If everyone else could manage to keep their prices the same by using smart buying tactics. It's going to drive their sales through the roof.
__________________
Tillman Speed Inc.
Custom Tuning | In-House Dynojet 224xLC
3344 Market Street • Suite C • Aston, PA 19014 Sales: (610)497-5776 or 497-3736 Out-of-State Sales: (610)497-3711 Service / Dyno: (610)497-9683 PREMIER DEALER:Edelbrock E-Force Supercharger Systems - Kooks Custom Headers - Magnaflow Exhaust Systems - MORE!
Smells like BS to me... either you specifically as a vendor, or the person you got the info from wall giving you a line and you bit; hook, line...
B/c if true, across the board there would be news, and it would be the worst business move EVER; duh!
It wouldnt be profitable to
Ford
Whipple
tuner companies
tuners
etc...
Dude, you've SO been had!!!
Who pissed in your Cheerios this morning? What you are saying makes little to no sense. Why would he go out of his way to tell us about the price increase if he was the one making all the profit off it? Wouldn't it just make more sense to not say anything? 'Yeah, that's smart, let's tell one of the more populated S197 boards about our price increase that's designed to put money in our pockets, HAHAHAHAHAHAHH!!!!'
No, that doesn't make any sense. The objective is for them to STAY in business. Purposely increasing prices, especially during times like these, make no sense, especially for a vendor who likely gets much of their business through message boards and word-of-mouth. And where are you getting a 100% increase in price? The original price was ~$6K and there's 1K tacked onto it. That's just over 15%. Still sucks, but a 100% increase would have made it nearly 15K!!!
You claim that there would be news, but he's giving you advance notice! How much earlier would you like to know about it? There are a million reasons as to why a manufacturer raises and lowers their prices. It sounds silly to me and you, but someone will buy them and that's all that matters.
Well I think he is just frustrated like me. No one wants to believe it's true. I made a commitment to only put FRPP or Steeda parts on my car and was waiting until the end of the year to go SC, but I will not pay another grand for the Whipple.
I was on the line of going N/A or boost, but sometimes I guess your decisions just get handed to ya. Anyway thanks for the heads up Chris and giving at least some the opportunity to get it at the current price.
__________________
It's better to burn out than to fade away - The Kurgan
Some of you guys need to give Chris a break. He posted the information up to help the people on this board. And I can assure you it’s not some master Monopoly scheme devised by Whipple and Dick Chaney to get more money out of hot rodders.
Prices are going to be going up on everything for at least a few years. The dollar isn’t worth a crap right now. Anything that is getting imported in is going up in price fast. And it trickles down into everything. Shipping costs more, processing costs more, inspections cost more, raw materials cost more, etc, etc, etc. Up until about 8 months ago I was the sole importer of Matris Suspension which is a Italian company. I was protected by Matris in the sense that they would not sell to anyone else in the USA. Even with market protection, a great product and on track sales goals I had to stop importing the stuff because it got too expensive. Everyone had their hand in my pocket. By the time I got the stuff I had already generated a handful of bills and the boxes weren’t even opened yet. And on top of that the Euro is beating the crap out of the dollar. It got to the point where the margins were not big enough to warrant carrying the product. I’m sure some of you are saying Boo hoo, what does this have to do with Whipple and US parts suppliers. Well this is what it has to do with it. Now when someone in the USA wants to buy a Matris suspension item they need to order it from overseas, for more money than if I was selling it and if anything goes wrong they are getting warranty work done out of some place 5000 miles away.
Take care of your vendors, send them as much business as you can, try and give them the benefit of the doubt from time to time. Because if you don’t you may just find that the vendor is not there anymore and you are trying to buy your new Procharger from some 17 year old kid named Booger that works at Wal Mart.
And for the few of you that posted something along the lines of “They already have massive markups……….” Get a clue. Hot rod shops and mail order parts suppliers are not making a killing on each sale. These days it has to be done with volume period. Just about every retail industry in this country has had their margins beat down so low that they can hardly keep the doors open. I think I can be fairly certain that Chris does not live in a $1M house and only goes to work for two hours a day because he is so rich from selling hot rod parts. He probably makes a good living and is comfortable but he has to work his but off to do it. And no, I am not sticking up for Chris. I don’t know him at all but I respect him for being the small business man that he is.
Wow, I feel better. Do you?
__________________
Under Construction. Better, Stronger, Faster than it was before.
10-20% price increases on popular items a year or so after their introduction is common, even when there are no inflationary pressures within an economy. These units utilize commodities (all the metals are way up from last year) and have to be transported (we all know how oil prices are tacking on costs for transportation).
Its just rare to hear about price hikes BEFORE they happen.
I consider a 15% increase to be in line with what's happening in the real world.
It WILL be interesting to see what happens with their competitors, who are fighting the same price pressures...
I checked around, and it would appear that Eaton under-estimated the demand for their twin vortice units. Major sales to OE manufacturers can put a crimp in aftermarket supplies, and running factories overtime costs money, which cost companies prefer to pass downstream to their customers. They have seen a strong gain in their market share (which had to come from somewhere, and I suspect VorTech was one unwilling "donor"), so their pricing power is pretty good. Though we don't follow these developments here in the Mustang-centric world, the impact in GM products has been strong.
I would expect MagnaCharger, Roush and Saleen to raise prices soon, with ALL the others to follow (like I said, they are all paying more for their materials, more for shipping, and more for major purchased components).
__________________
tripleblack
"You can never be free until you let yourself go."
I agree with Jason and Stan on this one; and a thanks to Chris for the heads up - we should appreciate site sponsors like Chris who try to help the membership by telling them in advance what's coming down the pike.
