> **I'm sure you do. Is the problem that better stuff is
> available but your
> customers won't pay for quality?
> That is a problem we experience with the Jensens - the big
> Jensens are owned
> by people willing and able to do things the right way the
> first time around,
> and the parts situation is pretty good.
> The Jensen Healey owners are mostly younger, and dare I say
> it, cheaper, and
> are often looking to cut corners and cost, and suppliers I
> have talked to
> indicate that there is no point in them seeking out quality
> as that segment of
> the market will not pay for it. Similar top MG owners, I suspect.
Bill:
I am not a purchasing expert, so I cannot speak for the whole
market. In most cases I have seen, product quality is directly tied to
production run quantity and demand. The only time this is not true is when
someone makes a beautyful piece then promptly goes out of business. Limited
production runs mean soft tooling, which gives degrading quality. Some of
the OE tooling reached the end of it's life years ago and now has patches on
top of patches.
I do not intend to diss anyone on this list. But if quality and
service sold parts instead of pricing, the cyber market would be out of
business. I came from a company that prided itself in hands on experience
and know how. I watched the soul get sucked out of that company as
customers went for the cheap prices of "mail order" in an effort to save
10%.
VB started a price war back in the eighties that shut down many of
the smaller British speciality companies. This effectively set the stage
for price before quality. The good news is that we can all afford to
rebuild our cars. The bad news is that there is not enough demand for
higher quality to ensure adequate supplies at reasonable prices.
There are alternatives to the mass cataloged merchandise if you are
willing to pay the price. I have been previously censored for intruding on
this area and will leave it up to the remaining specialists who deserve the
support of this list.
respectively
Kelvin.
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