Miata Mailing List: June 1997, Message #127
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From: 	Bill Gusky <moments@totcon.com>

Subject: Re: CAI is a farce....

Date: 	Mon, 2 Jun 1997 14:56:03 -0500



Peter Brusa wrote:

> 

> Bill, your point is "unfounded."  I am the guy who made the BOLD

> statement that seemed to tick off a lot of people.  What you may not know

> is that JR has been doing automods for several years now...and not just

> Miatas.  Their biggest "clients" are Honda owners, hence, most of their

> mods are for Hondas (and even Fords I believe).  I am NOT saying that

> the Mazdas are Hondas, but that they have CAI for Hondas as well.

> I believe that development for such an OVERPRICED mod (like the CAI) is

> no where in the $50K range, since most of their development has been

> in-house for years and pretty much standard.  Since you paid $500,000 in

> plastic production costs does not mean that they did as well, especially

> an established company as JR.  They are making a killing off the CAI

> because they are Jackson "overpriced" Racing.



Point taken, Peter.  Didn't know that.  It may have cost JR in the vicinity

of $50k for the plastic injection mold whenever they first procured it, but

if it was a long time ago, and for Hondas, and they can use the same tool for

the Miata product, then that's one of the BEST ways to make money.  There's

no new investment and depreciation.  I wonder... does anyone know if the

plastic components are the same on the Honda as on the Miata?  I don't know.



Another possible measure: if their swaybars, their exhausts, their other

things are consistently more expensive than competitive products, then

perhaps their margins are too high.  I haven't made such a comparison,

though I did buy JR swaybars.  I'm choking a bit at paying the price

for the JR exhaust.



> I will say it again: Jackson Racing is OVERPRICED and I'm cuious as to

> where they got a 10-15HP gain off their CAI (1.6). I want to see an official

> test w/o Jackson's presence.  I am also interested in the home-made kits

> that some people have been doing.  It would be interesting to see

> someone make a home-made kit and matching-if not beating-Jackson's

> proclaimed numbers.  To you people who bought it:  I'll use my $490 on new

> tires.



JR CAI may be overpriced in the sense that the margin is outrageous... I have

no way of knowing, since I don't know their product cost structure.  It

wasn't so bad I wouldn't order one.  Will it deliver for me what the list

has reported?  I sure hope so... I'm trusting the experience of the List

that it will.



> Oh yes, and the WARRANTY VOIDS that everyone seemed to get alittle

> defensive over, well the warranty is VOIDED (according to dealerships

> here in Atlanta) if you make ANY major modifications to the air flow

> sensors via the engine line or engine area.  Maybe the people who

> disagreed with my statement didn't state the modification during the time

> of a warranty repair or the dealerships just didn't care one way or

> another.



Petunia is a 1991.  Warranty is not an issue for her any more, and in

fact she has never seen the inside of a dealer after delivery.  I feel

free to modify anything I choose.



Thank you for your opinion, Peter.  Same to anyone else who treated the

subject.  I still maintain that there is an investment and tooling cost

associated with most aftermarket products which is not widely appreciated.



The usual disclaimers of no association, yada, yada, yada...  JMHO.

Sorry for the bandwidth, and for extending this long thread.



-- 

Bill Gusky and Petunia

Red '91, license "MOMENTS"

http://www.totcon.com/users/moments

DeLand, Florida

"Too soon oldt, und too late schmart!"