Disount Pricing Poll: Vendors are you listening?

[donnw]

Hi:

I don't mean to rant or step on anyone's toes, but has anyone noticed that:

- aftermarket accessories for the P5 are priced as though they were being snatched up by BMW & Mercedes owners...

- no one seems to offer any significant discounts (a couple % is not what I call significant) to members of this group...

- to even begin to get a discount that makes any difference, we need to do these goofy "group buys". I know the middle-man is not entirely responsible for this - much of it lies with the oem's...

- vendors no longer seem to be willing to recognize groups like this one as worthy of any significant discount, just for being a member of the group (and realizing that the group as a whole will do a lot of business with them)

- that little decorative strips and chunks of fiberglass, plastic, and other accessories are priced entirely based on what the market will stand for, ie no relation to production cost or value

- that some vendors and resellers have upped prices (by leaps and bounds) not once, but several times in the past year (must be those darn rising wages)

- that if we keep forking out whatever the seller names for this stuff without hesitation, that prices will just keep climbing to even more ridiculous levels (if that is even possible)


Could it be that I'm the only one that feels this stuff is overpriced? Sure vendors, you've got a right to earn a living - but do you have to make a killing in the process? Does anyone think that $150 for a short shifter, $350+ for a nose lip or $75 for a lousy 2 spark plug wires, is a bit much? I would love to do some mods and add-ons to my P5, but at this rate, it would cost about 2 grand to do little more than decorate it, without getting any real performance gains. I think I'll just save for a turbo (if I can find a reasonable vendor for that).

Are there any vendors out there who are willing to cut the club members here a REAL (as opposed to a token) discount, without games, rebates, group buys, etc?

If such a vendor is already here and I just haven't heard of you yet, my apologies. Like I said, I'm not trying to stomp on toes - I'm just sick of seeing the poor value rampant in the pricing in this market. There's virtually no prices I've seen on stuff here yet that wouldn't leave me feeling 'violated' if I bought it.

Oh well... so much for that... My one voice won't change anything, but if there are others who feel similar, let the aftermarket folks know. Otherwise I guess we just roll over again... (hmm)

So BTW: do you think --

a) prices are great overall - here's my paycheck
b) prices are so so, but who cares
c) prices are TOO high - will a fair supplier please step forward
d) don't bother me, I'm napping zzzzzz....

(hmm)

 

[KYREDP5]

The P5 is still a relitivly young car, give it time. Things will never be as cheap as it is for Honda owners, just too damn many of them. But I believe prices will go down once there is some more compitition.

 

[mypfizzle]

you have to understand we dont drive a honda civic like a majority of the free world and so far everyone i have gotten parts from has not only been fair in my eyes but also helpful. rishie from auto rnd has been great, the gentleman from liteswap.com that i delt with was awesome and so far all the group buy stuff i have been involved in has gone over very well.
After the car has been out for a few years im sure just like with a civic you will be able to pick up altezzas at your local pepboys but while we are seperate from everyone else and not exactly in the trend we will pay a premium.

 

[Natey]

Yeah, man. I hear ya. I guess that's the price we pay to have a somewhat unique car. Like KYred said, The Honda after-market is SO MUCH bigger than ours because there's so damn many Civics on the road. Sheezus, a year ago it was a nightmare finding add-ons for a P5 (Dude, check out my new rear-step guard!)
I think it'll be much easier in the future to find cool stuff for our cars. Check out ebay: body-kits, intakes, coil-overs, all this stuff is just finally popping up at reasonable prices...

 

[Toru]

"...priced entirely based on what the market will stand for."

That sums up the entire aftermarket philosophy for any vehicle (ok, it sums up economics period).

As I see it there are two issues regarding the aftermarket for Mazda cars:

1) Low demand (in relative terms). This reduces the volume the vendor can sell, therefore the per-unit cost must be higher to generate the same margins.

2) Little competition. With fewer companies making Mazda aftermarket parts, those who do can achieve greater margins.

Another aspect to consider is that it may not even be practical to make some parts. Take projector headlamps for example. It costs X dollars to design, setup and manufacture the units. In order to spend that money, there has to be an identified market where they think they can sell Y units for Z dollars per unit. If Y is too low, then Z is too high and people will not buy them, a total loss.

I mean, $85USD for clear corners on a 1st gen???

Oh, by the way, those people who get down on other people who complain about the high parts prices... I for one am not going to get down on my knees and blow some parts maker (figuratively speaking) because they were gracious enough to bless my make/model car with their stuff. **** that.

 

[KYREDP5]

Feathers McGraw....Nice.

 

[MP3skaterNC]

the 350 for the lower lip is so much because it is a product from japan, that needs to be shipped over here, shipping is a b****.

there are cheaper short shifters, kartboy is one.

spoolin's turbo kits are pretty cheap, if you look at it as a whole, theres a small market, and hes doing what he can to make them as cheap as possible, while still retaining quality.


prices are never going to get to honda levels, if you want cheap aftermarket parts, then buy a honda like everyone else. if you want to have the privilage of driving something differnent, pay alittle more.

i dont thing that prices are "bmw levels", have you ever bought parts for a bmw? my friend with an m3 was looking at turbo kits, AA's is 10grand.

 

[tttP5]

yea I do agree prices are kinda high... even the dgm re-fabricated front lip of the autoexe one is expensive..... hell they didn't even design it.... they just duplicated the autoexe design..... but I guess its still cheap compared to getting one from japan.... but not cheap enough.....

I think we would all love to buy so many parts but just the prices are kinda holding some of us back.... (ie me).

 

[melicha8]

I wouldn't say a lot is overpriced. I would say the only thing that is overpriced are the body kits which I'm not wild about anyway. As far as performance parts are concerned I think there is a wealth of parts out there that can be gotten at a price equivalent to more cult status cars(ie Civic). I would say 400-600 dollars is not a lot to ask for for a cat back exhaust and you are basically paying the same for intakes compared to other cars. Of course I would like prices to go down for the same quality also but for now the prices are fine. Just thank the manufacturers for even giving our car the time. I'm glad the market isn't flooded with APC crap for our car. We have companies like Greddy JIC and Autoexe making great parts for our cars. And you will pay a good price for the quality they put out so you have to deal with it