Dad, many years back, said to always use Moog for ball joints, tie rod ends, and the like. I replaced all the ball joints in my 2002 Ranger back in 2019. Now while in the shop having the A/C recharged, the shop tells me the boots have come apart on the upper ball joints and ought soon to be replaced. I was surprised to hear this and said I'd replaced those just a few years back with Moog units. Same guy tells me that Moog quality has deteriorated and NAPA Gold was now the brand to use. Anyone else know this? I looked under the Ranger today and see that the upper ball joint boots are perfect! Checking my records I see t hat those ball joints have been in there all of 7,000 miles! Good gawd, has the one decent shop in town now gone to crap? They have gotten rather pricey, now run three garages, and no longer let me wander around the shop.
Welcome to the high pressure sales pitch world. That crap starts often when a business becomes a chain store. Follow the money to see who get's the kickback from dealing only with one supplier. I know zero about NAPA suspension parts quality, still satisfied with MOOG. Frustrating to find China on the NAPA label parts country of origin.
Shortly after buying my Ranchero, I talked to the old-school alignment guy next door to our sign shop. He had cutaways of MOOG ball joints and cheap competitors. The MOOGs had a full metal ball in the outer case; the cheapies had about a half, with some nylon spacers. So I rebuilt my suspension with all MOOG parts, with absolutely no issues after 54,000 miles in 7 years:
As far as wandering around the shop I agree with the shop being an owner of one myself we always escort customers to look at and address their concerns, it is an insurance issue and also for the safety of my family that I call my employees. Two ways to get fired on the spot in my shop is trying to sell something that is not needed, advise and show to let them make the decision, the other is hitting on a female customer.
I do hope that Moog is still a good choice. Doing the front end of 65 Mustang for a friend and based on the recommendations here, ordered as many Moog parts possible for the job.
For a long time, Moog was considered to be a good choice for replacement suspension parts. More recently, in the pickup truck world, Moog has become known for broken Pitman Arm joints. I know for sure this applies to 2500 HD Silverado trucks of the early 2000's. Personally, I believe it's the weak link in the steering linkage and it's amplified by running bigger tires. I have a whole Moog front end kit for either my Rancher or Mustang and still plan on using it.
I am working my way thru the front end rebuild on the 65 Mustang. The Moog parts I have look to be good, I have upper and lower arms with bushing and ball joints, strut rod bushings, tie rod ends. The exception to this is sway bar links. The first one was fine, fit and looked like OE stuff. I did not order 2 sets thinking what I bought would do both sides and reordered another with the same part number. Instead of the black rubber bushings in the first kit and OE on the car, the new Moog kit came with the same or similar hardware and white plastic/Nylon? bushings. Can only guess they would work the same, but visually are very out of place on this old Mustang. A little reminder to check your parts either at the store or when the parts arrive, before your start working on your cars. It's one of the little things that will bite you on the butt.