Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General General Autolite Clarification

Just to let you all know that didn't know, all Autolite parts should be the exact same as Ford Motorcraft parts. Ford bought Autolite in 1961. Autolite was an independent replacement part manufacturer for Ford back in the day and Ford eventually bought them. This is the story so everything Autolite should be the exact same as everything Motorcraft. This is my understanding at least.

David

My understanding is that Autolite is a contract manufacturer of Motorcraft plugs and Honeywell is the parent company. I also remember seeing Allied Signal on the packaging a few years ago.

At one time, the term "Autolite" was applied to many Ford parts (from the early '60s to early in the 1972 model year). The Autolite name was used on such items as batteries, oil filters, air filters, carburetors, radiator and heater hoses, gas caps, etc. Due to an antitrust court case, see here , Ford sold Autolite to Bendix. After that, Ford used the name "Motorcraft" on its replacement parts. Today, Motorcraft sparkplugs may be the same as Autolite ones, but the Autolite oil filters that are now being sold (I've seen them at Wal-Mart) look to be relabled Fram filters.

Yup, almost the same thing as Generic products. Same thing but labeled different, and cheaper too. It's called marketing, you see these generic food products and some of them (most probably) are made by big corporations, that sell them to the other companies to put their name on it, so they make money either way. Can't remember what the term is called for this but I learned something like this in my Economics class back in High School. See I learned something in school.