Buddy club n+

got mine for $920 shipped and they are made in japan. they feel awesome and were easy to install, they showed up fully assembled

 

when you comparing two product with the similar specification, the first thing we as consumer look at is price. At my line of work we look at thing differently, in order for Brand A to sell 50% less than another brand with the same/similar hardware, there got to be something there, no body is in the business to make 50% less than the other guy selling the same/similar product, right?

there's number of way to cut cost(i hope i am not making you sleepy)

1)retro engineering: cut cost by copying someone's design, you don't do R&D you just steal the spec from the other guy, happens all the time.

2)quality control: saying one brand is build by the same guy in the same factory doesn't mean anything. It might sound impressive to everyday people that have no engineering background but in the global economy, outsourcing is very common. let me put it in perspective, 2 years or so ago i visited a HUGE injection molding plant, they have a couple 40 tons injection molding machines that pump out plastic parts, one machine is making military spec part(can't say what is it), the machine right next to it is making five dollar flash light housing. all under a roof, if you saying that's going to put two brand on the same level just by the production plant is just silly(at least to the insider of the industry).

3)Build process: similar to the QC, one way to skid cost is running a loose/no QC at the line, you can't make a high enough profit margin by rejecting little stuff here and there like the big guys are. In most cases, that's exactly what happening, you get way higher failure rate in the long run, remember the magic suspension 4-5 year years ago called OMNIpower? it was all rave and hype until the lower coilover collar snaps in half. You don't see that happen to tein, buddyclub often, maybe they have a higher QC spec? maybe?

4)Secondary process: this is someone you don't expect to hear about in a typical forum suspension thread, if someone is there to cut corner, one of the best way to do it is by doing less on the inside. How could you tell if the discounted brand skipped teflon coating in an internal sliding part? how many of use actually do dyno on a new damper to check the shim stack build quality? they are all CNC and nice on the outside, right? There's tons of way to cut corner there and none of us would be able to tell without taking one apart and destroying one. and someone dyno'ed a ksport coilver and found all four corner is not matching, maybe someone skipped some step in the damper process, who knows?

am i saying BC is trash? no, i don't have damper dyno, or even drive a car with it. but i am just want to drop a line on the comment so no body is going to too excited on fault hope.(about the engineering part)

maybe they just have a very grateful market segment positional strategy, who knows?

I am just saying buying a suspension from a reputation source make it less prone to headache.

 

You make very good points about reasons why price and quality sometimes go hand in hand, however you've missed one point:

In the "JDM" aftermarket world, some companies charge exorbitant amounts of money BECAUSE THEY CAN. They know that just because they have a Japanese product some foolish kid in America is going to save all his pennies until he can afford it because it's JDM. It has nothing to do with quality. Reference the Spoon AC-delete serpentine belt as evidence of this; you'd be foolish to pay $150 for an $8 rubber belt.

I have BC BRs and I think they are of great quality.

 

thanks but that's not exactly what i am saying.

there's nothing wrong with buying thing within budget, but what i am pitching is that if i have a choice of buying two product(assuming i can comfortably afford both that is) i would spend it with a proven brand. i don't give a burning turd about JDM, all i care is how will the part performs, which often enough we DONT until we buy it and try it, so going with a reputable brand is some what a less of a risk?

anyone can build something that last a year or two without degrading too much but it take a tad more to get it to work at a high level/competition level. Believe it or not will only comes from extensive testing, R&D, and engineering. Some company does the whole package, which always costly, i seriously doubt a small company could duplicate the process.

am i saying all small company product are bad? no, i am saying it would be much harder for them to produce something excellent for a "low/budget" price segment.

the in world of marketing you have to position yourself in different market segment, the classic class of spoon is that they are the OG, grand daddy of jdm motorsport for honda, they are targetting at a premium segment that cares less about price, all the owner want is ultra premium quality product, track proven part/performance and a GREAT branding on the part. I think most people would agree spoon product are top notch if you except the price thing. Look at axial atom, or even bling water, it just shit piles of tubing and a GM engine and the bling water is what? it's just water!

and i think the main thing i said(not trying to piss everyone off btw) is the misconception about manufacturing, it's little thing like clearnace, secondary process, material grade selection and QC that set apart a quality made product from the rest.

i am glad your choice is working out for you, please don't take it as personal attack against certain brand.

 

For $1700 I would go with HKS Hipermax Sport III. Maxrev has tested these repeatedly, written reviews, and seem to be the fastest, cheapest street and track coilover for the dollar IMO.

Here is his review: http://www.maxrev.net/index.php?location=hks.htm

 

[QUOTE=EvasiveMotorsports,Aug 5 2009, 08:54 PM] Mono Flex is nothing like the Flex, for one is mono tube and other is twin tube. The response and performance from Mono flex is

 

we just dropped price for this week only... 1599 shipped will only last until tomorrow. Let us know!

The HKS coilovers are good coilovers for the money, they are plenty fast on the track but do ride a little bumpy on the street. Mono flex i find to be a good balance for both light track duty and streetability.

 

lol I wished i lived in yall's world where $1700 is chump change

 

we offer our Challenge linup of monotube dampers for s2k for $1450 DAILY. simular features and specs to the Tein mono flex. We use all quality japanese components and top quality springs. These will NOT be bouncy on the street. Most find them far more comfortable than the tein flex, and with great track performance. We tested this particular model for about 3 years in house.

 

SO many good products out there! this might be the hardest decision i've had to make in my 8 years of building Hondas