WalMart sells Motorcraft and AC Delco oil filters. Are these filters
100% the same quality as a Ford or GM dealer would install? Of does Motorcraft and AC Delco have a lower quality oil filter made for WalMart?
The reason I ask is that a Goodyear dealer said that a Goodyear tire at WalMart is not the same as he sells. He says that a Goodyear tire sold at WalMart is made to lower standards. A Michelin tire dealer says he cannot price match a WalMart Michelin tire because its a cheaper lower quality tire.
The Motorcraft and Delco filters are made by a thrid party under a Ford or GM license that specifies the construction of each filter part number. They are the same filters you will get off the parts shelf at your local Ford or GM dealer.
As far as the tires go, they will also be exactly the same if they are the same tire line. Goodyear and Michelin have no use for a poor product out there with their name along with the same designation. If the tires are different, there will be some identifier in their line designation. Most tire manufacturers including GY and Mich manufacturer many different brands of tire to be sold under different private labels. The DOT numbers on the tires can be translated into tire manufacturer, plant location and date of manufacture. Those codes are on the web for your review if there is any question about who manufactured a particular tire.
Your dealers are telling you this to inply his tires are of better quality and therefore worth the extra bucks he is going to charge you. I have even had a GY dealer tell me his tires were of better quality than the GY tires I had been quoted by another GY store. It's just a sales pitch. Make sure you are comparing exactly the same tire lines. There may only be a small difference in the designation with a huge difference in tires. Just a name game.
Sort of true. If it is marked Michelin, then it is technically a Michelin, BUT ........... I checked out some Michelins sold by Walmart using surveys provided by the users of some of these tires. I was pretty dismayed at the pitiful performance and durability of some of the tires. I asked a Discount Tire manager about these and his answer was that Walmart probably had "house brands", or tires that were made for them by Michelin.. Discount Tire has them too. These tires may or may not be items you want to invest in.
Dont assume your Walmart Michelin is going to give you 70000 mile tire life. But there are Michelins out there that will probably deliver this.
compare the serial #'s of the tires from Walmart & Goodyear on the same tire. The #'s are different. They make tires for specific companies, and the quality suffers. Bottom line is you get what you pay for.
I know that luggage sold at Wal-mart is of lower quality than the same brands sold at department stores, which in turn is of lower quality than the same brands sold at luggage specialty stores. OTOH it seems that major brand name tires at Wal-mart differ only in cosmetic details so that manufacturers can charge other retailers much higher prices for essentially the same tires.
I once found some Motorcraft oil at Wal-mart that had no API starburst certification mark or rating at all, and Wal-mart sort of went into a panic when I phoned them about it. OTOH they didn't care at all when I told them about a no-name, non-UL approved (ETL approved) drip coffee maker that rusted through just after the warranty ended and leaked water onto exposed electrical connections. The moron just didn't understand the scope of the hazard. I complained to the Consumer Product Safety Commission but never heard any more.
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