I'm sitting here laughing. It's probably a function of being around a long time and having a decent memory.
I remember well one distributor back in the 60s SK exclusively since they opened the doors having to bring in lower cost wrenches and tools to retain volume and keep from pissing customers off cause SK cost went through the roof. They brought in Bonney. Odd thing happened when the SK rep came in a couple months later, he made a call and that distributor was eligible for all kinds of rebates and coupons they could issue to good customers. SK sales continued to drop off in that house.
In the 80s another distributor decided to invest a boatload of cash and take on the Proto line. Their salesmen pounded the routes carrying Proto, and prices were reasonable, for a while. They sold a couple trailer loads of Proto, and were a valued house according to the plaques on the wall. Then Proto decided to screw the goose laying golden eggs, prices went up and tools that the distributor had replaced under warranty didn't meet Proto's standards for warranty replacement to the distributor. A few months later that house sold off all their Proto product and went back to their core business. No more tools, too many problems and crap return on invested money.
I think I may have warrantied up to a dozen tools in my life, generally they can't be found after breaking and getting thrown, or they get stolen before they break. I still have and use the Wright 1/2" socket set I bought in 1963, in a tin box with a plastic hunk of crap interior. I bought it from an industrial distributor for about 22 1963 dollars, probably over $100- in 2010 dollars, and to my surprise the rubber handle on the ratchet is still good, rotated 90ø on the handle but still in place and still functional.
I also have the 19?? 3/8 set of ratchet and a handfull of sockets on a shoelace Herb gave me when I left. They still work too. One of the sockets did split after only 50 years of service, but I figured it had a right to because I was overpulling on it.
I've broken a lot of tools over they years, some of them damn expensive. Generally my experience has been smaller manufacturers bust ass to make it right, warranty or not, while large manufacturers don't give a damn. Evidently the big guys operate on the ITW 80/20 concept.
I don't much like the pricing of truck dealers tools. I've seen too many of those bastards lined up at the counter at the distributor playing on taking advantage of their customer long before they carried phones and showed up when called. I've also known a few personally, and have a pretty good handle on how that business functions.
US made really doesn't mean much any more, the government standard for that label is low, and I doubt if anyone is chrome plating in this country any more thanks to EPA. Union "workers" have screwed themselves. What we are seeing today in a broad spectrum of manufacturing in the US is near a repeat of the US auto manufacturing business screwing itself in the 60s. Set the beer down and realize the rest of the world is catching up. Your US tax dollar has been going off shore to help them build capability since 1980 that I know of. I've ridden in a Hyundai made in Alabama, and it's a damn good car. far better than many US labels I see. I know people who only drove GM for 40+ years who now drive Hyundais because they will be damned if they drop a bucket of money into a GM worker's pocket or a retiree from GM either.
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