Jk's policy discourse on quality of parts.

Found on the insert to the latest JK catalogue just mailed out. For those who made contributions to the thread last year this will make interesting reading and I believe cause for hope....cogent, logical and dusted off with a just a little bit of marketing sparklies. The idea of as they call them " preservation parts" goes a long way to addressing the trade gripe of customers expecting top quality items but at rock bottom prices.
Seems sense to me beef up quality in general but offer a range for those looking for the long term and prepared to pay more for it.

 

from looking at the uk made parts they are currently making they are starting to succeed! obviously there are still things that need improving, but there always be! lets hope this is a trend to be followed by all

 

The dreaded braided fuel hose gets a mention too. The replacement hose will be from Codan as recommended by members of the TLB

 

Nice to see JK listening to the people.

 

It's also nice to see our efforts being noticed and appreciated

The Codan fuel hoses are in stock now, by the way

Josh

 

I am glad they addressing it too. I have had some not so great quality stuff most of the big mail order companies at some point,but I really do think they try their best as it really is their best interests and most of em are genuine Vw heads anyway. but it is frustrating when the stuff you are taking off which has been on poss 40 years is better than the hard bit of rubber you are trying to replace it with. I mentioned before in another thread replacement ball joint covers, not by JK buy the way..very poor, don't even resemble a ball joint cover, not the ones which actually come with a full ball joint. we have all been there at some point with stuff. don't get me wrong 95% is good stuff . Fair play JK...hey that rhymes.

 

I hear you on the ball joint covers. We fitted some to a bus in August. Guess what it failed its MOT on this month. I was mortified to say the least. And very embarrassed the supplying company said the rubber part was not guaranteed so we replaced them FOC. Note to self: write down product names of bits used.

Don't worry Josh, These were not from JK.

It's a problem the industry is having. As now that it's growing, we as owners are becoming wiser and talking on the www and companies are FINALLY having to up their game. VWH have always been one step ahead, C&C have always been anything but honest and everyone else is finally catching up. What is quite nice is that JK are publicly trying to put things right.

There are reasons why I suppose they have been the brunt of all the jokes but one I can assume is that they were always quick at sending stuff out and their prices were right.

However market confidence can be very damaged. Lets hope Josh and the JK team can turn it around with better parts but with better quality comes increases in prices. Remember though that you get what you pay for.

 

If that appears in any future marketing material from JK, it's just a coincidence

 

Lets be honest like other areas of the Classic Car market, the VW aircooled scene although generally still seen to be reasonably priced for spares etc , you can see once values of the vehicles rise,(Vans for sure, not so much Beetles anymore), prices of parts will also rise and there will be a more defined 2 tier system - best quality and cheap qulity. So M&S and Poundshop ! Some things you dont care they are not the best as they will be throw away items others you want the damn thing to last!

My concern, some parts badged as best quality and priced as such, are still in my view not best quality at all, including UK made!
For example I purchased a UK made sliding door cover sill, not cheap, yet I still need to smooth out the spot welds on it before I can even think about primering it? Pretty sure the VW ones didn't?
UK made Stainless tail pipe section, surely made by a trainee who does not give a damn as far as I can see! Why have just the end 2 inches nicely polished and the rest looking like a wrinkled p@##$!
I think everything now is made to cost and not quality full stop! Even the decent stuff is still made to cost, because we have become so good at doing it.
It is good that we still have access to parts for these old tubs and companies willing to do it however they are not charities and should the market dive they will switch to something else.
Bottom line if we refuse to buy the cheap rubbish that does not last they wont stock it.

 

See i don`t think it helps them at all .... I read it as the `presevation` stuff is fit for purpose ,so all the other stuff is poor quality tat that must be avoided at all costs as its rubbish and doesn`t fit ..... Why any of the parts suppliers still sell inferior tat is beond me ?

Cv boots ... if you go to Audi for your daily you may pay £20 but it lasts ..if you pay -£5 for a pattern part do you think it will last ?

When it all goes tits up in China and UK manufacturing makes a come back hopefully things will improve ...( no one mention the Alegro) ..

 

Hi lhu1281,

Let me try and clear things up a bit for you

Preservation Parts has been set up to sell the absolute best of the best quality parts available anywhere in the world in one place.
Mark Reynolds, JK's founder, as spent months traveling around the world visiting manufactures and suppliers and has put together a collection of absolutely amazing quality parts, which will all be available through Preservation Parts.

We've also run a thorough and complete sweep through our entire range and have improved the quality on a load of parts, while simply cutting others out of the range entirely if they're not up to scratch. Many of these changes were as a direct result of suggestions made by Late Bay forum members, which we're really grateful for

We've brought a lot of manufacturing back in to the UK over the last few years, and are planning on making as much here as possible.
It's much easier for us to control the quality of the products being supplied if we can just drive over to the supplier and speak with them, rather than having to fly half way across the planet, and a lot of our T2 and T25 panels are made about 100m from where I'm sat right now.

