Price vs. Quality vs. Accuracy..... You tell me the correct balance.

We all want Quality at a Low Price. All customers want it and all legit manufacturers are searching for a way to provide it.

Over the years I've had many potential customers who call up and want the perfect such & such kit. Once they have been assured of a quality level they can't possibly understand why your kit is say $ 500 more than Joe Blow's kit. For the most part potential customers buy a body kit like they would buy a new pick-up truck. Let me explain: When you're shopping for a new truck you can go to all the Chevy dealers in town to get the best possible price, confident in knowing that no matter which dealer you buy from the truck will be of consistent quality because they are all built on the same production line. Well that's the way most potential "first time" kit buyers shop. They somehow assume that the kit they buy from Joe Blow for $ 4000 is the same as the kit Mr. Reputable is selling for $ 4900. Now people that are not "first time" kit buyers know better thru their prior experience, IE "they learned their lesson first time around".

Please let me give you a background of some things to consider.

Most legitimate manufactures put a lot of money into their R & D and don't copy items from others. You see a copycat (Vulture) can save as much as $ 40,000 stealing a design from splashing someone else's stuff. He can then put maybe another three or four-grand into advertizing/refining it and sell it for less than the originator of the kit can sell it for. Thus the guy that originated it gets the short end of the stick. So there is not a lot of incentive in this industry for original design.

Then comes the dilemma of the designer/seller of a kit has to face at one point or another. This dilemma is best explained by an example.... Let's say a guy is designing a TR kit he gets to the point in the design where he has a TR looking car on a stock wheelbase Fiero, lets say he needs to sell the kit for $3995.00 to get a reasonable R.O.I. (Return On Investment) he has to ask himself several questions:

Do I sell this kit like this?

Will I be able to sell enough of these kits to break even?

Do I spend more of my money to make this car the correct wheel base, dimensions etc.?

If I do continue development, Will Enough customers pay the additional $$$$ that I will have to charge to get the same R.O.I. that I could have gotten if I had put my money in the bank instead?

THEN comes the next dilemma, say someone calls shopping for a 512 TR kit, the manufacturer says "Well we can design some panels that will go on our regular TR kit that make it look like the 512, but it will increase the cost of the kit from $ 8000 to $10,000." The customer responds, "Why should it cost me more? I am not getting any more fiberglass or accessories, only a different shape for that extra $ 2000, IT shouldn't cost anymore for materials, What gives?"

Now I happen to know of a guy who builds a TR kit that is hand and fist more accurate that any other I've seen, it is also priced more than 2 times as much (about $19,000 for kit) as my kit is and takes a lot longer to build. Now, are you willing to pay an extra $ 10,000 (plus the additional labor) for a kit that is 5% more accurate????? While you're trying to answer that question remember that the legit manufacturer has to ask himself, during development: "Because of the increased cost of development, Are there any potential customers out there that are willing to pay twice as much money for 5% more accuracy?"

The Vulture shops have it much easier. They can buy a kit of a car they think might become popular or they can wait ‘til it is starting to catch on. They can usually buy that kit right from the originator, and usually very cheap, because the originator has a lot of money tied up and he needs to create some cash flow. The Vultures, having made a very small (relative) investment. Can set back "do a little advertizing" and "analyze the market" and "determine the demand" for the new product. Usually the originator will help in this endeavor, he will have to cross his fingers and hope that he is not Vulture "Road Kill" because he needs a return on his investment. The originator has to hope that if the kit does become popular that the Vulture, whom he has been helping in the promotion of the new kit, will not steel the design from him. Look around, in the magazines, there are very few kits for sale by the person who originated the design. The people selling them will claim to have done the original work but will not be able to answer accurately, when you ask pointed questions about the design etc. If the project doesn't catch on the Vulture can just sell the turn-key car he has built and move on. But if it catches on they can take right off from their elevated perch and swoop right down to out market & copy a kit they stole.

I know of a very nice and talented guy in Puerto Rico who has developed all the parts it takes to make the TR kit I sell into the 512 TR some people desire. He charges me $ 1400 plus shipping to get these parts to the states. Are you willing to pay the difference? or Should I copy his parts? I could copy the parts at a very low cost to me, then sell my kit as a 512 TR or just a TR without increasing the price, but would that be fair to the guy that invested his money and time in originating the parts? I know that my friend in PR has sold his pieces to several people in the states (TX, CA, FL) and Canada. There are now no less than 10 Vultures producing these parts as their own now in the US & Canada. Is it any wonder why there are fewer and fewer talented people that are willing to put time and money into new development?

