Yep! The small issues are always the hardest ones to find and fix.
I'm glad I haven't had any of those with my G35 yet :knock on wood:

 

19x9.5 and 19x10.5 oem rays. weighed these. 23 and 24. the bands themselves dont weigh that much. 1 and 2 lbs respectively. stocks are 22 and 23. looks like u were right scraggle haha

 

So they were widened obviously...

Put them on your G so we can see how they look.

 

I knew it wouldn't make any sense for them to be 19lbs.

 

Bro, your late to the party...

 

I don't see why it matters. The cars are old, and they're getting cheap. I've spent 1/3 cost in replacement parts, just keeping this damn thing running. Keeping oil in it. Replacing sensors. Tires. You name it.

They stopped making these in 05/06/07? I guess if you want $5,000 repair bills and expensive parts, buy a porshe lol.

 

I can't think of a service that expensive for this car.

The $35 oil changes at my local dealer are pretty nice though, when I get to drive a nicer, newer car.

 

SLICK was driven off the showroom floor the night I bought her in '04 at a cost of close to $40K. Next Monday she goes into a quality body shop to fix some of the minor blems she's picked up in 60+K miles of daily driving. If you've paid a substantial amount for your ride, those who love what they drive will spend whatever it costs to keep it in mint condition! You can see the upgrades I've made, lasting quality doesn't come cheap. If you bought a G for $6K most aren't willing to make quality mods so they end up with muffler delete and other ghetto mods, that's just the way it is...sadly!
Gary

 

This, I can understand. I bought my G for 8k. It's not super mod/swap friendly. I think I'd rather put the expensive exhaust on the Fiero. After all, the fiero will see 11s for pennies compared to my G. And since I only paid 8.3 for it, I don't feel so guilty tossing whatever into it.

I bought my Yaris full price. It's worth 10% of what I paid for it now. And it's in great condition. I paid a lot for it. I don't cheap on parts because I plan on keeping it forever (because I'm not selling it for 2k).
Even though I never drive it, it gets the synthetic oil, stealership parts, etc, for being the expensive (mistake) car.

Funny how that works out.

 

Bingo.

 

I know - a year old posts.

Just wanted to get you guys thinking about the parts you are spending your money on in a more realistic way since it sounds like people jock JDM prestige pretty hard to where it seems they will spend money on a product because of the name rather than actually understanding what quality really is.

Rays Engineering has a factory in Yao, Japan. Those parts are the real JDM quality we want. But what about the other brands everybody jocks so much? Have you ever wondered how JDM that JDM part really is?

You should because manufacturing metal products in Japan is very expensive. In fact, I think it's safe to say that it's the most expensive place in the world for metal production because they do turn out excellent quality work. If a company cuts costs by using a manufacturer outside of Japan that already had the tooling, suckers will still run to them and pay the same high ticket prices for the parts. And I do say that because it's true, they do just that and people are still on their jocks just the same.

Most of those"JDM" parts are now only JDM by name. While some do adhere to a high quality standard, some of those cheap knock offs you hate so much are actually the same part from the same manufacturer, using the same tools and plans.

The ignorance behind the pinky up attitude I've witnessed so much of is just so hilarious to me. Because if you like the brand, cool, you like the brand. Spend an extra couple thousand to have it, that's fine. Just don't expect price to be an indicator of quality, that's just foolish, ignorant, and just plain dumb.

A few JDM brands connected to Taiwan manufacturers: HKS, APEXi, GREDDY, Tein, TODA, JUN, RSR, Tomei. Those same manufacturers may give those parts a new look and sell them under their own house brand.

Taiwan manufacturing is currently second best in Asia, but still quite a bit behind Japan, of course. There are JDM brands being manufactured in Thailand (which is good for green products like organic toys and such but not much for the other things - their electronics production have been disasterous in some cases), Philippines, and Vietnam. And there are even "JDM" brands that aren't even Japanese owned anymore. Tell me, how JDM is that Taiwan manufacturered part branded by a Taiwanese owned company?

I would avoid products made from anywhere but Japan or Taiwan.

Oh and about Korean manufacturing, you won't be seeing JDM parts come out of Korea ever. You'd understand if you understand Korean history.

I'm not vouching for those wheels but ARK is Korean and they are currently considered one of the best quality exhausts in the market.

 

Huh, neat.

 

I think I need to mention that Germany turns out some amazing stuff but my post was really only pertaining to JDM brands. I'm not familiar with the British and German manufacturing although I've met some retired German engineers lately.

 

I usually deal with manufacturing plants around the world, and for the most part, the engineering and design is pretty much all on par with each other. (product dependent of course) The big issue is where the product is actually manufactured. I've had TONS of horror stories with products made in China. I've spec'd out specific grade of steel, and find material certs have been forged, or the quality of the steel is very low quality. I had one case where a part machined from 4" 316L SS bar stock was POROUS in the center and would pass air through the product. I've had Chinese MFG plants forge inspection docs on me....all swept under the rug of course because someone higher up probably got some kickbacks.


Japan is a unique marketplace. There's a huge cultural perception in the country that Japanese products are superior to all. We have counterpart engineers in Japan and it's a huge issue with any sort of collaborative projects we've worked on. The US-designed, or MFG component always gets blamed, and they've gone as far as to blatently lie about test data to make their components seem to be working fine. Japanese have HUGE pride in their country and products and tend to buy Japan first. (JDM is best..right?) So as a result, having a Japan operation and MFG is critical for us. VERY expensive though.

German stuff....excellent from what I've dealt with. Really well engineered stuff and their manufacturing is on par with best in the world. I've purchased major equipment from German maufacturers and toured their plants. They are up there.

British Manufacturing? They still like their odd fittings and British pipe threads and weird little quirks. Don't deal much with british MFG.

Even US stuff is good. What I'm referring to is items ACTUALLY MANUFACTURED here in the US. As soon as it's outsourced to china, I take that all back. But the components we have made by US machine shops and assembled here are generally excellent, always in spec, quality steels, etc....just more expensive. Unfortunately cutting costs and increasing margins is a driving force in the industry, and easiest way to do so is take that $300 US-manufactured component, sent it to china, and have it made for $30 instead.



All that above pertains to industries other than automotive.

 

True that man..'someone always trying to save a buck' and people always seem to want the lowest cost.