Why are we???

[acezak]

Forgive me this is not aimed at the sponsors of this site at all but....and i know all the sponsors of this site always look after us when it comes to discount.

but £119 quid for a pair of carbon spliters it's a damm little bit of carbon??:mad: and SSDD is doing cheaper than most places on the web.

Why do we Britons get ripped off for mod's for our cars when customers over the pond get it oh so cheap? to me thats worth no more than 50 quid.. the mark up on mod's is out of control and seems to be more expensive if you have a more expensive car EG BMW, Merc , Porker etc.

As i said we all know SSDD, CA etc give us the best price they can because of the costs to them so please don't think i'm having a go at you guy's.

this country sucks:mad

[benny boy]

Exchange rate shipping and tax all add to the cost so you also need to weigh this up. Also Carbo fiber is not cheap stuff also the splitters that cost £50 may not be the same quality as Teddys. But us brits to pay to much in genral.
:(

[XKaLiBaR]

i agree, and you dont know whether its gonna look good or not. i would chance it for 50 quid, but not 119!

[Kin Mak]

The U.S also has a lot more modders(people in general), more modders means more sales. More sales mean more buying power. More buying power means cheaper goods. Larger volume and cheaper good means lower sell prices. Then there is VAT. :rolleyes:

[churchwa]

Please remember to ADD 22.5% to any price you see in the USA.

All their prices exclude VAT and import duty which means you have to add 22.5% to all their prices.

[acezak]

But i have found i've delt with sellers in the US but get there stock from Japan

[BigFas]

why are you comparing USA prices to UK? Someone already touched upon it, the US is a MASSIVE market. Simple economics based on class 101 - Economies of Scale.

US importer contacts Japan and says I'd like 1 million units (he knows he can sell them). He gets a unit price of x

UK importer has a much smaller market and can only order 10,000 units. How can the manufacturer give him the same price? Doesn't happen. If the price to the importer is high, then this is going to be passed onto the consumer, it's with everything you pay.

You can buy direct from the states and get lucky with import duty, but factor in deliver, import costs, etc. etc. the price is damn near the same. And you have no warranty

[Mud]

Here is a quick example of costs for you, I import a product from America which sells for 99c over there and it sells in most places here for £1.99 and I always get people telling me its rip off Britain again on pricing but heres the thing you dont see, to get that product into the UK we need to do the following;

Order a full containers worth of stock costing tens of thousands of pounds
Pay to ship the container to the UK
Pay to have it sit at the docks when customs decide they want to scan it
pay to have the stock taken out of the container then put onto UK pallets then delivered to our warehouse.
Absorb the costs of delivery to our wholesalers.
Pay the costs of having an office and sales staff and admin staff and warehousing and all the other normal business costs.

Now considering the high costs involved with everything above, I think its a bloody miracle that we can get the product out there for only £1.50ish more expensive than it costs in America yet people still bitch and moan.

Alot of companies that imprort goods have the same issues and therefore it will always be more expensive in the UK than America or Japan etc...

We work in a 60 million person market and the USA works in the 260 million person market........

[Tilly]

I know what you mean. This is why I keep getting drawn towards VAG cars, more tuning parts available from europe at half the price. I was having this conversation the other day actually with invisiblekid on xbox live lol :D

When I look back to playing with Fords etc, we used to turbo/supercharge zetecs to very high quality and reliability for a lot less than BMWs, Prosches, Mercs etc with off the shelf parts. I'm not going to get too into detail on prices etc as I can see this thread turning into one of those really defensive arguements for no reason lol :)

But to put it simply without getting into a ridiculous slagging debate. Yes, I'm with you on this one although I just think we get stung in general, not in relation/comparison to the states. Different countries have different tax laws and manufacturing costs so I agree we get stung purely on a mark up principle and that our country is a little harsh but I would not compare product costs to use the US to be honest

[acezak]

why are you comparing USA prices to UK? Someone already touched upon it, the US is a MASSIVE market. Simple economics based on class 101 - Economies of Scale.

US importer contacts Japan and says I'd like 1 million units (he knows he can sell them). He gets a unit price of x

UK importer has a much smaller market and can only order 10,000 units. How can the manufacturer give him the same price? Doesn't happen. If the price to the importer is high, then this is going to be passed onto the consumer, it's with everything you pay.

