's not a cost effective way to do it but it feel it's right to do all jdm parts (when possible) for a Japanese cars

99% of the time you can't go wrong with it. Companies based out of China or Taiwan another story

But, Fortune is not based out of China or Taiwan. They are based here, have the parts manufactured overseas, and assemble stateside. A lot of the time the quality of an overseas part is not based on where it is made, it is based on the accepted tolerances and QC of the company that commissions it's build.

[J1Avs]

Originally Posted by NoHaveMSG

But, Fortune is not based out of China or Taiwan. They are based here, have the parts manufactured overseas, and assemble stateside. A lot of the time the quality of an overseas part is not based on where it is made, it is based on the accepted tolerances and QC of the company that commissions it's build.

Just a like this US-based company that has a weird bitten apple logo...going to tell me you won't buy one of their products because of that? Granted, I still love all-american made/produced products, but sometimes it's just not possible.

Side note -- isn't ACE, easily one of, if not THE, highest performing header for our platform designed and produced in Taiwan...not Japan? Just throwing that one out there. The next two highest performing seem to be the PTuning Race Header and JDL's new 4-2-1 - both fully designed and manufactured in small shops the good ole USofA.

[Tcoat]

Oh god I don't know where to start!


OK standby...

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by Tk rocket

I mean it's not like parts from Japan don't have a great track record of mostly high quality and prestige

Originally Posted by Tk rocket

I have a problem where my pride of how i mod my car doesn't allow me to pick price over it. It's not a cost effective way to do it but it feel it's right to do all jdm parts (when possible) for a Japanese cars

99% of the time you can't go wrong with it. Companies based out of China or Taiwan another story

First off let's address this repeated misuse of the term "JDM".
JDM does not mean made in Japan. It means made in Japan for use in Japan. Even then much of what they use in the domestic market is made someplace else and isn't even JDM in Japan much less anyplace else. Just because the parts are shipped from Japan does not mean they were made there or comply to the actual JDM requirements. Exported parts can be the same as JDM or they can be very different. Unless you are spending big bucks it is highly unlikely that you are using JDM parts. You are using export parts.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by Tk rocket

Work wheels usa
Ssr usa
Mackin industries (advan, volk, arc, project mu)
Cusco USA
Tein USA
Bride usa
Apexi usa
Blitz usa
Greddy usa
Tomei usa
Phase2motortrend
Sr20 store
Auto talent
Sp engineering
Top rank
Brembo
Stoptech
Dtm autobody
Super street

And a billion other independent shops

Now crappy ones
Megan racing
God speed/cx racing
Feal


I think you get the point on the car culture here that Virginia can't even hold a candle to here. If there was some place in that area I would think it's pretty big would be Florida

This list is meaningless since the majority of these places are headquartered in Japan or other countries (Brembo for example is an Italian company). So what if they have their USA "headquarters" in California when all they are doing is distributing products that could be made anyplace. Many of their products are made in Mexico, China, the Philippines and even India. Don't kid yourself that they are California based selling Japanese made products.
You really REALLY need to get out of the 20 mile or so radius you think reflects the world and the USA.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by NoHaveMSG

But, Fortune is not based out of China or Taiwan. They are based here, have the parts manufactured overseas, and assemble stateside. A lot of the time the quality of an overseas part is not based on where it is made, it is based on the accepted tolerances and QC of the company that commissions it's build.

This ^
I am not going into my normal 5 paragraph dissertation on the subject but in the current world market it does not matter where a part is made but what where the customer requirements of the product. The things that made Japan the manufacturing leader a few decades ago have been adopted by companies world wide.
Made in Japan once meant it was cheap crap compared to made in USA. Then Japan cleaned up their act and it meant "better" than some made in USA" Now it means "Made about the same" as anyplace else that follows the same standards. They lost their lead 20 years ago. Only the "JDM YO" fanboys believe that Made in Japan means far superior quality anymore.
There are very few parts manufacturers left anymore. The majority of the actual parts are made by a handful of places and assembled by the companies that put their name on them. Ultimately it comes down to the question of what quality did that assembly company order and how well did they put it together.

[Summerwolf]

There are a ton of performance oriented shops on the east coast and even the midwest.

Ugr, Tsp, Ams, the list is endless of quality parts / shops being produced outside of california..... no reason to necessarily go to california for anything.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by Tk rocket

I have not but let's be realistic here. It's not even a comparison some place in the South compared to California when it comes to import car culture in sheer size when it comes to enthusiasts , amount of shops, Major after market Brands headquarters here and so forth

Sure there are more "enthusiasts" in California but that is just sheer weight of population. There are also more grocery store, coffee shops, old junkers on the road, etc, etc. Hard to put numbers to it since anybody that changes a shift knob can claim to be an "enthusiast" but I would be willing to bet that per capita (look it up) the car culture and shops in Toronto (look it up again) meets or exceeds that of California. Where the USA "headquarters" is doesn't mean that is where the only or even the most of the sales are. You have a very small world view.