[losfer]

As some of you may know i have been in the suzuki industry for quite some time , im very knowledgable in a lot of aspects of suzukis and still learning every day.

when it comes to buying a suspension kit , i can see you can buy them on ebay for as little as $600 a full kit , that includes springs , shocks, shackles , u bolts , steering damper , bushes the "works burger" as far as suspension kits go. what i cant get my head around is how these people can sell these kits and make a profit to sustain a living.

if i quote out a suspension kit using the cheapest available components in the local supplier market my cost price is over $1100 , the recommended retail is over $1600 !!! to add insult to injury , the best supplier of springs , king springs have just increased their prices by almost 100% making quoting suspension kits and making a small margin of profit out of the question. I would have to sell a full suspension kit for $1800 to make a small margin of profit.

i know i wouldnt pay that sort of money and i wouldnt expect anyone else to , is this the way of the world now , cheap chinese ebay crap , the way i look at it you could buy three suspension kits for the price of a quality kit , and when one fucks out you just put the other in .

[fordem]

It's a tough call - most of us would prefer to have our name & reputation associated with a quality product or service, but faced with a plentiful supply of low cost, low quality products & services, coupled with customer shrinking budgets - it's a tough call.

One approach, especially if you're dealing with a physical product, is to offer two lines - the budget line, and the quality line and try to educate the customer, some of whom can't afford or may not need the higher priced product - but yes - that is the way of the new world.

[Abraxix]

this time around with Stella, (2004 XL7) i will be buying a quality name brandede suspension kit for the car. my old X-90 had mix match parts and you could tell it's was a crap ride for a daily driver, alrigth off road but i'd rather not mix and match parts this time... Pedders Springs / Tough dog Shockies, and HD IronMan Struts.
yeah i got all these parts for under $140 for each item (per pair) only reason i bought them for beign so cheap... however this time around if i'm going to do anything i'd be going King Springs / King Shocks / Struts, Calmini springs, Calmini Shocks / struts, you know one brand of gear for the whole thing i know i'll be out of pocket for around $1,500 but it will be worth it for one kit for everything this time. -- just means it'll happen in about a year or two.