I'd be really interested to see a mag do a comparison on the "cheap" VS the good stuff.
I'd also be willing to wager that for 90% of everyone on here whose car see's mostly street/ occasional track use, that there is absolutely nothing to gain from spending any more money than required to do away w/ the stock arms.
Vibrant Red has already pointed out that even the American stuff get's by the quality control guy too, His example of Steeda going the extra mile to fix the collateral damage was made possible because they were that close to him. If that had happened to somebody living 1000 mi away, I'd dare say that Steeda would've still made reparations, but only by replacing the
LCA's.
Just like JRichter (and the publisher of one of the Mustang Chassis books out there) pointed out earlier, a reinforced stock arm w/ new bushings will probably satisfy that need as a hard to beat mod by only the best made products out there. And that "best made product out there" is more than any street car rolling on 245 street rubber will ever benefit from.
Now I may be talking out of my ass (again),
and the comparison may show that a cheap replacement control arm gets killed by a better one driving it on the street, but until I see that, I'll modify my stock ones w/ plate and new bushings (Steeda Bushings). And only then because the durometer of their bushing is closer to stock.
I always find it amusing that we go out and modify our cars sacrificing driveability every time in favor of performance. Getting your balls jarred off by an ultra rigid
suspension that'll drop the lap time by a second just so you can drive the car to Sonic seems a little..... out of touch. A few guys throw in the towel after enduring all of the bangs, creaks and groans for a couple of years and post a "returning back to stock thread". Talk about throwing your money away.
Consider the intended usage of the car and modify it accordingly. If you're gonna street drive it mostly, I'd be more concerned on how stiff the bushings were first. Let the guy that sells the stuff know that and do some homework. learn what makes a C/A
different rather than what country it was made in. Then you'll be more happy rather than just knowing you spent over 300.00 for a set of upper and Lower C/A's