Quote:
Originally Posted by esquire
They certainly aren't pricing this kit to penetrate the market. At 13k or so, they are pricing the kit on par with already proven kits. As a value proposition its hard to take a 13k dive on an unproven kit, especially one based on entirely new architecture for the e9x M3.
Especially coming this late to the game, and at that price point, it will be hard for them to penetrate the market under the weight of heavy hitters like ESS, VF, and Gintani.
While I'm curious to see what I think will be promising results, I (probably like most people here) sure as hell wouldn't guinea pig my car on an unproven kit, especially for 14k. They'll probably have to throw a lot of sponsorships out there to generate some kind of a sample size for the reliability of the kit. But can anyone really trust the veracity of someone's "unbiased" assesement of the kit or its reliability when they're getting sponsored (essentially paid). Especially with rumors of people being made subject to confidentiality (non-disclosure) agreements after certain kits, early in their development, blew engines.
I like the promise of this kit, but I will reserve judgment not for the actual release, but after this kit has been on 50, 100, 200 cars and the data demonstrates that the kit is safe on the engine. The question is, can they get that many kits on the car before people are moving on to the next thing. After alll, this car is coming to the end of its lifecycle.
-esquire
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Team Plutonium
I think this thing will be incredible, I just don't understanding the business side of that project. An expensive new kit for a soon out of production car? Seems like they missed the boat by a couple of years.  |
There are several points I do agree and that I disagree with. I do agree that $13K is a little high coming out of nowhere into a market where trusted kits like ESS or VF can be bought for $8-11K, ranging on the type of kit. However, as a model of car ages, the car will become more affordable. If the e9x's follow a common trend, as they become more affordable, the cars reach a younger audience, which tend to mod the car more and more. (this can be seen with the e46 m3, and 335i) For example, the vargas turbo kit and Shiv's FFTEC turbo kit for the N54's only started really selling after the n54 cars had been phased out for the n55, and the older cars become more affordable. This was also seen with HPF and the s54 (their kits came out later in the life cycle of the engine) and yet HPF continued to develop new kits, built motor packages 6 years after the e46 generation m3 had stop being produced. (at a premium at that, people are paying more to get a stage 3 HPF S54 built than the car is worth itself)
So do I think the price is a bit high? For an air-to-water intercooled kit coming right out of the market that could potentially compete with the likes of a vt-625 or vf620, it might be a little bit high, however I think consumers would pay that small premium ($1300 more than an ESS VT-625 kit sourced from EAS, or $500 less than a vf620 kit) to have this new, innovative kit with a twin-screw response and power delivery -- obviously pending quality of the kit, performance, and overall reliability.