It all depends on your budget and your use. My philosophy as an amateur
is to buy mostly cheap tools and replace them if they break. Frankly,
the only tools I've broken have been Craftsman and Snap-on. The free
replacements are nice, but unless you are a professional who relies on
his tools to make a living (you don't want that tool to break when your
customer is coming in 15 minutes to pick up his car) then I think Harbor
Freight's products are great, in fact they are a real boon to the
amateur.
Also, Snap-on tools are high quality, but their marketing is through
independent distributors who finance their customers interest free, and
this is built into the price. When you buy a Snap-on tool outright, you
are paying a premium to cover someone else's financing.
A portion of the name brand tool's price is for marketing, and Harbor
Freight's marketing costs are pretty low. Although they must spend a
ton on the catalogs I get every month!
I do, however, have a small collection of specialty tools from Snap-on
that I couldn't find anywhere else.
--
Stuart MacMillan
Seattle
'84 Vanagon Westfalia w/2.1
'65 MGB (Daily driver since 1969)
'74 MGB GT (Restoring sloooowly)
Personal mechanic for:
'70 MGB GT (Daughter's)
Assisting on Restoration (and spending OPM):
'72 MGB GT (Was daughter's, now son's)
'64 MGB (Son's)
Stripped and gone but their parts live on:
'68 MGB, '73 MGB, '67 MGB GT
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