Hmmm!! What case are you referring to? I don't think anyone has complained about this bumper yet, except for the person who got banned. It's unfortunate you don't have any say in the pricing. You are the eyes of the consumer..aren't you? Why are you on this board? If there was a demand for something, wouldn't you report back to the necessary personnel about the consumer needs?

I agree, a part of the cost goes to R&D, production and shipping to the US, and you also have to agree, the remaining cost is pure profit!! No one is asking Top Secret or these other oversea companies to give their products away, or lose money on it. If that was the case, don't even bother designing and making the product and shipping it to the US. But I know there must be room to adjust for pricing. Call it greed, call it what you want, someone is making money, and a lot of it. It's plain as day, be competitive in your pricing. I would be the first one knocking on your door if it was $2-300 cheaper. That is the quick an easy way to eliminate replicas!!


Playing the "Game" my man is a figure of speech. This is what make these companies so ignorant and arrogant. They believe their parts are indeed manufactered for quality and "priced" accordingly, they monopolize, to be quite honest with you, if that was the case, I wouldn't be here writing this, instead I would be telling you what a great deal I got for your bumper. The fact of the matter is, maybe Top Secret did not take into consideration about replicas. You guys just figure, you will just monopolize the market with this bumper. No competition..."we will price it sky high!!" Lesson to be learned, you guys don't listen to consumers and don't be greedy. If this was a competition, and you submit your R&D and pricing, you guys would flat out lose. In the real world you compete!!! I do agree, your design was stolen from you, in today's market, you expect that, and I find it hard to believe your company did not expect that. Patent your stuff if you want to eliminate that, otherwise be prepare for replicas entering the market!! The bottom line here is..."price yourself competitively", then we can eliminate a lot these problems with consumers. nuff said!!!

 

haha no...

You are missing my point entirely. Our parts are made to be of the highest quality for customers who demand the highest quality. It's as simple as that. In Japan, consumers care more about the quality and are willing to pay more for it. You are basically saying you don't care about quality at all as long as your body shop can make it look the same.

Read the thread again, there is one other person who has posted who has fitted one as well as others who have not yet fitted but agree with the complaints. I am on the message boards to be informative and I try my best to answer every question possible.

Like I said, I don't get input as far as pricing goes but I will say that alot of people here seem to look at us as some huge corporation with tons of money who makes tons of money off these parts like greedy car salesmen. The ironic truth is that we are usually smaller in size than the companies who are knocking off our products. Tuning and engineering come before our aero parts. You are very right in regards to pricing can reduce the demand for knockoffs but it will not eliminate it. C-West is a great example of this. They moved production outside of Japan, quality suffered some but the fitment is not horrible, and now they're prices are much cheaper. Unfortunately, other companies still knock their products off...

As far as a monopoly goes, this is not the case. There are several different front bumpers to choose from for the G35 Coupe. We designed ours, priced it, and brought it to the table. Noone is forced to buy our bumper or like our design and if they don't feel it's worth the price, they will not buy it. There are also several alternatives. It's a free market...nothing like a monopoly.

If companies expected their designs to be stolen and counterfeited, they may choose not to make a product to begin with. It's obvious that it's wrong for another company to steal a designa and make money off of it but patents do not solve the problem. Actually, if we were to take a patent out, the bumper would cost alot more...patents are not cheap by any means.

 

lol! Damn, I missed it! Another thread that turned into a knock off vs original thread! haha!

To make my point short and simple, Bodykits can be modified to fit 100% perfect just as well as an authentic kit and still save money in the end. Bodykits are non functional asthetics, where as engine and suspension parts arent, and they can NOT be modified. I would rather save money on a bodykit and spend that money on more important things, such as suspension parts, where quality can NOT be sacrificed or modified.

Bodykits are just for looks. Theres no function to them (G35 bodykits). Brand name doesnt matter at all! It only matters if you're competing at a car show. People would rather spend the extra time to get a replica to fit perfectly and save the money to afford better functional mods.