I'm sure KB will eventually change to the same price. It would be foolish of one brand to charge whatever. They need to charge the lowest amount increase they can afford seeing as other brands will do the same. IF you had a Whipple that was 500 bucks more than the KB, it wouldn't be good for Whipple sales.
PS An interesting tidbit. I got an email from some dude @ Whipple. He was unaware of any price increase and has no news on that. It's a possibility he just floated that cuz only vendors are privied to that information right now. Chris, just poking around to see what info I can find on an exact price or exact reason for the hike.
__________________
2005 Black GT Whipple HO | Oil Seperator | Steeda Tensioner | 93 dyno tune | Autometer Cobalt | GTAs
No problem! Thanks for the defense, guys. I didn't take anything personally... I understand the price increase has everyone a little angry and dissapointed. Me too! I had a personal project I was going to use a whipple on, but that may have to wait a little now.
My 2 bedroom apartment and 15,000 dollar car sure is luxurious let me tell you! *eye roll* I'm telling you, we don't make 1/2 or maybe even 1/4 of what people think we do on this stuff. I'm glad that was acknowledged. I didn't pull up to my 25,000 sq ft warehouse this morning in a porsche. I pulled up to our 3,500 square foot shop and 3,000 square foot store in my focus.
I'll try and figure out what's going on with this in the mean time. It's been confirmed by 4 people now, and 1 person didn't know about it. So we'll see what happens.
__________________
Tillman Speed Inc.
Custom Tuning | In-House Dynojet 224xLC
3344 Market Street • Suite C • Aston, PA 19014 Sales: (610)497-5776 or 497-3736 Out-of-State Sales: (610)497-3711 Service / Dyno: (610)497-9683 PREMIER DEALER:Edelbrock E-Force Supercharger Systems - Kooks Custom Headers - Magnaflow Exhaust Systems - MORE!
No problem! Thanks for the defense, guys. I didn't take anything personally... I understand the price increase has everyone a little angry and dissapointed. Me too! I had a personal project I was going to use a whipple on, but that may have to wait a little now.
My 2 bedroom apartment and 15,000 dollar car sure is luxurious let me tell you! *eye roll* I'm telling you, we don't make 1/2 or maybe even 1/4 of what people think we do on this stuff. I'm glad that was acknowledged. I didn't pull up to my 25,000 sq ft warehouse this morning in a porsche. I pulled up to our 3,500 square foot shop and 3,000 square foot store in my focus.
I'll try and figure out what's going on with this in the mean time. It's been confirmed by 4 people now, and 1 person didn't know about it. So we'll see what happens.
I too fell your pain, I owned a Corvette only retail/HI-PO store for 18 years. Everyone I knew were convinced I made a min. of 50% on every sale........soooooooooo not true, maybe 13% on a good day as low as 3% on some items and 0 on items I gave away to keep business coming in ! A tip for everyone who has never owned there own business........Each day you turn the front door key to unlock it cost between 6000.00 and 9000.00 depending on the business (my example of my costs) which means everyone other than yourself gets paid first. Try sleeping on that every night.
People in the performance biz mainly do it for the fun and to help others go fast. Not get rich! Unless your name is Roush Sure some places do good, but most of the time they are a secondary biz to something else, like a dealership. Or they have been around long enough to survive and grow.
I don't know why the Whipples cost so much. I do know first hand what Eaton "USED" to sell the guts to the builders for. One of my co-workers at a previous job actually desiged the M112 guts. I also know what dealer cost is on certain brands of kits. And for what ever reason, FRPP and Whipple are more than most. Hurst had a HUGE price increase also this year. Sqidd pointed out many reasons why. He is also in the loop.
I am attempting to become a sponsor on this site (haven't heard anything back yet), not to compete with Tillman or anyone else on the side bar, have no desire to. But rather to help out others in my part of the country (or people that want to come to me) and sell products to people local to me. We are out of good installers let alone resellers in the Detroit area. All we are known for now is a criminal mayor in the city (I live outside of the Big D thankfully).
Not trying to hyjack your thread Chris, but some people need to understand that Performance aftermarket people as resellers are at the mercy of their suppliers. Unfortunately, the messenger gets killed, not the source
Hang in there! You are a welcome voice on AFM as far as I am concerned.
If you get a chance to check out my site, you can see my concept. Quality, Affordable installations and repair, stock or performance. PLUS! My full time 40 hr a week job for now. If I grow and survive, I'll consider being self employed. But I can give better labor prices doing it as extra income (legally too), not sole income.
And anyone close to Tillman, do yourself a favor, support the local little guy. If you are price shopping over $10 for something (insert local shop name here) may have in stock and you can have it that day...take a moment to think. That price shopping mentality is what has made Wal Mart so big as well as Summit and Jegs.
But if you have a problem, or something isn't right...is Summit or Jegs going to be able to look at your car and see what you need? Or be able to see the part in your hand that doesn't fit?
I just drove 20 miles out of my way today to buy my fire jacket, shoes and gloves from a LOCAL SMALL SHOP. Cost me $20 more than mail order. But if I need a small part in a hurry, or something made up on a bender, they will help me out.
Now if you're talking $100 difference...even I can't turn the other cheek.
__________________
2006 Legend Lime GT: Samco, Metco, LPW, Brembo 6 pot brakes with floating rotors, Magnacharger with 8-Rib, LubeLocker, Royal Purple, FR500S front end, APR Performance Carbon Fiber Rear Wing, Roll bar, 10 qt upgraded oil system...Thank you Capaldi Racing for all your help! 2007 Mustang GT/CS : Wife's Car, Magnacharged too. 1966 Mustang GT-K Code Coupe: Restored
Whipple 
LOL or dual turbo's for less... heck, get a Livernois shortblock with a KB for the same price... jeeze... decisions decisions...
