" Wheel bearing " There are lots of quality bearing manufacturers , at any specific time = what this refers to is the ever ongoing buying / selling of companies , and the endless corruption of chasing the most profit / vs. quality , and for some time now " most profit " is the leading factor across the board .
Then there are lots of other games going on " RIGHT TO REPAIR " as an example a bearing warehouse here [ Gopher Bearing ] that I have been going to for since the 70s , a few yrs. back changed how they do bis. a$$ -oles , you need to be a business , create an account - with the first min. purchase or $300 .
Now when you start changing the thread with " steering knuckles " you added another party / parties - they buy [ by what ever motivations they are guided by ] the bearings , then make or buy the knuckle & assemble & sell as a unit .
I prefer to [ if there is no damage to whatever the bearing is going into , replace the bearing .
Repaired a cooling fan for a restaurant a a couple months ago , it was maing bearing noises , the bearings cost [ 2 different sizes ] was about $14 , checked the cost of the cooling fan as a complete unit - cheapest I found was about $1,200 & up to $1,600 .
Been repairing , building , manufacturing in many fields auto repair , construction , machining , welding , gunsmithing , electronics etc. since the 1960s , and have been watching this bs & learning ever since .
PS forgot - there are no such things as aftermarket bearings - relative to VW - they do not make bearings , many parts of just about every manufacture are made by the " aftermarket " , as an example drive axials in American pickups / trucks .
