Business 101:
For a business to make money, they have to price their product at more than
what it cost them to make it. If the market for the product will not support
that price, then they cannot be in the business (at least for very long).
In most production efforts, it takes a certain amount of time & effort to do
the setup (a one-time cost, and usually fixed). It takes a certain time &
effort to produce each item (a variable cost). The total cost is the sum of
fixed cost plus variable cost. Fixed cost per unit decreases as you make
more units while variable cost stays essentially the same. The typical total
cost curve shape is like a "U" with cost on the y-axis and number of units
on the x-axis.
Prices for parts for "nearly current cars" appear relatively low because the
manufacturer is producing way out on the total cost curve (i.e., his fixed
costs divided by large numbers of units have gone almost to nothing on a per
unit basis), and you then are basically paying his variable cost plus a
profit.
For our "older cars" it is costly to do the initial setup and the variable
cost likely is also large (because of archaic design, or other reasons).
This is a double whammy for us-- we don't have anywhere near the production
quantity and the costs to do the small run are large as well. Thus, forget
about ever having what you might think is a "reasonable price" for our car
parts.
Just think what it would cost to buy a part that there is only one of it in
the whole world and you are the only one who wants it!
Roy
'60 TR3 TS63103LO (in restoration)
techman@metrolink.net
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