The problem is also one of cost. Lower income car guys are always looking for the biggest bang for the buck, and so they buy cheaper parts sometimes. I prefer not to when at all possible, because I have been bitten by cheap Chinese stuff before. I bought a set of Proform rockers as a cheap upgrade in my 355, and they failed in spectacular fashion within 20k miles. I have since replaced them with a set from Comp Cams and there is a huge difference. Another popular Chinese company is Professional Products. When they started making intakes, they were OBVIOUS rip-offs of Edelbrock designs. They were much cheaper too. Unfortunately, they were of a much lesser quality than the genuine article. You got what you paid for. I am not a total isolationist when it comes to this stuff. I do on occasion buy cheap stuff to just get by. Mostly though, I try not to on my Cutlass. A Chinese knock-off cold air intake or speakers were fine for my beater Sentra, but I would not put that sort of crap on a car I care about.
I will also say that the American made speed parts industry has not always made good quality stuff. There have been many companies in the past which made low quality merchandise at a low price to make a quick buck. They paid off the magazines with advertising in order to get the writers to shill their products. You do have to know what you are doing, and understand the subject in order to get the most for your money. A well-engineered product may look no different than a cheaper knock off to the untrained eye, but the knockoff could be far more costly in the long run when it breaks something. For example,Chinese imitation turbos are known to come apart because of inferior materials and machine work. The bearings are brass, not inconel, and they can't handle the stress and seize the turbo. When they do, they take the engine with them.
As for well-designed products, for my money Edelbrock seems to be one of the best. Their parts have nice castings and come very complete with everything needed for an installation, including instruction manuals and tuning guides. I have never had an issue with any Edelbrock product that I bought new. I can't say the same for Hooker (or MSD), as the AMC Super Comp headers I bought from them came with the wrong gaskets, and required a lot of running around to find parts. They also hit the 727 trans's case in one spot and overheat the transmission. For a $500 set of headers, they should be better than that. The Edelbrock headers on the Cutlass were a much better product, and came with every little thing needed to put them on.
MSD products used to be fairly good, but for the money, they could be better. They are quite expensive because of their name, but the end product could be much better if they changed some details. There is NO REASON the 6AL should not come potted, and no reason it should not use dip switches or pots to change the rev limiter point. Who wants to mount an ignition box inside the car? And if you do on a street car, where do you put it that it is out of sight and yet still gives you access to the silly pills for the rev limiter that always burn out at the wrong time? I'm sorry, but I really don't want to worry about someone kicking the wiring to death on a $200+ ignition box. I was going to go with an MSD HEI for the 355, but I may try to find a better alternative.