How about an original design that is not a replica. Currently there are a couple of new, very good, designs on the Fiero chassis. These two that I'm thinking of are beautiful modern designs, one is out of Russia and the other from England. I would estimate that the R & D costs on either one of them would close to 6 figures. Considering that, is it no wonder that these developers are sitting on the edge of their seats waiting for some Vulture to come down and for maybe $ 15000 investment, copy and steel these original designs. I'm praying for the good guys here! If talented people like this are allowed to make a fair profit on their work, maybe their next design will be even more exciting.

I have people write to me all the time wondering why don't I develop a kit to put a Rotary engine into a Miata, or a Ford small block into a Fiero. Or, like the other day, A Chevy V-8 into a TR-6. I would guess that these same people would go into sticker shock if they knew what the selling price would have to be to cover R & D on some of these ideas. You see there has to be a market large enough on what you're selling or the likelihood of breaking even is remote. Someone can do a quick and dirty "one off" kit to do any of the above swaps. But before I'll stick my neck out to market such a kit to the public, I would need to build several to find and correct the flaws or buy more liability insurance.

I have designed and manufacture a V-8 Fiero engine conversion kit. My kit has been copied by a few people, let me tell you about some of these copies:

A guy in Vancouver B.C. bought a Stick shift V-8 kit from me in 1993. He wanted me to ship the kit to him C.O.D. so I shipped it C.O.D. CASH ONLY. I shipped it in 2 boxes about 2 days apart. The first box had all of the Custom adapters and mounts and the second box had the Custom Flywheel and a couple of smaller less important parts. When the boxes arrived in Canada, he accepted shipment and paid the C.O.D. on the first box. Upon inspecting the shipment he felt that he had all of the parts he needed to copy my kit so he refused shipment on the second box. He now sells a stick shift V-8 conversion kit, that he readily admits is a copy of my kit. That kit doesn't include the flywheel & sells for $ 550 USD. He tells his customers that the flywheel they need is such&such part number available from their Chevy dealer. Well that such&such part number doesn't even exist, the customers will at one point or another have to buy the F/W from me at $ 450 per. And Mike laughs all the way to the bank.

Another guy in the Detroit area (he's now out of business, I think) did basically the same thing only with a automatic kit. The only kit you could have bought from him was for an automatic and his copy was priced higher than the kit he copied, go figure!

There have been a few other copiers (they know who they are) but the moral of the story is that know one can know the kit as well as the originator and buying a known copy many times will cost you more in the long run.

As many know, I do a F-40 kit for the Fiero chassis and it is quite reasonably priced if I say so myself. My kit uses a solid fiberglass panel in the place of the glass Quarter windows on the original. I've had many potential customers who say "You should put a Window in there..." I respond by asking if they would be willing to pay $ 500.00 more if the kit had the window. Most have declined that offer. You see I figure it would take $ 5-7000 to develop a Qtr. Window that would work correctly in all situations and that I wouldn't be ashamed to sell. If I amortize that cost over 10-15 kits it would increase the kit cost some $ 500. So what is the balance between accuracy and cost, you tell me?

I hear this kind of statement (following) 10 or 15 times a day.

"I would ideally like to find as close to an original looking car as possible, without paying an arm and a leg."

There has to be a balance between accuracy and cost. towit: "as close to original looking car as possible" vs "paying an arm and a leg"

Someone please define that balance point.

Because I, like every other manufacturer, would like to find it. I would like for every potential customer to call me and say you have the prefect price and the perfect level of authenticity.

As a manufacturer, I know I haven't reached that point yet, because I haven't felt the swoop of 27 vultures coming down to copy my stuff yet, there has only been a few (you know who you are).

I would like to ask all who have read this far to have the courage and fortitude to seek out and purchase from the talented people who bring new ideas and products to this industry. The originator of a design can bring several things to the table that the Vulture can't, knowledge of his product and talent. That knowledge of the product and the support he can provide after the sale is why the cheaper kit is not always the better choice.

Lecture over. Archism #5

archie