> Hey, thanks for this info. I hope I am not in need of a new 'stat, but
> your conversation had gotten me thinking. It would appear at first
> glance to be fairly easy to retrofit a skirt to a standard 'stat. I am
> not at all sure that it would end up costing LESS than the $27 price
> you mentioned. The cost of production would be much less, but with
> a middle-man or two, the price would double or quadruple. I guess
> that the $27 item might cost less than $7 to produce. It would be
> hard to beat that. I hope I am wrong about the marketing issues,
> but I bet my mark-up estimate is conservative.
Skirted thermostats are extremely rare... and sell for as much as $50.00
WHEN they're found on some shelf somewhere....A small company desides to put
some man hours into designing a new skirted thermostat... utilizing an
existing thermostat... They bothered to go into some small production of
them... and to put some man hours into marketing them... at least... to get
the word out... and now field phone calls, e-mails, and snail mail
information requests... more man hours... and they pack and ship product...
when an order comes through.... and they undoubtedly guarrantee them...
and, occasionally... one will come back... and they'll eat it... cost,
labor, and all... So they try to sell them... at a price... that will help
them recoupe their costs... so that they can go on to produce other needed
parts for jaguars and Triumphs... etc....
In the vintage car arena... there's always someone asking "Hey, why doesn't
someone produce this?" or "that?".... and there's a big round of applause
when someone does... but then it's often followed by second-guessing their
mark-up...
You can buy a thermostat for $7.00... and you'll put hours into modifying
it... you'll probably screw up your first effort... and you'll buy another
one... maybe you'll call in a favor with a friend, to do some welding... or
maybe you'll pay some guy... or you'll do it yourself... in the end...
you'll have your thermostat... and you can glow with the pride of having
done it yourself. Meanwhile... the company that produced the skirted
thermostats has one sitting on a shelf... not-purchased...
As they consider possible plans to make that rare NLS
dooo-hickey-wooober-diggy.... for the TR.... the owner of the
company says... "You know.... a professor in the business school of my
college once said, 'Few people continuously hit their head on a wall because
it feels good when they stop.'"
So they skip plans for the vintage market and start making "wooober-diggys"
for MIATAS....
...just my 2 cents....
--Justin
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