Well something to keep in mind, the civic is not the norm, it's the exception to the rule. Most cars are more expensive to mod than the civic.

 

I understand that. I'm just saying if you wanted extremely cheap modification it would have been the way to go. It's just that everytime I read or hear about someone saying the Lancer community has it bad price wise they compare it to the Honda guys, in which case the Civic would be the most cost effective as far as modification goes.

 

cryto is sponsored by speedcorp and im working on it. Great company.

 

I never really saw RRM's pricing as that big of a deal. The customer service makes up for the pricing difference in my opinion. Would I like to be able to afford a turbo from them? Sure, but with the price of gas, I'm not sure I'd be able to afford to drive it as much as I do now as N/A.

 

The way the aftermarket industry is going and maturing, you have no idea what companies/vendors such as WORKs and RRM mean to the consumer. They fill a very important segment and do things that the larger companies will not due. Speaking with a good friend of mine that works for one of the big boy aftermarket companies. He constantly complains about the political BS and red tape you have to go thru to do something proper, vs. what is politically correct. For example, There are a few companies eye'in the CAI and SRI segment for the Lancer. To get it done right the way we planned it, means coming out with the best product to date. But management has an uneasy feeling about what the kit includes. For those who have caught me talking about this earlier will know what I am refering to.

But the main point is, there are risks that larger firms will not take for fear for failure, or for it being to radical. Vs. if you looked at where these companies started, thats the sort of thing that catapulted them to the top in the first place. these vendors represent the segment that isnt afraid to try new things or not afraid of failing. Vs. looking at budgets, annual reports, and marketing, and legal , and every other department you can think of that goes into the process. I told him, if I were you, I would go to my boss and I would quit, start my own company, and put out the product the way its suppost to be done. Sometimes its about doing something to the best of your ability putting your name on it and not have to give a **** about what anyone above you thinks, trying about being politically proper. Just short of the bodyslamming, I think he may just do that. Hense why I maybe heading down to Cali to meet up with him and a few other firms.

My take on vendors is, if they do a good job, they survive! if they do terrible, they suffer a horrible death. But issues about cost and stuff like that, its just a small company trying to eik out a living. We are not talking about huge amounts of money here. The margins are razor thin already, if the money was good, the big boys would be all over it.

 

For number one its people like you that annoy the **** out of my. I'm not whining i'm bringing up a point. For you information i don't buy parts from them, as a matter of fact i don't buy parts from anyone anymore because i just don't have time right now. I was bringing up a point for people that have lancers now whose shoes i have been in. And you tell me i don't understand economics. I own a restaraunt and three other bussiness including apartment buildings and on top of it am a software developer for a huge ammunition warehouse. I think i am very well educated in economics. Obviously with you being a moderator for a forum you have plenty of time to be on here and manage this forum which means you either don't do much work, or don't directly deal with the decisions of running or managing a real bussiness. So don't lecture me about economics. NO i am not comparing our prices with civics so lets clear that one up. And i never said ALL their products were over priced, but a lot of their products are overpriced. Maybe not by a lot but they certanly can help some of the lancer community out by either bringing back sales or bringing prices down, even if it was a little. And for your information NO MATTER WHAT, there is always someplace else to go. Everyone else has brought legit discusion to this forum going both ways which i highly appreciate, not a single person other than you straight up had something negative to say to me just because of MY OPINION.

 