 

Silverbolt in this cause your wrong. 550.00 vs 850.00-900.00 for the real one. Lets say you have a fitment problem, how far will 300.00 get you in a bodyshop? 75.00 a hour. Now lets say it fits perfect, it will still need to be glazed. Thats about two hours worth of work,150.00. So now you saved 150.00 and you have a knock off. Why go through the headach? Heres the problem with the guys that mod the G. A LOT of them come from the Honda crowd and are use to cheap stuff. This is not a Civic! The best part is bodyshops wont touch kits anymore! They've taken it in the ****ter too many times in the past. Who do we have to thank for that? The guys that make the ****! If you do find a shop they are going to charge you a arm and a leg!

 

This is my point. I took this from the GB thread.

 

There are still plenty of shops in my area that specialize in fixed up show cars and doing custom body mods and fabrications.

As for as Hondas and Civics... well, imo your arguement is flawed. A body kit is a body kit, IS A BODY KIT! It doesnt matter if its for a Civic, a GS430, or a G35. All it is, is a fiberglass shell that was ALL made the same way! The only difference is that they may have used the OEM bumper for the orginal prototype so that it fits properly... but that still doesnt justify overpricing to the extent that they do.

Customer: "Hi, I would like to buy those hyper white headlight bulbs. How much are they?"

Salesman: "Those are about $50 a set"

Customer: "Great, I'll take two sets then! The'll be a perfect match for my G35!"

Salesman: "Oh, I thought you were buying them for a civic! I'm sorry, if you're putting these in a G35, then I'll have to charge you $75."

Just because its a more expensive car, doesnt mean that everything for it should be more expensive. When you pump gas, the gas price doesnt increase just because your car costs more than the civic that was there before you.

If you still want to argue with me, thats fine. All I know is that whenever anyone says otherwise... that doesnt change the fact that I'm still doing what I said I would do, paying what I said I will pay, and having what I said I will have. If I say I have a silver car, and I'm standing right in front of it, why argue that its not in front of me? Thats a rhetorical question. I'm tired of having this same 'ol debate. You win.

 

It does matter, supply and demand. There are a TON of civics that get modded. So they make a TOn of parts and are able to get the cost down.

 

G352NV your case is only when you have no connection to the bodyman or the bodyshop and they charge u regular price.

But when you do have connections, everything is cheaper, like in my case =]

kits all prepped and ready to go, either being painted this weekend or monday ...

can't wait!

 

Hey I know what your saying. Thats why my buddy bought his.

 

Aerodynamics and body kits can make a difference in performance. Maybe not so much in our daily driving situations but if you look at Japanese time attack cars body kits play a large part in success. I read that an S2K added a set of front canards and took over 2 seconds off it's lap time in a time attack race. The canards allowed more weight to be on the front wheels thus allowing better steering. You can also look at those same time attack cars and their use of carbon fiber to reduce weight which also improves performance.

 

And thats why I put "G35 bodykits" in quotations when I was refering to bodykits. The kits for the G35s were not designed for function... but mostly looks.

 

It's all about supply and demand, you are correct G32NV. Plus these kits are authentic from Japan. Most bodykits you see that are cheap for hondas are made here in the USA..

Labor in Japan isn't cheap, plus the cost of the exchange rate, and shipping/customs this is just the way it is.

The bottom line to this thread is, the knockoff is a piece of junk. You can argue the price difference to death.

 

You cant say that all knock offs are a piece of junk. If anyone really believe that, then they are just ignorant.

And as I said before:

 

What I find funny is your guys threatened me and SAID you were going to go after the manufacturer over this and never did anything...why? Cuz you can't.

 

that's weird...I received an email with MOKC's post, but when I clicked on the link, it wasn't here...anyways, this is what it said; "What I am trying to tell you here is, and a lot guys have been trying
to do so in other threads is, we would probably be happy in spending the
money on the replica and take our chances at the bodyshop, rather than
spend the big cash on something that we don't think is worth paying
for. Some of these body kits are so outrageously price, it's pitiful.
Your bumper falls into that category. If you want to eliminate the
middle man, be competitve, make your prices competitive...that's the bottom
line!! Play the game or get squeezed out!!"

MOKC,

When are you installing yours to show that it does fit fine with little effort?