I just ordered a Motorcraft Water Pump for my '67. It has a early 90s 302 in it, so its a more modern pump. I was disappointed to see the sticker on teh pump stating it was made in China (arghh). I realize China can make quality products, but just like other 2nd or 3rd world nations - it takes Oversight. My only hope is since the Lincoln Corsair is made in China - I hope like hell they make quality products. My concern is that this short block was put in my car a mere 3 years ago and I’m confident that I put a new pump on it at that time (and I would have put a Motorcraft in!).
I buy a lot of OEM ford parts from current model year to 15-20yr old vehicles and majority are not made here. For the most part the OEM part is always the better choice however once a vehicle is past a certain age it can be difficult finding one. Parts start dropping off the books after about 10years for most vehicle lines unless it’s a commonly sold part. Even then on some Older stuff we have seen multiple parts failures with new parts, maybe the tooling is at end of life or the parts to built it become scarce to build the part who knows. The 6.0 diesel injection pumps, injectors and turbos come to mind where aftermarket is the better choice over OEM. The last production engine was about 15-16yrs ago now.
also motorcraft is not technically OEM either. It’s the service replacements and its goal is to compete with the aftermarket parts options. While its quality is most likely better then other options its not always the case.
I realized Motorcraft was not Ford per se, however I always assumed it was a spin-off company, owned and/or tightly affiliated with Ford. This is not a Joe Blow white box merchant where you take quite the chance - for stuff like this if pricing is not dramatically different I try and go OEM (with the Caveat I just stated regarding my perception of Motorcraft).
So, yes, apparently I was naive, however I thought if others out there may possibly have the same perception as I so I posted.
Yes, I believe Motorcraft has been Ford owned since 1972 when an antitrust ruling forced Ford to sell their interests in Autolite to Bendix. Bendix also purchased Fram, and then AlliedSignal bought Bendix before being combined with Honeywell taking their name. Honeywell later sold Autolite and Fram, and I believe their new parent company recently went bankrupt. I watched AlliedSignal slowly destroy the company I worked for (King Radio) over those years too. I’m glad Motorcraft has fared better over the years under Ford.