My wife drives a 1992 Dodge Dakota pick-up truck. We purchased it from the second owner, who bought it with about 80k on the clock. The original owner stopped driving it and it sat in a garage for a good amount of time. The lady we bought it from did the basic maintenance necessary to get it in running and driving order, then, went on a massive road trip around the United States. We bought it when she came back home and didn’t need it anymore; Alder, which is what she named him, had fulfilled his objective.
Like any vehicle back from a six-month long road trip, some work was necessary to bring him back to an adequate state of daily drivability. 

One of the most pressing tasks was to change the brake pads, rotors, and wheel bearings. Which I did, a year ago now.
Unfortunately, I had to do it again last week. And by doing so, I have learnt, apparently only recently, that cheap parts are cheap for a reason. 

The irony in this is that for the past couple of years I’ve worked for Marriott Vacation Club as a Sales Executive. What we sell is expensive, and we often hear from people that are in the market for vacation ownership that they can find cheaper elsewhere. But it doesn’t take much time for them to understand that Marriott costs more than most brands because we offer a consistency of quality and service that you can’t get if you don’t spend Marriott money.
And, of course, the same principle applies for car parts. However, I don’t practice what I preach, it seems.
I bought Duralast wheel bearings and brake rotors last year as they were about 25% cheaper than the other options. Duralast is a brand owned by AutoZone. Instead of asking myself why Duralast was so cheap, I simply thought I was getting a great deal. Unfortunately, that was not the case, the outer wheel bearing self-destructed, and the driver side rotor was so warped it looked more like a Pringle than a rotor. And all this happened only one year after being installed… 
So I was back in the garage, fixing what I thought I had already fixed. Looking at the new parts on the floor I suddenly realised: In my attempt to save a hundred bucks by buying the cheapest parts, I ended up spending a hundred extra than buying the expensive ones the first time around… 

There are two morals to this story. 
One: practice what you preach. I tell people every day that expensive things are expensive for a reason, and it’s up to you to decide if you feel worthy enough, or deserving enough, to splash out a little extra money to get the nicer thing. Yet, I didn’t hesitate to cheap out on parts that are pretty important to my wife’s safety. Because, as a reminder, this truck is my wife’s daily driver, so she’s the one that will crash and die if parts like the brakes and/or the wheel bearings were to fail while doing 70mph on the highway.

Moral number two: don’t cheap out. I’m not saying buy the most expensive thing every time. But it’s probably best to avoid buying the cheapest version. Like I said in the paragraph above, it will cost you more money on the long to do so, but it might also cost you your safety or even your life… Not worth it. 

The worst part in this, I think, is that I had the money to buy the better-quality parts last year. It wasn’t going to ruin me. I’m just cheap. I like saving money, and doing so is clearly a priority for me. But I’ve been trying, or working on, allowing myself to spend money on things that are important without cutting all corners. I’ll cut some, of course, but I’m trying to find a good balance between quality and price. I suggest you do the same if you’re not already.

Max,