I know its just amazing to me that most likely Rotary Extreme is making more than 450 in profit on a bumper that cost them less than 200. One of the reasons I was looking at the oem bumper at 380 through mazda motorsports. I wonder what the market will bare now that there is another supplier for the same bumper at a 1/3 the price. Of course if too many are bought off ebay JF Racing may increase their price.

 

Ramy,

Thanks for the input regarding the VIS product.However, I still don't see a 99 JDM copy of the front bumper at their website. If they do could you e me a direct link? Oh and on the subject of shoes coincidently, you are only partially correct. You are not considering the cost of R & D, marketing, distribution, vendor returns etc... which trust me all contribute to the cost in addition to the labor. It is why the shoes are made in countries like China otherwise they would cost $300. Trust me, I have been in the Shoe manufacturing/ retailing business for almost 25 years and it's a crazy world.

V

 

Yeah, they STOLE those photos from our website. Take a closer look at how they cropped our Logo from the photos and add the water mark. Those photos were taken in the backlot of our shop and the car is our customer's car.

Upon more navigating their website, I found out that they use photos of Extreme Dimensions and claim those are photos of their warehouse. I guess using other people's photos and claiming them to be theirs is what they do at best. The photos they use to sell the bumper belong to us. The photos of their so called 25,000 sq. ft. warehouse actually belong to Extreme Dimensions. They probably operate from their dorm room which has no overhead cost.

I hope it's not the same bumper we are selling because we paid our contractor $15,000 to make the mold.

Chuck

 

Sounds like JF Racing may not be selling these bumpers much longer. If you payed for the mold then they definetly should not be selling the bumper. Is there anything you would like me to check to make sure. Like I said before it has the same stamp with the offroad use only on it. I haven't checked the numbers though.

 

How do you think RotaryExtreme came into existance? No one wanted to pay $1500 for a front bumper or a hood Again, it's all about taking a good idea, making it better (Chuck improves on virtually everything he sells), and then pricing it at what the market will bear

V, my bad. I didn't mean to imply that VIS specifically makes a 99spec replica. I was just saying that VIS' polyfiber material is the way to go IMO. Best of both worlds. It's funny cuz I think INGS +1 was the first to come out w/ a urethane/glass hybrid material. At that time, VIS parts SUCKED, and they were going down the tube. They got bought out, management changed, and they introduced a whole new lineup, including the Polyfiber stuff. Recently, ExtremeDimensions came out w/ their version of polyfiber, but I haven't tried their stuff.

Your best bet for a 99spec replica is Chuck's urethane one. Otherwise, you can either buy a new one, or PM me and I may be able to find you a used one

Oh yea? Well I've been wearing shoes for almost 25 years... I'm just messing man But yea I hear you. I think your and Chuck's response will clarify things for fritts, showing that a lot more than just actual labor/production cost goes into running a business. There are a LOT of non-negotiable overhead costs that businesses face, and all of them are tacked into the price of the part/product/service.

~Ramy

 

Ramy,
I wasn't bagging on you dude about the shoe thing, but I do appreciate your tips on the bumper thing. Maybe we can get Chuck to make the 99 plateless bumper in polyfiber, which I do think is the way to go.....and
Chuck,
I have always thought you have made the best products, god kows I have spent enough $$$ with you and I have always been happy with your quality and standing behind them when I did have a problem. I didn't mean to trash you and your pricing but now that we got that picture thing figured out let us know what happens and hope it works out for you. Oh, keep that suggestion in mind about the Polyfiber. Maybe you can use your old mold and do it in this material?

Frankie V

 

Frankie, don't even sweat it man. I didn't take it as you bagging on me. No worries

Re: Chuck, of course it's his call, but w/ all the new young and thus thin-walleted owners of FD's these days, I don't think he'll find it warranted to expand even further in an already dwindling market... =-/

~Ramy

 

Just an update. I finally got around to pulling the bumper to check the mold lines and the little off road only plate in the center of the bumper. Compare these marks to the ones on the RE 99. It has to be the same bumper as the one on ebay.

 

Yup, I have those markings in my RE bumper.

 

wait...now i dont get it. if the RE bumper had that molding..that means someone else is making the bumper chuck is selling with the same mold for less selling price?

 

RE had someone else make the mold and do the urethane molding most likely. That supplier must be selling the bumper to other shops, other than RE.

 

It looks like they don't have those for sale anymore...

 

That's what I was thinking. They can sell the bumper for much less since they don't have to recover the 15K of inital cost.

I'm sure Chuck (smart business man) made a clause of that bumper being part RE's proprietary information. I smell lawsuit! lol


Probably because Chuck layed a smacked down on them.

 

That's funny cause JF Racing had two auctions running not 2 days ago on them.

 

Damn, I was going to pick one up