[cubicle67]

(australian here)

counter-point first: I've heard good things about Sears stuff, but it's not available here

I've never considered American manufacturing to be high quality or premium. My experience is mostly based on American cars - which tend to have appalling build quality and reliability - and a few "made in America" bits I have, all of which are pretty average.

I tend to associate American manufacturing with things like welding huge bits of iron together. durability? sure. attention to detail and care? not so much

[yardie]

American here. Most of American things of quality you wouldn't be able to buy in a consumer version. You can tell the quality of a product by the warranty that is assigned to it. For example most of the Sears Kenmore stuff have something like 10 year warranties. The Craftsman tools have a lifetime warranty.

Most of the American bits never really leave the US because logistics cost the same everywhere. A big heavy washing machine from china loses its cost advantage once shipping and duties are added to the price. A high-end laptop has most of the price in labor and parts. Shipping costs next to nothing for it.

American cars haven't really impressed me. For a while I also questionned the quality; why settle for something with a 3 year warranty when the japanese and koreans have 7 and 10 years. I believe the American car makers have learned a lot about this after getting trounced in the market. They have been extending there warranties and covering parts that weren't covered before.

But it's not until you get into the really high-tech stuff that American builds even show up. Like 7-10 layer circuit boards, aerospace equipment, military hardware, and extreme environment hardware. To put it another way, the Americans, Japanese, and Germans sell the equipment to China to build the stuff they sell.