At this point all you are doing is whining. Do you not think this issue has been discussed before? You seem so focused on essentially pointing the finger at RRM and other vendors that you're not listening to what other people are saying. It seems like your whole premise is that because you happened to find some parts online for cheaper than what RRM offers them for, RRM is not respecting the lancer community and it basically exploiting it. Well that's ridiculous logic. RRM has addressed this issue in the past and what it boils down to for the nth time is quantity. It clearly doesn't matter that you have all this self-proclaimed business experience since you're not getting fundamental principles of economics like the relationship between quantity and price per unit. Given my job, I do have quite a bit of time to moderate this forum but that is irrelevant. Unlike many online sources which operate in a warehouse format, RRM is but one shop and cannot deal in massive quantities. Because of this, it cannot price items like a warehouse operation. To suggest that they should simply reduce their prices is insane, you might as well ask a corner store to price their items like Walmart, it's not going to happen. Yes there are alternatives to RRM but only for certain parts and only with certain tradeoffs. Currently no one else offers turbo kits like RRM (save for RPW but because of their location they are competitive), no one offers ported TBs or IMs like RRM and no ones the variety of parts that RRM does. I'm sorry if you feel that I have attacked you but you essentially decided to take a position that goes against basic logic and the experiences of many people on here. Moreover, you have decided not to listen to what other people have said. If you want to take my comments as negative, that's your problem, not mine. I have simply served as a counterpoint and it's somewhat hypocritical of you to tell me to basically **** off with my opinion on one hand and demand respect for your own on the other.

 

I would think that the reasons why they put there prices at that price is because of the simple supply and demand. I know that the vendors have a finite number of certain parts that they have to sell. Profit is a big issue because without it they wouldn't be able to survive. If they brought the prices lower there wouldn't be enough to supply the demand for these products which would equal a shortage which is not good for these companies that worked so hard to give us these products in the first place because it would put them out of business. They put it at a relatively expensive price so that the demand for them isn't too high and they can fulfill the satisfaction for the people that can get it. You said that you could always go to other places or sites for similiar items. That's a fine choice because who's there to say that since you won't buy it then somebody else will. Learn more about the opportunity costs and what the vendors have to deal with to survive on these items that they sell to us. Please if you dislike their attitudes towards the lancer community then please look else where (use the power of substitution). I believe their doing a superb job in how they run there business because they are surviving and are consistent. The demand for 02-03 lancer parts are relatively low and plus I know for a fact that they do not have as much parts of the 02-03 models compared to back in 02-04. Limited quantity results to higher prices. Easy stuff to comprehend. Hope that helps. Having experience in certain areas doesn't neccessarily mean that you won't fully comprehend what your saying. I'm just a college kid going for my associates in Economics so flame me because I myself might be wrong.

 

No i wouldn't flame you in no way. The only reason i got so mad at the other one is because instead of giving a intellegent coherent response his response to me was "If you don't like it quite whinning and go buy somewhere else." And i wasn't flaming him for his comments i was just pissed that i have a coherent comment in a thread i made and specifically said i want coherent discussion in.

Yes there may be some i do not understand. But i have been dealing with economics and owning small bussiness for 20 years. There is a lot i do know. And i do know there is a lot not let out to the customers. If these companies were able to give sales at one point on items they should still be able to give sales. Yes buying in large quantitys may reduce your total cost of product by maye 5-10 percent. But overall for that one product we are talking about an extra 2 to maybe 10 dollars extra for not buying in bulk. Overall yes that adds up for the company. But still does not put a big hit in the percentage of difference in the price. In all actuality there is a common shop standard percentage that many places use as the common ground. Since it has been a while i forgot what it was. But with food it is 20% of product. So if my steak dinner cost me a total of 10 then i charge an extra 20 percent on top of that to cover my workers cost and bussiness cost for that one steak. Every bussiness has that similar. Now at one time a while back i asked a small private owned shop who just happened to be friends with me about that and he had told me their shop standard on pricing. I had him look into it and he did say many of the companys i had him look into were over priced. This was all out of curiosity.

 

I'm sorry that was the only response suitable since you clearly didn't care about the rest of what I said (which directly addressed why their prices are higher) and thus were essentially just sitting around complaining with your fingers in your ears. The reason why RRM gave sales every once in a while was because of supply, they either made too much of an in-house product (like strut bars) or ordered too much of another (like brake pads) and didn't want them sitting on the shelves for months (which results in their capital being wasted). You're not talking into account other costs (like storage space, coilovers are a lot bulkier than brake pads) nor are you giving vendors a suitable percentage of profit. On a 100$ set of brake pads, a 10$ profit is pretty reasonable. With this same percentage, a 90$ profit on a set of 900$ coilovers is to be expected. These numbers are purely for example, I have no idea how RRM has setup their business structure. Comparing the food industry to the automotive industry isn't really suitable since they operate in different ways. Moreover, comparing different regions present problems, food costs are going to be higher in Alaska than in California because of shipping costs.