You can buy direct from the states and get lucky with import duty, but factor in deliver, import costs, etc. etc. the price is damn near the same. And you have no warranty


Comparing with the world not just the US, you say Volume and yes sometimes it is that but i have two Suppliers of NOS systems, one is the main so called importer and the other is direct from the states,

Now they import alot more kits than i do so they get them cheaper but hit me with 150 quid mark up,,, if i buy them direct, even with import tax they are 100 qiud cheaper and they come with warrentee. They have the same setup as i do but just want to make more money on the item.

[mysticm3]

We SSDD strive to be the market leader in providing quality products at excellent value, fully backed up our reputation and customer services. We are not the cheapest but can confidently say that we offer one of the class leading customer service/after sales in the whole of UK.

Sadly where we live we have to pay a very high % of VAT at 17.50. This is extremely high compared to the US and many other parts of the world.

Another major factor is the cost of living. If you can find a franchised McD in the UK that sells BigMac meal for $3.00 or a KFC that sells you a Bargain Bucket for $9.00 then I want to move there.

Fas has nailed it also with the economy of scale. discount from manufacturers is determined from order quantity. For example, we ordered and made 5000 pairs of the extended SMG paddles so we are able to supply them in the UK at a lower price than most sellers in the US market (often found USD $300 plus shipping).

[ImagClaw]

Forgive me this is not aimed at the sponsors of this site at all but....and i know all the sponsors of this site always look after us when it comes to discount.

but £119 quid for a pair of carbon spliters it's a damm little bit of carbon??:mad: and SSDD is doing cheaper than most places on the web.

Why do we Britons get ripped off for mod's for our cars when customers over the pond get it oh so cheap? to me thats worth no more than 50 quid.. the mark up on mod's is out of control and seems to be more expensive if you have a more expensive car EG BMW, Merc , Porker etc.

As i said we all know SSDD, CA etc give us the best price they can because of the costs to them so please don't think i'm having a go at you guy's.

this country sucks:mad

How do you think i feel... i am an american living in your country that cost twice as much as i am used to... where a 3USD hamburger now cost 6USD (after exchange rate of course).

[acezak]

How do you think i feel... i am an american living in your country that cost twice as much as i am used to... where a 3USD hamburger now cost 6USD (after exchange rate of course).

HEHE back at ya:)

[ImagClaw]

HEHE back at ya:)

Let me know if you guys need anything... nothing HUGE like bumpers, bonnets, boots or wheels/tires. I can order them and get them VAT free and at US prices ;-) The above list is all i can think of right now, but if you shoot me an email i will tell you if it is too big for me to have shipped here via the US Postal Service. That goes for OEM really... i dont want to take away from the sponsors modding market here.

[d_sport]

economies of scale is a fair point but when you are ordering something which is not kept in stock, and has a lead time of say 14-28days because it is coming direct from the manufacturer - there is little reason other than tax (and being british!) for the price to be so G'damn high!

[acezak]

economies of scale is a fair point but when you are ordering something which is not kept in stock, and has a lead time of say 14-28days because it is coming direct from the manufacturer - there is little reason other than tax (and being british!) for the price to be so G'damn high!

and of course company mark up:(

[ImagClaw]

and of course company mark up:(

I even think i would charge like a small 5 - 8% over what the part costs, thats just to cover my ass b/c i would be "black marketing" parts.

[acezak]

I even think i would charge like a small 5 - 8% over what the part costs, thats just to cover my ass b/c i would be "black marketing" parts.

looking for a AC strut brace now:)

[jordan3054]

In Britain we always compare with places which are cheaper than us, but there are plenty of places where cars/parts are much more expensive, but people dont see that, they just look at America

These are the prices of cars in a certain country in the Far East.

http://paultan.org/archives/2006/04/07/nap-after-effects-bmw-announces-new-pricelist/

In £ this equates to roughly:- (Without Options I believe)

330i - £57,700
530D - £82,000
M5 - £135,000
X5 4.4i - £111,500
750 Li - £137,000

So the UK is dearer than North America, but not near as bad as some other places. Also, the average wage there is a fraction of what it is here in the UK, so the lower cost of living is all relative.

[Silver]

Cars in the far east. Are usually more expensive especially german cars. Only plus side is that servicing is parts are dirt cheap.

[will_uk]

In £ this equates to roughly:- (Without Options I believe)

330i - £57,700
530D - £82,000
M5 - £135,000
X5 4.4i - £111,500
750 Li - £137,000



Same as Norway... The BMW M5 costs the equivalent of £155000 without options there.