Thread: Dont buy fake SH|T ( Good article ) Mike Kojima's site.

i'd buy one for my g20..

what's with the hick slang? are you suggesting i'm a hick?? lol.. that's funny

The SRT4 oem mount style intercooler that i just bought is a 35X12X4 intercooler with 2.5" inlet/outlet, The core is a 24X12X4", enought to flow well into the 800-900whp range without problems, its been proven. Once i switch out the inlet/outlet to 3" that is. Cost me 190 shipped for the thing, spent 60 bucks on aluminum v-band flanges to weld onto it, gonna cost me probably 40 bucks to have a weld shop cut off and weld on the v-bands. So looking at a total cost of 290 vs another intercooler made by a US company for the SRT4's that sell for 600+ bucks and still have the 2.5" inlet/outlet but use a greddy core of the same size of this one. So again you get where im going.

The headers are probably the best example of why knockoffs do so well. The SSAC out performed headers costing 6-7X as much and lasted longer. lol Why wouldnt you buy one. Youd be stupid not to. They are great for your average motor and build. Yeah they are good up to a point then hey support a local guy or company and have a custom header made for your specific build. When your putting 10k into a motor another 1200-1500 on a header is really not much plus needed on your big bore/stroke builds.

Not sure.... Sometimes I get crazy thoughts that run through my head. I pictured you in one of them like 50 gallon hats and a couple six shooters @ high noon. My mind is fucked, lol

Exactly my point at some point someone dyno tested and figured how to make the best power and for someone to just come and copy it is bs..

Should of hotshot used better materials or nice priced them so high... Probably but I still dont agree with a chinese company making a copy of them. When I buy a part Its nice to be able to call that company and ask someone about the part who actually knows what into making it..

I don't think some of you understand how bad things are getting with China copying designs. Here is a report that talks about how they have been hacking on a massive scale into US databases to steal designs. Oh and their government is very possibly behind the data theft U.S.: Beijing backs hacking on 'massive scale' | Security - CNET News (sorry for the vague-ness of that article there news stories that cover it more in-depth out there)
They have no R&D for anything so they are starting to steal it with designs.

Oh and for everyone complaining about how prices on the real stuff is too high, YOU KNOW PRICES WOULD BE LESS IF MORE PEOPLE BOUGHT THEIR STUFF RIGHT?! The value of our dollar is really dropping too so your same dollar doesn't go as far. Because CEOs are sending our business to China, and then the little guy supports the fact by buying the product.

Buy used if you can't afford new, make your own, pay your buddy to make it, or improvise from something in the junkyard...there are a thousand solutions we just have to initiate them

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.

Gotta pay to play... Just sucks when we have no more Greddy HKS Apexi JWT AMS Maz etc etc..

Im all for used parts, Hell I saved a ton of money with used parts in my build.

I dont think those companies will go anywhere, their products still sell because of their quality, Companies such as tial still make high quality wastegates and bov's and there are still plenty of people that will spend good money on their bov's. Most people are smart enough to know better to use a knockoff wastegate. Your just asking for trouble. I love the Tial gates, while expensive, you gotta pay to play and play reliably.

Bov's, a little different, your not gonna blow up your motor from a faulty bov unless you have it on the cold side pipe and the valve or something falls apart and gets sucked into the motor. Different story as Ive seen Turbosmart bov's and a couple other name brand bovs do the same thing. So again in that aspect what is stopping someone from spending less to get the same quality.

Turbos, i mean its pretty much common knowledge that the knockoffs are not gonna last. Most people with any type of common sense wont use ebay turbos. So Precision, greddy, turbonetics, Borg Warner, all their turbos will still sell pretty well.

Companies just need to focus on making innovative parts that are not copied and not likely to get copied. They need to drop their prices on intercoolers and so on to sell them competitively. Cuz again your not gonna blow up a motor by having an ebay intercooler vs a greddy. lol. Both will last equally as long.

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.