We know there have been issues in the past with quality - just like there have been with all suppliers of classic VW parts - but we've taken some massive steps towards correcting this, and have a clear and actionable plan on how to do the rest of the work, so we'll get there soon enough, I'm sure.

Preservation Parts is just another branch of JK that's selling absolutely tip top quality parts on top of our 'normal' JK range, which has undergone massive and ongoing improvements recently, so if you've got any concerns about specific products just let us know - we can't do anything about it without being told, and we don't always see forum posts and topics about quality concerns, so it's always best to come to us directly with any quality worries you might have

I hope that helps a little
Josh

 

See i don`t get it ! EVERYthing you sell should be top quality best you can get parts and if its not then don`t sell it !

I`m sure its not just me that will read this as `Presevation `Parts good Rest = rubbish that don`t fit

Not singling out JK i know you get a fair bit of stick but other suppliers do it e.g `German `Quality ....

Would you go to a BMW ,VW , AUDI, dealer and say `i don`t want your best quality part i`ll take the `not so ,may not fit part `?

Perhaps its just me having a Friday rant , and only my opinion

Does JK want to buy any Preservation German Quality overrider impact strips ?

 

Its not often i defend Jk but

You have to remember how its all changed, it was only a few years ago that you could pick up a van for scrap money and you were just interested in keeping it on the road as cheep as you could.

Now the vans have gone up in value people are demanding parts to be better and the suppliers have taken a time to respond Jk being one of them.

I think where JK has gone wrong is as the market grew they grew too quickly and went form being a specialist interested supplier in a small market to a large company just selling boxes for a wide market.

Now there is competition and the market has stabilised, i welcome their interest in making and sourcing parts to suit the market.

I have never had issues with the poor parts only when they are pushed and sold as good parts its the same as any other product
A BMW part will fit easier and last longer than a much cheaper patten part from china but if its sold as being as good and its not. that's the problem.

 

Parts do need to be better and not just from jk I brought new rear drums to now find out there thicker than the normal ones and the only thing I can do is mill them down as my wheel nuts won't go all the way on !
Things need to be looked at closely as there just making them fast to fill Demand

 

Matty makes a good point. Plenty of folk years ago just wanted to patch their vans up and weren't willing to pay for quality parts, so...that's what suppliers sold. Situation's probably different now, where these vehicles have become "classics", with the associated (rather absurd) rise in prices.

Companies will continue to sell tat if people keep buying it.

 

People still shop by price which is easy on the internet. If one supplier sells crap they all have to, or they look expensive and loose lots of business to the crap seller's shop. If you can take that on board you have to accept that JK have to sell crap.

So now they have good stuff too. Let's see. If the front or rear tub/belt fixing panels are anything to go by, having them made locally has made them too small. They were better a few years ago. Perhaps they've changed again by now, I did have a good moan at Josh and Shaun a while back.

 

Well I just ordered a part from JK and have to admit im abit peeved about delivery. It was always next day delivery so I ordered early Thurs morning and had a choice of free delivery or interlink express for a cost. I choose to pay for express expecting it Friday. It didnt turn up and when I phoned I was then told it would be Monday. Whats the point in paying for express when it isnt express?

Should also add that the order no on the email was also wrong and related to some other persons order and the tracking no for courier doesnt work.

 

I have already fallen foul of this and not by JK, but another well known company, I ordered a left hand mirror and the joint was welded on up side,down however I have had to provide two lots of pictures............have only supplied one ...........thing is mistakes are made however this is my first purchase and it has taken three emails , taking pictures and over a week to sort it out for a simple £18 mirror........sorry attempt to sort it out ............grumble .....winge and not a good start to our Ollie restro .................

 

One thing I hate about all parts suppliers is they don' t list the make of said parts ,

JK have always been great for delivery every time I have used them ... They can't always control Royal Mail or other courier

 

It's an unfortunate fact that that's exactly how it works in so many cases.
It's about being able to cater for everyone, there are still a lot of people out there who just want to keep their bus going, just like there are a lot of people who only want top notch parts for their fully restored bus.

Really sorry to hear about that, Jaspervan - it's concerning and puzzling, especially if you've somehow been given the wrong tracking number.
Were you given the correct tracking number when you called?
I would certainly hope that your order does arrive with you today, but if it hasn't arrived by this afternoon just give us a call and we'll get on to Interlink and chase it up for you.

I think the difference there is that if you go to a BMW, VW or Audi dealer and ask for parts, you're probably not buying for a vehicle that's as old as the ones we're supplying parts for.
In the majority cases the parts aren't in production from the original manufacturers and so JK, like all suppliers, has to find the parts where ever they can. For more and more products we're tooling up and producing the parts ourselves, but for the moment this just isn't possible for all of the parts that we stock, and so we're basically forced to offer what's available out there.
As other people have mentioned though, things are certainly improving, and that's a really encouraging thought for all of us

Josh