 

Here is what I am trying to get across...the quality issue.

YES! Their quality of products are great!

Why?

Because they HAVE to!

Say for example they decide to ship out those "badges" and they come out to be a total POS. Nobody is going to buy them once word gets out. That applies to each and every one of their products. For any company; even food. Would anyone buy the $1 double cheeseburger if it tasted like crap? No! No company can give the excuse of, "Hey, You get what you pay for". If you are not in it to be the best why be in it?

If Evo_Soul does decide to strike out on his own and do his thing you think he is going to make an inferior product and use the excuse, "I'm only 1 guy"? I sure hope not. He is going to have the attitude of getting bigger and better.

RRM is not going to offer average products because they can not win the "race" that way. Amby, you are a biology major right? Remember the Red Queen Hypothesis? It applies here. If they only offer as good as their competition they can't be better and survive. I'm sure if you asked them, are they better or as good as their competition they would say they are better. They HAVE to be better or they might as well be in second place. So that excuse of prices=quality doesn't fly with me. They HAVE to give quality or they might as well bow out! (Believe me I in no way want them to quit. I admire what they do and their attitude towards the game, but to an extent...)

 

I agree with this, because of the kind of company they are, quality isn't merely a benefit but a complete necessity. This doesn't quite address the main issue of price but it does indicate part of why their prices are what they are, you can't expect fillet mignon for cheeseburger prices.

 

+2 ^^ (on a side note they did start putting out angus beef in burgers at a relatively inexpensive price )

 

lol

Yeah, I understand thing can't be dirt cheap or even cheap but I like the fact that the savings are being passed on to us.[/sarcasm]

In this period of economic hard times for the U.S. usually, extra car "wants" are the first things to go out the window for people. I think just simple "sales" would be an initiative to kick up actual sales.

Here is what I see...

6 people buying a strut bar a month at $100 with an actual $20 of profit on each one should gain them and extra $120 in profit that month...

But some months down the road a sale goes up and 9 people buy a strut bar on sale at $90 with an actual $10 of profit on each one should gain them and extra $90 in profit that month...

Granted...yeah they may have not made the same amount of money they could have made if they sold at regular price but hey; They made their customers happy, they could have potentialy gained a new customer, They could have taken a customer who was going to whomever to buy that part but they couldn't resist a sale price, or made somebody spend their money who wasn't going to in the first place.

For instance, they could easily put on their site, I.E. "Buy an intake and get the Headers $30 off in the same order" Yeah, they may have to eat the $30 but they still made money off that deal instead of nothing. They made "so and so" buy it at that time instead of waiting. When people wait more options could open for them right?

I would think that there are not many people go in looking to buy intake + a header at once, but I do think the number of people who see "buy this now and save a bit on this part now" is higher.

All of those things seem like good things to me. I'm a bio major myself and not an eco/buis major so if I am missing a key point please enlighten me.

Hey, people's tax returns are coming in the mail and they are going to have a little bit of change in their pockets. I don't see any effort from any company to draw the attention towards them to get that money. Don't put everything on sale. All I'm saying is they should do what they can from a buiseness POV. But I don't even see that anymore. Its like they are not even trying.

 

I used to own a lancer. I traded it on an EVO. Iwas going to buy alot from RRm for my Lancer until i was talking to them about partial sponsorships to get the word on them out. this is what I heard back....

OUr budget for sponsorships is spoken for for the year. We usually only
sponsor cars that are magazine type cars too. Sorry. RRM
On Aug 2, 2005, at 6:37 PM


To me thats them knocking the Lancer. # of items bought from RRM, 0. # of items i will ever buy from them 0. If they were the last mod shop on earth id stop. now thats my 2 cents. i saved the email i heard back from them on. and this is what my lancer looked like.....guess they didnt like it much lol.to me RRM =