The Kobalt line from Lowes is no longer made by the JHWilliams which is a subsidiary of Snap On. Current production of Kobalt tools are made by Danaher which makes most of the Craftsman tool line. Still good tools but not quite the same finish quality of the Williams tools.

And KG2V is right about the ratcheting combo wrenches, have already acquired several sets including the flex heads. All of the ratcheting combination wrenches are made under license from Gearwrench IIRC, so it doesn't seem to matter which brand you buy.

Thanks for the tip on the Lowes house brand, I'll have to go check them out.

Most of my better tools (SnapOn and Blackhawk wrenches and sockets) date from my days working in the local garage to earn $ for school (and other less noble pursuits ). The challenge when working on other peoples cars is that most people don't take good care of their car and usually some other ham handed mechanic (not from the shop I worked in of course) has done a great job of messing things up. By this time the customer just wants to replace X (whatever it is) as cheaply as possible and all these little extras are just a way to run the price up, you know, so just reuse the originals. Sometimes you can convince em by getting them to look under the hood but don't count on it. Of course this is one of many reasons why I am no longer working in a garage (well except on my cars and a few close friends). Hmm that sounds a bit jaded but I'll let it ride.

- Eric

I understand that, have never worked in an automotive shop but i have seen how "other people" take care of their cars and even worse the "repairs" some shops do. But i do turn wrenches for friends and family so i have a few tools. And i consider my SnapOn tools to be top shelf and worth the money for some things i also have some tools in the other end of the scale that i purchased on sale at Harbor Freight. But i avoid the Harbor Freight wrenches because they tend to be knuckle busters unless you need a cheap wrench to modify with a torch and a grinder.

When I first got married and went to change the oil in my wife's car for the first time the drain plug head was so messes up it took me hours of filing and squeezing on visegrips then hammering them trying to get it out, I don't let anyone work on my vehicles unless I have to.

I've looked at some of those ratcheting wrenches and while they may all come from the same idea the quality of the machining differs, the snap on ones felt a lot smoother and tighter than the sears ones.

Bless me for being cheap.
I buy a lot of high quality older tools at flea markets, pawn shops and estate sales.
The good name brands from years ago outlived their original owners and none of their kids want them.

This is especially true with sockets and box end wrenches. So buy your ratchet handle new because ratchet handles wear out. Then you can spend 30 dollars on loose sockets and wrenches, instead of about 300 dollars on them as a brand new set.

Again, I like the mix and match option that gives me. I find that a full socket set is a waste in most vehicles when you really only want 3 or 4 different sizes of sockets, with 3/8, 7/16, 1/2 or 9/16ths being the most likely imperial sizes or the same basic wrenches in metric.
The special wrenches like for spark plugs and wheel lugs are best purchased separately too.

If you are not careful it is really easy to buy too many tools and end up with thousands of dollars tied up in gear you will only use once or twice in your life.

This thread is a pretty excellent discussion of tools to have and use.