Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeffblue
on a serious note.... if the JDM companies weren't charging several thousand dollars for aero kits, there would be less of a market for the replicas. If you look at the price elasticity of demand for aero stuff, you dont see too many people scooping up authentic zele, amuse, etc kits. However, you see these replica threads and theres TONS of people chomping at the bit to get a kit. A product will only be successfull if there is demand for it at its selling price. Clearly there is demand, but not enough to keep these companies healthy at the prices they want.
From a ethical perspective, its clearly not 'right' to just copy someone elses kits and sell them. However, I wouldn't be surprised if these replica kits weren't really eating into the sales of the real brands as much as you would think. Anyone who is passionate enough about getting authentic amuse or zele kits, will probably still get one, and anyone who can only cought up a few hundred dollars for a replica kit, probably couldn't have afforded the real thing anyway.
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The price is due to several factors, cost of materials - higher quality resins for the FRP parts, Japanese labor is more expensive - you get an attention to detail that can only be seen with Japan-made parts, and the cost of R&D involves actually getting a hold of a car and doing all the clay modeling, $30,000K+ of mold making and costs of materials. The knock-off companies don't have any of those costs to worry about, plus the parts are usually made in China for pennies. Bottom line, you get what you pay for.
As far as buying real versus fake, you'd be surprised how many people think the replica is actually the original. For example, for the Spoon hardtop for the Honda S2000, the knock-off company "Shine" has made so many cheap copies that many S2K owners believe they are the originators of the design!
Again, I'm not trying to preach, but simply make sure that everybody can make informed decisions.
-Kris