People who love cars buy a lot of after-market parts for those cars. And many of those people want parts that are made in the United States—for both quality and patriotic reasons. Here are three companies in the auto world who walk the talk and make all their parts in the USA.
Weathertech
Weathertech is best known for its high-tech car mats that are able to trap almost anything, from sand to coffee, and keep it from getting into your car’s carpeting. With its corporate headquarters and manufacturing facility located in Bollingbrook, Illinois, Weathertech boasts that everything from order fulfillment to marketing to manufacturing and shipping happens at that facility. From its initial beginnings in the late 1980s, it has expanded its distribution to more than 84 countries around the world.
CEO David MacNeil attributes the success of Weathertech to producing a product that is high quality and home grown. But it’s more than that: MacNeil treats his workers well, too: he pays more than the average salary for workers in the industry.
Edelbrock
This company, famous in the hot-rod world, makes specialized high-performance parts like exhaust manifolds for racing cars. But it also makes carburetors, camshaft kits, valve train parts, exhaust systems, engine accessories, fuel system parts, cylinder heads, and more. The company has six locations: three in Torrance, California; two in San Jacinto, California; and one in Sanford, North Carolina. Edelbrock also has its own aluminum sand-casting foundries and a permanent mold and heat treat facility.
“This investment in American facilities is part of our commitment to ‘Made in USA’ products and performance,” Edelbrock’s website reads.
Founded by Vic Edelbrock, who left school at age 14 to help his family and found that he had a great mechanical talent, the company began as a repair shop in Beverly Hills in the 1930s. Edelbrock is now led by Steve Rogers.
Snap-on Incorporated
Headquartered in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Snap-on is best known for producing tools, equipment, diagnostic machinery, and repair information for mechanics and other professional users. However, it also supplies equipment and other solutions for aviation and aerospace, agriculture, construction, mining, power generation, and technical education, to name just a few of the industries the company is involved in.
The company was founded in 1920 by Joseph Johnson and William Seidmann as the Snap-on Wrench Company. It was the first to offer what we now know as socket wrenches. It manufactured 10 sockets that would “snap on” to five interchangeable handles. Today, Snap-on is a $3.4 billion, S&P 500 company headed by Nicholas T. Pinchuk, CEO and Chairman of the Board, with global distribution of its many made-in-the-USA products.
