Canine said:Smitty, I have to agree with you. "Made in America" is misleading when the product in question has some parts made elsewhere. I don't see how stating that fact is some kind of Quixote quest. I find value in keeping my dollars close to home. I like making informed decisions on where my dollars are going, whether directly or indirectly. Not that it makes a reasonable difference, but at least I can go to bed knowing that I did my part.
Making a metal detector with entirely American made parts may not be a possibility now; if it is, I imagine it would be cost prohibitive. At least Garrett and others are still keeping a good portion of their production in-house, and manufacturers should state as much.
lol, I'm not concerned, you see when others can't offer anything constructive, they just go on the defensive and lash-out when someone calls a spade a spade. I agree, I mean in the current economic times, the more money that stays here (the US) the better....though I have no doubt that statement will make me some sort of commie racist. I'm not married to any of these brands of detectors, don't have the hats, shirts, and matching socks to prove my brand loyalty.
But "why" can't they be 100% manufactured and assembled here? I mean it's a few bucks worth of parts, not like an automobile. It's not for lack of know-how, and I'm sure there's probably at least a few manufacturers here who could produce them. I mean someone recently mentioned Garrett could sell the AT PRO for $1000

I'm still waiting for Steve to show me where Tesoro says their detectors are "Made in America", and I will apologize right here for my inability to find it stated anywhere myself (I looked). I would also publicly condemn them (Tesoro) if they in fact use overseas parts. Regardless of what anyone tries to twist my posts into, I'm not biased against Garrett (look at my sig), I'm biased against ANY company who would do this for the sake of money.
There are a couple on this board who I have no doubt others look to for input. I suppose a beginner might just take their advice as gospel. Just like all this AT hype when they haven't a clue as to how that detector will do seeing as how they've never even held one. Heck, I'd think as a "field tester" they'd get detectors ahead of the rest of us, but I had my 350 before the "field testers". Perhaps they simply shouldn't state opinion as fact because there ARE people out there who won't bother to check, and there's no worse thing to have than a customer who's felt he's been mislead or deceived.
Smitty