** Warning this is my .2 cents about our vendors. It is my opinion and currently only mine unless someone else post comments below. If you do not like my opinion i'm sorry but it is mine and you cannot have it. If you don't want to hear it, the back button is above.

Hey guys. It's been a while since i have been on these forums. I have owned my lancer for 5 years now and have been a part of the forum for a while. I usually stayed quite unless needed. I have read for years worked on my car for years, seen parts come and go. The one thing that ticks me off the most are our vendors. RRM sticks out the most but RPW is up there with them. Many of the lancer people in these forums are strick RRM buyers and don't feel like buying from anyone else in fear of getting bad products. (hint) Well from personal experience yes it may happen every once and a while, it does with anything, but is still cheaper. But what has RRM done for the consumers of evolutionm or even just the lancer group.

Over 5 years the only thing i have seen RRM or RPW do is come out with a few new products to add to their over priced list of products. 5 YEARS and no break in pricing from either. We still remain one of the most expensive cars to upgrade in our categorie. I was reading a post today about RRM megan coilovers and someone mentioned them being a 100 more. Rock said well its because we keep it in stock and that is recomended price from our retailers. Well that is no excuse to have overpriced products. You have loyal customers but you don't do anything for them. Just because Megan recomands that price doesn't mean you shouldn't try to compeite with the market or even give your customers a price break. I'm sorry but in 5 years i never commited to this trend of RRM or RPW. If somebody has a better price i will go there. But i hate to see many of my fellow lancer owners getting screwed price wise. Its such bull ****. Rock i will give you this you put together, yes put together, a great turbo kit. Came out with a good piggy back. But sometimes you just need to think about your customers and how a lot of people cannot afford 4,500 turbo kits or the extra 100 tag on coilovers. To be honost you would probably make more money with less prices just because more people could afford things and maybe more people would come to you all instead of trying to go to ebay or other website.

in conclusion: Lancer people = dedicated. Lancer people = loving modding. Lancer peope = Loving good products and good pricing. Good pricing = more customers + more customer satisfaction.

 

Perhaps it's due to their suppliers not giving them cheaper pricing? They're not going to sell below cost. Heck, the way raw materials are going, we should consider ourselves lucky prices haven't gone up. Shipping, if you check up on it or use shipping companies in your everyday life, is getting more and more expensive too.

 

Do not turn this thread into a vendor bashing thread.

Everything cost money. From raw matierials all away to shipping as 03_LAncer_ES said.

 

RRM has made a very valid point in the past - they're not a parts warehouse and will never match the prices of internet warehouses. They're a full service shop with all the overhead that goes with that. Their custom built parts are priced competitively, but they can't afford to match prices with the huge discount internet warehouses on resale items. Shops aren't cheap to run, and I can almost guarantee that, despite their higher retail prices on resale items, that they're aren't pulling in a whole lot of profit.

That, too. RRM doesn't move enough product, or have the ability to store it, to get bulk discounts.

 

additionally, RRM's products are manufactured in the US in "low volume"; not sent out to some nameless place in the far east to be stamped out with slave labor or in sweat shops...

 

I can see both sides of the story. On one hand they do have to make a profit and I can understand that but on the other side one Lancer platform is at least 5 years old and very close to not being supported anymore. Cut some slack you know? There are plenty of cash cows in the 08 group.

I can see how they tried (years ago every month or so a sale would go on a product or two) but that doesn't happen anymore. Trust me; I don't like the prices and I try to find ways around them if I can (buying used) but I get RRM parts because I trust the quality and if something were to happen I know they will try to make right. So its kinda a Catch 22...

The restart of monthly sales, I think, would make things a lot better.

 

Oh yeah! On a side note. Don't forget that they DO deal with other cars and not just Lancers. They sell Evo, 2-4G Eclipse, Hyndai, Susuki, (and one more make of car) parts. I've been to 2 4G Eclipse sites and they are just as crazy for RRM as we are. They have their hands in more than we may think. I don't believe for a moment that they are strapped for cash.

 

Trust me i am not trying to make this a Vendor bashing thread. I am trying to bring up a valid point here because I do own a bussiness in the similar area, i do know what has gone up in prices, and i do know how pricing and resale work. Also like Green Bandit pointed out and i forgot to mention is the fact that yes both of the vendors i mentioned above do sell for many other vehicles. This should even out price - overhead pricing. And both sites sell their products at much higher pricing than anyone. I hope people replying in here do know i am not paticularly pointing out RRM only. I do beleive both vendors are guilty of really overpricing and bending the lancer owners over. No matter what, with any small owned bussiness in any category like theirs, there is always the ability to compete at some level with pricing. The wide range between what they are paying for the product and what we pay is rediculas.

 

How do you know what they are paying for their product versus what they're selling it for?

 

Dude...A strut bar for $140? How much do you really think that cost? An in house "developed" short ram $170? Ported Intake Mani $300 when I still give you my old one?

Dude really? Come on! Take off your peach colored glasses!

 

over priced or not the people in this thread who are complaining about the prices have even bought there products... who else makes that much stuff for are car and at the same quality? modding our cars is kind of a love hate thing as far as money goes :/

 

I know that, I am trying to stop other members that will bash vendors at the drop of the hat. This is a very good subject and I am glad that it is something that is being discussed.


IMO, $170 is a good price for a SRI. It is equal to the to SRI's available for my car. I know I am comparing to different vehicles, but the one that I did buy was purchased from a company similiar to RRM. They develop and produce all there own parts in house. To be honest, I prefer companies focus on a few vehicles over the big name companies that make parts for literally every car out there.

 

I think that you also have to take into consideration that RRM gives superior support to its customers. I purchased a used turbo kit and have received answers from them regarding questions I have had in the attempt to put it on my car.

Tell me you'd get that from another shop or vendor? You won't. I just wished they had a shop on the east coast... trying to find a shop that will work on my car is tough going.

As for RPW, their prices reflect both the fact that they are an overseas company and the fact that the price of the dollar has fallen quite a bit. I would also say that their support for our community is on par with RRM.

I have had my spats with RRM in the past and friends will tell you I have a love/hate relationship with them but at the end of the day, I'd rather have one of their parts on my car than an Ebay budget brand. And to those who would think I'm a fanboy consider that I've spent more on other non RRM products than on RRM items do to cost. In fact come to think of it the only thing I have from RRM is my SRI... which I still love.

 

A few numbers, certainly not anything to go by, but IMO a good approximation.

Strut bar = cost of metal (Probably $10-$15), cost of paying outside company to CNC the endlinks ($10-$15 each), cost of labor to bend bar and weld it together (assume a livable wage, say $18-$20/hr), cost to pay outside company to powdercoat (no idea.) Without the powder coating, you're already up to $75 to make the thing. Powdercoating probably knocks it near or over $100.

Same process for the short ram, with even more CNC fees due to the MAF plate being more complicated.

 

Here's a few things people need to keep in mind. First off, the company in question here is not major, outside of the lancer community very few people have heard of RRE let alone RRM. They don't advertise and I haven't seen an RRM sponsored race car or anything like that. Because of this, they can't mass produce anything thus costs are a bit higher. RRM can't go out and make 1000 strut bars in a go or buy 2000 sets of coilovers, they make or buy what they feel they can realistically sell in a relatively short time frame. Second, since a lot of the parts they make are custom (you can get parts in different colors if you so desire), they have to pay all the fees associated with that like R&D, fabrication, etc. Third, if you actually compare them to other companies, they're pretty competitive. Sure they're not as cheap as some Honda shops but that's like saying Billabong isn't as cheap as Nike.