Perhaps someone on this forum can enlighten me. I paid well over $32,000 for my new Suzuka 3 months ago. Since then, I've seen the prices of these cars drop like a hot rock...Ok, I can accept that...Why haven't the prices of various mods for this wonderful car dropped also?? Any input would be appreciated. Dakota

 

Very good question. I often wonder the same thing. If people keep paying what their asking, the prices will never drop.

 

Well, it depends. Prices on used OEM stuff has dropped as well. But prices on aftermarket stuff like Mugen and Spoon hasn't. Why? Simple supply and demand the stuff is still limited in production compared to other cars, and people are still willing to pay a premium.

 

As turbo said, the price of the car has nothing to do with the parts for sale. Think of it this way...say the car cost $2, but they only made 5 per year. After 4 years we'd have a whopping 20 cars out there, so why would people make cheap mods for it? The prices may be dropping, but the number of available cars is still comparatively quite low...although as the years go by and more used ones come on the market, this will change.

 

It's simple economics -- the price of mods had nothing to do with the price of the car. What is most likely to happen over time is that the mods will disappear from the market, not fall in price. The margins on most mods are very tiny. Unless they have excess inventory, maufacturers will just stop selling the mods if demand falls.

 

Nice explanation Rick. I tend to agree with that theory. With the exception of a few names (Mugen, Spoon, etc.) I really don't think there is a huge margin on the most of the mods. There just simply aren't enough S2000s out there to support the bargain prices that you can get when you have manufacturers doing huge production runs. In the US there are still only 30,000 S2000s (give or take). Not exactly a huge market like the Miata, Civic, Corvette, or even the 350Z in a couple years.

 

I disagree to some extent. No one is going to pay the price Mugen is asking for their exhaust system to throw a cat-back on a Camaro. I used to have a Z28 and had the nicest, most-expensive cat-back system currently offered called Corsa on my car. It was $660. If I am going to mod my vehicles I don't mind paying the extra for top quality and I don't mind waiting a few months to save up for the best. But $1,500 for a cat-back system?? Get real. On the Camaro I could have full exhaust including headers and still come out under $1,500. This just seems like way too much money to only pick up maybe 5 HP and some mid range torque. I would consider paying $800-900 tops but $1,500 just says to me that they priced it that way because this is a niche car for a niche market; which equates IMO to the price of the exhaust system having everything to do with the price of the car.

Just my $.02

 

It is not about how much you are willing to spend, it is about the profit margin of an after market price. How much % of profit is the company willing to lose just to sell a few more items.

 

I fully agree. At $1,500 though I guarantee you Mugen is making a killing "profit-wise" on the system. There is no way it costs anywhere near that much to produce it.

 

honda606 - their are few things missing in your comparison. I too had a Camaro Z28, the Camaro is a mass produced car compared to the S2000. The Camaro is a mainstay in the performance aftermarket. But most importantly the Camaro exhaust is not made out of Ti where as the Mugen Cannisters are. There are plenty of stainless steel exhaust for the S2000 in the $700 price range of a Camaro exhaust. Apples to Oranges.