I have my choice of new piano narrowed down to 3.
Hailun 161 5 ft 4, Yamaha GB1k 5ft or 4 ft. 11 depending on who you talk to, & Essex, 5 ft. 1".

From a longevity or Quality of materials standpoint, is any of these to be avoided.
Like the Essex sound and action, but Yammy dealer tells me to avoid cause their parts are made at Pearl River whereas Yammy GB1K's internal parts are made in Japan, but assembled in Indonesia
I know these facts are true, but it is salesman BS or something I should be aware. He said they can make the Yamaha more mellow and the action lighter like the Essex if need be.
Any advice appreciated and sorry to be a pain!

Any piano action/keyboard can be adjusted for touch control. The best advice is this: buy the tone you like to hear. If you don’t purchase the tone you like, will you end up playing at all?

Why did you purchase the car that you have? For the money, you liked the way it handles, mileage performance etc.etc.

The rest of the things you mentioned are just sales bafflegab...... where the parts are made for these pianos is pretty much irrelevant these days. However, it is interesting that the sales person did not mention where the parts are made for the Hailun. This company first began as a parts maker. That one would be your best bet for warranty coverage I would think.

A piano can be adjusted for touch control, but only within limits. An action that feels heavy will probably continue to feel heavy, and an action that feels light will probably continue to feel light. Responsiveness is another thing, though, and that can often be changed quite a bit. More might be done with the weight, but it would be expensive and void the warranty.

Similarly some adjustment can be done to the tone, but you cannot expect miracles there, either. Do not expect that one piano can be made to sound like another. There are too many factors that cannot be changed. (One of those factors is salespeople's ability to come clean about this stuff!)

Buy the one you like, and then shop for a good tech, who will make more difference than anything else.

BDB is dead on target This from my experience as a learning tuner/tech, and as a life-long, learning musician (piano player).

Here are my two cents - when you buy expensive pianos, you pretty much know what you'll get. Still, you can find real pearls in the mud (=grayzone, where the rest of us live ) too, but the quality varies tremendously. Thus, it's more or less on a trial-and-error basis.

I've steered prospective buyers towards Yamaha as long as I can remember, because of the price/quality ratio. Now, as a result of ->Indonesia, I'm not really sure.

Dan, BDB, and others (... I'm throwing in an off-topic red flag) - the Indonesian-made/assembled Yamahas I encounter here have unbelievably stiff pinblocks... Is this because I happen to live here up north, or have any of you encountered the same?

I have to get a good deal at the nearby fitness center if this is what's needed to tune the average (ie Yamaha) piano from now on.

Only three of them this far, but it's worrying me. Takes forever, and a lot of physical effort, to get them close to pitch.

No difference between Indonesian and Japanese and Chinese Yamaha pinblocks in So. Cal. that I can feel. All the same.

Thx Marty, maybe I'm getting old, or maybe the exceptionally dry winter over here is getting the best of me. Glad to hear that it might be just me or the climate

The ESSEX is little bit melower, and also less $$$ then Yamaha.
YAMAHA naturally on the bright side... So, because they kind of close in quality, it's up to your sound preference...

Thanks to all for the great advice. The Yamaha GB1K is actually a little less than the Essex, but I like the sound and responsiveness of the Essec 5ft 1 much better. I tried out the Hailun 161 and I also like it. I need to go back and try the Essex and Hailun 161 on the same day to compare. Even then it's hard to do as it could be the rooms they are in. (high vs. low ceilings, location in the room and distance from walls etc...

I'll try to ingnore all the rhetoric about parts since I will narrow it down to Hailun and Essex. ( Heard a lot of the Hailun parts are made in Germany & Europe )