I need a new idler arm for my car and I'm trying to decide between the firm feel or a brand new older USA made Moog unit? Are the firm feel units that much better to be twice the price of the moog?

I don't think Firm Feel makes their own idler arms.

Go with this one

Last timeI bought suspension from FF it was a Moog arm

Moog it is then. Thanks for the input

For the idler arm, yes, might as well. Pitman arm, different story. Since it's new old stock, you'll probably be okay, otherwise I'd say the grease boot will probably crack and fall off within 3 months.

And then you have to be wary of the counterfeits. I have always used a lot of Moog parts until I started seeing a lot of off shore built ones. And then I got a pair of counterfeit ball joints from Amazon.

Just make sure that the old U.S. pieces are really that.

How does a person tell if it is a counterfeit or not? Does it have to have its origin somewhere on the pkg?

In my case, I was replacing Moog ball joints that I had installed a few years ago, the last time I changed engines and K members. The new upper ball joints from Rockauto looked different. So I went to my local O'Reilly's and ordered another pair of Moogs. They looked like the ones I was removing down to the last detail. The ones from Rockauto had noticeable differences when laid side by side to the other ones. They were similar, but different. I sent pics of them to Rockauto side by side making a note to them that I thought that they were not really Moog pieces. All I got in response was a return authorization. So, they went back to RA and I installed the ones from O'Reilly's.

Now, I use the Proforged lower and tall upper ball joints. http://www.proforged.com/

proforged has been getting my vote as of late. moog has been having quality issues [in my opinion] for the last 10yrs or so, especially their rubber components.
they are NOT the top of the line leader in suspension parts they once were.
if you can score parts older than the last 10-15yrs, i would pick them up. in fact, i'll wager the boots and bushings will last WAY longer than any newly manufactured moog boot or bushing, especially if they have been kept in a cool, dry, place.
just my opinion, your mileage may [and probably will] vary.

Sometimes when companies merge the existing stock gets put into new boxes and relabeled. Not saying that happened here, but it's possible. Federal Mogul bought them some time ago Then Tenneco bought FM last year. These days who knows who owns what.

I am familiar with that situation as it has been around for many, many years. BUT, I ordered Moog and the box was labeled Moog, but the part was different from other Moog parts. That is all that matters. Whether deliberate or inadvertent, it appeared that I did not get what I had ordered and paid for.

Aftermarket "re-boxing" is very common ... for distributor stock exchanges, buy-outs, etc. Typically, a good name brand manufacturer will pre-determine which part numbers can be re-boxed (one mfg to another...), but sometimes they will decide NOT to have certain numbers re-boxed due to physical spec differences. Then, there's the cost factor in deciding what can be reboxed. The items determined NOT to be reboxed are trashed and becomes a financial loss, so, that may or may not be acceptable. Also, there is ALWAYS the possibility of mistaken reboxing... happens more often than could be imagined. IF you order via mail-order (Amazon, etc), then beware!... best if you deal with a direct local parts distributor that you can go back and discuss if there's any questions at all... they should return/exchange if any question until you're satisfied.

Also.... unfortunately, more good old USA manufacturers are sourcing their parts from other countries and the quality is NOT the same.... the pricing is less so they save more $$ out-sourcing from China, Mexico, etc... and become more competitive against other suppliers that are already doing that... its terrible! Look for Made-in-USA... increasingly harder to find... and yes, you will then pay more for Made-in-USA.

I believe FF repackages their parts from better name brand companies, including MOOG, and some others ... into FF boxes (just typical marketing).

If "made in US of A" (cast I would assume) guarantees that it ain't counterfeit then I am OK with however much it costs.

I ended up ordering the moog idler arm. Hopefully I'll get it installed today.

There are some in certain countries that are notorious for faking stuff like UL listings and stuff like that, so it would not surprise me if that was faked too.

I bought a wireless controller for my son's Playstation not too long ago off of amazon. Claimed to be a new Sony unit.

It was not, I had the old controller that was a Sony and the noticeable weight difference lead me to look into it. It's a decent copy that functions but it is not Sony.

Even though it is labeled and packaged as if it were.

^^^ yeah I was wondering if they got that blatant.

ask MSD. several years ago, there was a blatant copy of one of their boxes, right down to the serial number.
one of the magazines did a disassembly of a real MSD box and a fake. the internals were TOTALLY different inside, but the outside was virtually identical.
i don't know if this problem is still going on or not.
this was primarily boxes bought from amazon and ebay.

I forgot about the MSD thing.