Why does the G35 community seem so cheap?
#241
03-14-2017, 03:28 PM
tein opened a factory in china to produce their lower end coilover models ie basis z. but they say their in full control and its their factory not a contracted factory so i feel good about that lol. im beginning to think all the cheap no brand coilovers on ebay going for $400 is the same as the one made/sold by those known brands like bc, ksport, d2, megan going for $800. probably all come from the same factory bc damn they sure do all look the same just different color finish. the difference? the marketing lol
#242
03-14-2017, 04:03 PM
tein opened a factory in china to produce their lower end coilover models ie basis z. but they say their in full control and its their factory not a contracted factory so i feel good about that lol. im beginning to think all the cheap no brand coilovers on ebay going for $400 is the same as the one made/sold by those known brands like bc, ksport, d2, megan going for $800. probably all come from the same factory bc damn they sure do all look the same just different color finish. the difference? the marketing lol
Last edited by dofu; 03-16-2017 at 05:10 AM.
#243
03-14-2017, 04:45 PM
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.
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.
I have my own personal horror stories about our dealings with Chinese manufacturers. Basically, they give you a perfect prototype, but when production begins, the final product is complete crap in every way you can or cannot imagine. The materials get cheaper, the finish becomes crap, they didn't even machine the parts well.
They are banking that you want to drop ship everything so they show you a perfect prototype to get approval, and you won't hear a thing until customers complain about how crappy your product is. And the coldest part about some of those, the product was just an oem.
Say you want to brand and sell... a tactical flashlight. You find a manufacturer, and they will have designs ready. All you do is mix and match everything from looks to function from what's in the catalog and you have your unique flashlight. And that is where the headaches begin. This works for coilovers, electronics, seriously, almost everything.
But yes, the engineering for some of these aftermarket cat parts... You'd imagine they are all like Hyrdrazine where he actually rocket engineered the parts, but the cold truth is that some of these companies just throw specs that they pulled out of their assess together and these fanboys still love them. Luckily for them that when it comes to a simple product like a plenum spacer, all the engineering in the world is not going to make a huge difference as long as the specs are decent, meaning they can actually have a bit of market share next to companies like Hydrazine's.
Last edited by dofu; 03-14-2017 at 06:21 PM.
#244
03-15-2017, 11:12 AM
I have my own personal horror stories about our dealings with Chinese manufacturers. Basically, they give you a perfect prototype, but when production begins, the final product is complete crap in every way you can or cannot imagine. The materials get cheaper, the finish becomes crap, they didn't even machine the parts well..
With what we spend on QA "cleanup" from poor quality parts, I wonder if it would be cost-effective to just pay more initially up front and make the components elsewhere.
#245
03-15-2017, 11:05 PM
My understanding is tein didn't outsource to China they built their own factory in China to produce their lower end coilovers.
#246
03-16-2017, 01:20 AM
That's possible but I would think they would rather retool and expand a factory rather than build a new one. They will control production wherever it's done, but the point is, those "cheap" parts these fanboys stick their noses up at are made from the same factories to similar specs, and those more popular, more expensive brands aren't much better.
Last edited by dofu; 03-16-2017 at 01:34 AM.
#247
03-16-2017, 01:51 AM
That's possible but I would think they would rather retool and expand a factory rather than build a new one. They will control production wherever it's done, but the point is, those "cheap" parts these fanboys stick their noses up at are made from the same factories to similar specs, and those more popular, more expensive brands aren't much better.
http://teinusa-blog.com/tein-has-two...turing-plants/
#248
03-17-2017, 06:23 PM
Its all about what you are trying to make your car into. Some people want to make their Gs a drift car, some track, some street race only. In my case I'm slowly making it a drift car so it's going to get ugly before it gets pretty or "appealing". Some Gs are beat to **** because they have owners that just have a G to say they own a nice looking car. And Some Gs are in immaculate condition because the owner takes pride in their car. As far as buying cheap parts go, honestly a good majority of the **** out there is literally made in the same factories, and most times you are literally paying for a name. If you dig up where a lot of these parts are made even with name brand companies you will see why a lot of times there's no reason to buy the most expensive stuff because it's literally the same product. Probably when a vehicle first comes out the parts are as expensive as can be and they are in high demand, but as the demand lowers and time goes on more non OEM and aftermarket items come into play. And then with more after market items, more items that want to beat out the prices you get offered by aftermarket places so they make the items at a cheaper cost and sell them cheaper, and as more time goes on those name brand companies want to make things cheaper but still make good profit and start using those same cheap factories, and as I said literally all parts are being made from the same place so many people see no point to pay 200 dollars more for the same item that does the same thing only difference is one has a well known name. It's less common in the euro market but mostly everything is made in Japan or China, so for having a JDM car I mean it boils down to the simple fact that eventually you are getting the same product. Also going back to what I said, depending on what you are making your car sometimes your buy cheap parts just to be able to test stuff out first then buy an expensive and lasting part if you feel satisfied with the cheap ones performance.
#249
03-18-2017, 02:05 PM
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