Originally Posted by
Bob-Stormer
I'd be really curious to know if say the one capacitor, or some miniature component that NOVAK used (that cost them the Made in the USA logo) is even made by ANY company in the USA?
As someone in the electronics industry, I'd be shocked if there was an electronic component in a Novak speed control that was actually made in the USA. Virtually all electronic components come from overseas, and in a product like a speed control, the bill-of-material costs are probably about half of Novak's selling price (to distributors, that is). If anything in an ESC (from anyone - I'm not picking on Novak here) comes from the US, it's probably minor components such as heatsinks, plastic enclosures, etc.
Do I respect Novak for assembling their products in the US? Damn straight. Do I think they reserved to be financially punished for the claims they made? No, but those claims weren't accurate per my intepretation of the FTC rules.
*sigh* What positive end result will this have?
Frankly, as someone whose job depends on US manufacturing, I would like to see fairness and accuracy in claims of origin. If indeed the majority of the components that went into my three Losi cars didn't come from the US, then I do feel a bit deceived, because that "Made in USA" label on the box did influence my purchase. I also don't think that class-action lawsuits that primarily benefit the lawyers are the right way to fix these issues.