Comparing general population's denial of global warming and its reasons and consequences and Al Gore's movie about it to saying "oh, watch out, ebay sells replicas of my tyte JDM stuff" is a pretty freaking huge stretch, my man.

It's like buying a tee shirt. You can be a logo-***** and spend $100. Or you can buy a no brand for $2.50. They work the same.

 

this kind of stuff has always been part of business thats why we got copyright and patent laws to keep others from making money out of other peoples designs.
Plus people will always condradict their own words. so many Walmart shoppers say walmart is horrible how they treat their employees and steal business away from hard woking small local businesses and give away american jobs to overseas. But they still continue to shop their for ONLY 1 reason, cost is cheap.
IF your a business you have to do things right to put a stop to this kind of cut throat. GET AS MANY PATENTS AS YOU CAN, copyright all you can, and hire criminals to rough up and threaten any business trying to copy you.
Think of big company's that nobody trys to sell a kock off product. why do you think this is? I like to use the Rapper Vanilla ICE as an example, he put out a knock off song and was making money, so a Big huge man crabbed him by the throat and hung him over the balcony until he signed his royalties away.

 

i dont think most people are informed well enough to know which brand is the real deal and which is the knock-off. i did not know which one was which until i read this thread.

 

Seems to me the knock off industry will force innovation from legit companies, not kill it. Limit product lifecycle and profits maybe...

Isn't Seibon a Japanese company?

 

Ben, I couldn't agree with you more. Great article. Here is another company that has lost out on sales because of cheap knockoffs: JUN. I should know, I was the North American Sales rep for JUN USA back in 2003-2004 before they closed their US offices. It used to irritate me when I'd see cheap cams that had the same grind as the JUN components. There products are of the highest quality and you have these companies popping up in China and Taiwan making the cheapo imitations. Anyway, good article for everyone to stew and think about.

 

Every teacher I've ever had has said, theres no such thing as a dumb question. And though the answer to this is obvious to many of us, and it seems that it is a dumb question, it truly is not. This is just proof of how greatly misinformed US customers are.

No my dear friend, they're Americans. They are shameless ones at that. People who would make the Statue of Liberty out of Dog ****, paint it light green and sell it to you as the same thing for a cheaper price.

Please do yourself the favor and the pleasure, of ordering, waiting, and receiving some true craftmanship. JDM all the way.

No offense to the US companies out there working hard to come out with quality designs and products, but discriminating enthusiasts know where quality has come from, be them avid producers or users of competitive motorsports products. Even the independent small guys here in the states know who's bar their trying to reach. They know that the top JDM tuners set that bar. Seibon and a lot of other companies don't even begin stretching to reach for it.



To everyone that defends knockoffs:
This whole MTV/ME generation is killing me. Give it to ME NOW, Give it to ME for CHEAP, just give it to ME. I don't care how it works, just give it to ME! Didn't your mother ever teach you that good things come to those who wait?
I'm personally done with this thread and this topic as a whole. Go enjoy your green pile of dogsh!t if thats your thing. I know my parts won't flap all over the place when I'm at the track or warp and crack after being on my car for 8 months. Oh and the ballerness at a show... you don't stand a chance if there's ever a true JDM car. So in the end, all you knock off mother lovin, sons of ****** are just losers. Losers on the track. Losers in the shows. Losers ridiculed on the street by anyone that should be respected.

 

wow lets keep this on topic of jdm stuff vs knock offs- not usdm vs jdm because look at how many people in asian countries are ordering ams turbo kits and aem ems

 

ummm.... there are JDM parts that don't last on track. But I guess they do work for "ballerness" at shows, which IMO means nothing.

 

There are JDM parts that don't last worth dick, let alone on the track. JDM is awesome, don't misunderstand me there. BUT..... JDM isn't the end all fix, they make ****ty parts just as often as everyone else.

(They also charge twice the price for the same garbage.) You decide.

 

damn i didnt know seibon was a knock off company.

i feel bad now cause i have a very nice seibon hood.

i think most people dont know that it is a knock off company.

 

I don't think the topic was Japanese made vs. American made. It was simply about a company spending a lot of $$ on R&D to formulate a high-quality product, and then having a company without ethics ripping it off. Everybody has their own MO, and mine has me spending my money with the guys doing it the right way.

 

Being new to the evo world, I have learned one thing right away. It is difficult to actually improve some parts already on the vehicle. Of course exhaust and coilovers are one thing, but other parts such as aero and wheels (BBS not included here) require a bit of money to actually get an improvement over the OEM part. This is what you truely pay for with many parts. I agree, with many on here, I will not buy a knockoff part. I would suggest that real non knockoff parts need to be heavily advertised that way.

I will say this in ending, My Evo and my fathers S2000 were made in Japan, and that carries a lot of weight with us. They are built with passion, not something often seen in america anymore.

 

Good Info. It's a shame that probably the majority goes for the lowest cost. Personally that's not me, but it's the majority I'm sure.

 

I'm with you to a point, to a consumer like me I want function to meet price. If I was the type of person to not care about the brand name but instead want the part to function properly, not break down and in the mean time uphold performance evenly with a branded part, comparison is fair game and all attention goes to PRICE. lower price would be my personal choice.

Dont get me wrong I love JDM, and it is the heart and soul of our cars itself, but if JDM wasnt designed for the "Global consumer" but instead intended for domestic use (Japan) I would not throw my money for a brand name or sticker to show off. I'm all about performance. BTW the prices over at Japan are insane, not parts but everything in general, why? difference in the economy and currency. So if their JDM parts were not made for me "outside Japan" for what I measure to be worth my money, why bother?

Voltex $1070 (without shipping)
Seibon $480 (in the US)

If I was a person with an open budget, I'd go with the JDM all the way, if not ship the whole car to Japan and have it done by professionals or make a copy of HKS Hipermax, other than that I'm just a regular person with a normal salary just wanting to enjoy my car, exterior 100% stock but what I got under the hood is what excites me, I dont care about what people think nor do I go to car shows and show off. thats my IMO

 

why JDM stuff doesn't last long on track?
Whoa i always learn something interesting here....