Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Group Buy 10% off MSDS!! 8/1 - 8/10

Don't get me wrong here, and the MSDS headers are a great product, but isn't it odd that the headers for the contour/mystique/escape/cougar/tribute are $660 for the set.

The most expensive headers I saw for Porsche was $540.

Maybe if our headers were priced more in line with ALL the other headers they offer, they would sell more of them. I doubt there are more Porsche 928's on the road than the combination of all the contour/mystique/escape/cougar/tribute's out there.

OK, maybe the contour/mystique/escape/cougar/tribute's are not an enthusiast car like a 928, but the tooling has been done to make these things. Drop the price already and see how many more will be sold. What would you rather sell if you were MSDS- 1 set of headers at $660 or 3 sets at $350 ($1150)

Just a thought.

I don't know much about the Porsche 928, but is that a V6 or a straight 6? If it's a V6, does it use a y-pipe? How much R&D had to go into their design compared to the tight fitting Ford 2.5L V6 in the Contour/Mystique/Cougar? How much more material do our headers take compared to the Porsche 928? How many people are going to purchase these headers compared to other platforms? These are all things taken into consideration when pricing an item. Say it costs MSDS $200 per set to make me a set of headers & y-pipe. I buy them for $660.00 and they make $440.00 off of me. So there's 2 of us that buy and they made $880.00. Sell them for $350.00 and sell them to 3 people. That's $150.00 profit per person X 3 = $450 profit. The fact of the matter is, they stepped up and made us a product, put in the R&D, so they can pretty much charge accordingly.

Mark

I'm agreeing with you 100%. The concept here is that the R&D has already been done for our cars, and 5 other matching platforms, 3 of which are still in production(not including the Mazda 6).

Porsche stopped production on the 928's in the early 90's I believe, as well as the 944's, and in the 80's for the 924's and 1976 for the 914/6's, yet all the headers are cheaper than ours. By the way, the 928 is a rwd V8 and I'm sure equal to or more R&D went into those headers than ours.

It is wonderful of MSDS to do this for us. My statement only reflects that the price of headers for our engines, which are still in production, is not in line with the average cost of the rest of their header offerings. Not to mention, the amount of contours/mystiques/cougars/escapes/tributes/6's on the road far exceeds the number of porsches on the same roads.

Now, taking your figures from above for production costs vs. profit, but we must consider possible opportunities in the form of Duratec vehicles on the road and Porsches on the road. Say there are conservatively 1,000,000 duratec vehicles on the road and .005% of them are potential buyers. That is 5000 realistic possible buyers. Now, say there are 40,000 porsches on the road and since porsches are more apt to be tuned, we say .05% of thse cars are potential buyers, that would be 2000 realistic potential buyers. Doing the math based on your numbers:

Duratec- 5000 cars x $200 production cost = $1,000,000
Duratec- 5000 cars x $350 retail = $1,750,000
Duratec profit = $750,000

Porsche- 2000 cars x $200 production cost = $400,000
Porsche- 2000 cars x $350 retail = $700,000
Porsche profit = $300,000

Actuals for both duratec and porsche are most likely way, way less, but there is clearly way more potential to lower the retail price for a platform which is still in production and way more units on the road.

But again, I am appreciative that such a high quality header is availble, just wish the price was in line and if they were cheaper, many more people would buy them.

Just my .02

You could just buy the Weapon Crap headers who stole Marty's design and sell them for the price your asking for ;-)

Doh Nah, I'm actually going to pay the $660 for the quality unit.

I said unit!!!

With that said, I know I'm going to get: Well why are you complaining?

Answer: I don't know, I made an observation about pricing and commented on it.

Oh well, I'm still getting the better unit. There I go again....unit on the brain. Uh, I gotta go now.

I think it may have a little bit to do with the fact that Marty is a Porsche owner, and he just hooks his fellow Porsche owners up. All I can think of now?

Mark

I talked to marty today becuase i ordered a set of the headers and he said for anyone who is intersted in the headers to call him because the deadline for the discount is running out but if your going to be a couple days late let him know and hell still give you the discount.

"all the load the traffic will bear"

That is the philosophy. As long as people are buying why drop the price? The cost to manufacture is much lower now that he has finished the design and sold them for a few years, so now it's profit time. Can't blame him really.

Second, the weaponR headers are not bad. Maybe stolen but not bad. The metal is at least equal to the MSDS in structural integrity and it is at least some version of stainless that will resist corrosion better and longer than coated mild steel.
So don't go bringing them up in this group buy. The minor deficiencies that they do have are more than made up for by the stainless steel, better y-pipe and 50% lower cost than MSDS.

All that being said, 11% each isn't much of a savings.
Buy the MSDS headers from SHOShop if they are still in business and selling them. You only pay $550 if you don't need a y-pipe.