Originally Posted by
Harris 
Sounds much like capitalism, a very American concept, no?
In the end, it's the market forces that have created and justified the existence of companies that make knockoffs. Most of the "original" power adders have a price tag that's just too high for the average enthusiast to afford. To sound like an economist, the prices that some of these companies demand are excessively above the supply/demand equilibrium. These companies are relying on selling few items but for a high markup instead of selling thousands of them for a low markup. They need to learn something from the likes of Walmart to figure out what goes on in the mind of the people they're trying to sell stuff to. Yes, I get it, Walmart is much bigger, but if HKS/Greddy/AMS/Mazworx/whoever really wants to make a profit, they need to see profitability from a long-term perspective instead of trying to immediately recoup R&D and production costs.
And let's see this from a consumer perspective as well. If I had bought brand-new items from HKS, Greddy or whoever else for my EVO, I would have spent well over $15,000. By going used and even knockoffs for non-crucial parts, I ended up spending $4,000. Now, if you were an average consumer looking to get the best bang for your buck, tell me why you'd rather spend the extra $11,000 when you could get the same reliability out of either used originals or knockoffs that work?
More of the arguments seem emotionally charged and not focused on realizing that regardless of what you think, people are not spend-thrift and would rather build their wealth than give it away to an entity that has overpriced a commodity it is trying to sell. It's Economics 101, literally. Originally Posted by
tswii Every corner of every market in the US is flooded with Chinese products. We all bitch about them, but keep buying them. It's never going to change. We can't boycott Chinese shit, because if we did we wouldn't have anything we need for every day life. Every place I shop anywhere is littered with that junk. The major part of name brand stuff is chinese made. I see many Craftsman tools that aren't US made any more. Our govt., companies, and selves are selling out every day. We just keep buying, and bitching. I hate their shit too, but use it every day. On important stuff I buy used, or just normally don't buy at all, since I can't afford the price like many have already pointed out.
^ This pretty much sums it up!!!
It would be nice if we lived in an ideal world but we do not and we will never ever see this idealism come to fruition. The only way we would see that is if we had some cataclysmic world catastrophe and we had to start all over again! Anybody got a nuke??
What spurred on all of this cheap chinese crap? Governments, big businesses and consumers! I think that pretty much includes everyone, save for a few. Human beings today have no sense of home because we live in a Global Economy. We want instant satisfaction at the cheapest price point possible. That, unfortunately, is China, They have us by the balls and they know it. We have become so accustomed to having things this way that we are ALMOST powerless to stop it! You can't shop anywhere or purchase anything without atleast one of your items being made in China or some of the materials being used to make your product being produced or manufactured in China. Sorry folks, but the wheels are in motion and you can't stop it!!!
The car I own is Made by a Japanese company and built/assembled in Mexico. The o-ring I just bought for my distriutor was made in China. I called Nissan and they wanted double the price and I had to wait a few days for them to have it shipped in. China It is!
All of the stuff from the big-box dollar stores, all of the stuff from Walmart, even most of the stuff we buy from our local parts store is made over seas, mostly China. It really does suck but there isn't much you can do other then buy North American products, or local to you products, whenever you can. If I had an endless supply of money I would always buy locally made parts unless something made overseas was superior in quality, which is rarely the case.
I can remember christmas shoping a couple of years ago with the GF and for shits and giggles we walked through a few toy isles and checked the tags and almost everything was made in China. Consumer demand pushed this, big business profit margins pushed this and even governments pushed this. How did governments push this? Free trade. Governments are all in a race with eachother to bring in big dollars from foreign countries to stimulate their economies! Who has the most money? China! End point!!
One thing local governments can do is demand that foreign companies who import things into North America have to meet certain standards. Like demanding that chinese baby products are free of BPA and other chemicals that harm our children! Foods, plastic toys, clothing, all of these things can be more heavily regulated. If we are going to allow this garbage into our Countries, then we should make them, at a minimum, meet and or exceed local regulations. This would be hard to impose on car parts, as nobody really cares what they are made of so long as they last. However, if all of the other products that we can control are more heavily regulated it would bring up the cost for these foreign countires to manufacture them. Maybe not enough to offset the loss of home-brewed jobs and companies completely, but it is a start atleast! At the end of the day this rings true:
Originally Posted by
vqman SSAC has 50 cent an hour (probably) child labor...
You copy-cat lovers, here's my challenge to you. Develop a 4-1 header and sell it for $100 .. see if its worth your time.
I was always against free trade with 3rd world countries, because we can not compete with what they pay their employees. More specifically I was against open world markets. I was told I was behind the times and the world was a changing place. Never a more true/truer
statement has been made!
Eventually the world will be a mish mash of everything and all of the lines we now draw to separate things will be blurred and even erased. Good? Bad? Who's to say really. None of us will be around to see it.
Maybe I drifted a bit off-topic here.
Bottom line: I would love to see companies like Hot-shot and others come back and once again be profitable and continue to make so-so products at not so 'so-so' prices (<--- see what I did there??
) but the writing is on the wall. The only thing we can do is BUY LOCAL whenever possible and only buy the 'EBAY' stuff when you have to, be it because of pricing or quality or brand name. And we need to
FORCE these foreign companies to have products that EXCEED our regulations before they are allowed into our Countries!!!!!! This will help to bring up their price point.
I wish I had grown up in the fifties because the world moves too fast for my liking. Always has and always will. I am by no means old, just old at heart. Technology and all things alike are just 'necessities' that I have to incorporate into my life in order to keep up to the rest of the world. I tolerate it, but I do not care for it too much. Only when it helps me out. Which is what makes me human and........the cycle continues. QUICK, EASY AND CHEAP. These are the foundations of everything that our society has become!
...and as much as I hate to say it.....America has grown FAT and failed to keep up with the rest of the world in so many areas. It is time to trim down and live within the limits of it's citizens. Where there are shortcomings, the citizens need to be pushed. However all of this is impossible when you have a two-party system that can't even agree on some budget cuts. The rest of the world is laughing and China, with India and the rest shortly behind, is counting all of America's money. Hell, they even wipe their ass with the American greenback. Not because they don't care about it but because they have so much of it!! Time to go on a diet and start keeping pace with the rest of the world. Why? Becasue this IDEAL EUTOPIA that swe would all like to see........doesn't exist! The world will swallow you up if they get to eatin' before you!!
Sorry for long rant....the car is once again pissing me off and I took it out on this thread I guess!!
Be the first to like this post.
item and lying about it. The consumer deserves to know about these things. It really isn't right when you can go around a corner and get a knockoff product for 1/10th the price of the name brand product, especially when they are using the same name. If you want to knock off my product and slap your name on it, provided my copyright has expired, then so be it. But if you want to knock off my product and under false pretenses 'slap' my logo on it......Throw the book at 'em Johnny!! Kudo's to MotoIQ and others for bringing this blatant abuse of name-brand recognition advertising to the eyes of the masses. Unfortunately, kudos must also be given to Chinese companies who take a design, improve upon it, make it for a fraction of the price and slap their own name on it. It is a dog eat dog world and some countries are falling behind! 
Back to top
