AJrollin

iTrader: (3)

Seems that all the new 4wd 1/10 buggies coming out are getting really expensive, like touring cars...What up with that?!

urnotevenwrg2

iTrader: (1)

4wd buggies have been expensive for a long time.

b121774

iTrader: (90)

That new Schumacher was $679 pre-order on amain but looks like they lowered to $549. Still really high for a 1/10 considering that’s 1/8th ebuggy range.

psycho02

iTrader: (14)

What Schumacher did with this car is they added about 100.00 worth of extra stuff that all of us Schumacher guys bought and put on our cars in the box saving us from ordering them separate. We were already spending that money anyways.

tc5 man

Yup agree its quite rediclus a 1/10 4wd buggy should ever cost as much as a 1/8 scale nethier would i pay that much. I just buy from a guy i race with and get a pretty good deal on one .

tc5 man

Not in the $500 range ever thats just insane .

psycho02

iTrader: (14)

The 10th technologies predator ran you about $600 to get it over here from England. Yokomo was always pricey back in the day. Between 400-500 in the late 90’s early 2000’s

AJrollin

iTrader: (3)

People were complaining about Kyosho and Xray always being expensive... looks like others are catching up and exceding. The Yokomo yz4 sf started out at 489 and in a short time went up to 529?? Who cares if it won the worlds still the same buggy before it won. Losi, Tekno and Associated are domestic and still at a perceived "normal" price level, I wonder if Losi will follow the price increase when they release there new buggy...I know it will be more than current but hopefully not hitting the 500 range.

Another example is Xray, I have a 2017 which I paid 479 for and there is very minor changes in the 2018, the same care basically and its 519??. I wonder if its the manufactures jumping on the popularity of 4wd because of 13.5 and striking while the irons hot..hmmm

RogerM

4wd is less popular than 2wd & 8th most of the world over.
4wd has a few more moulded parts than a 2wd.
4wd has a bit more design and layout time than a 2wd (although not that much).

So if you look at that it is more design time (= money), more parts that need moulds (= lots of money for a mould tool) all in order to sell less units overall.

It's very simple maths (more+more)/less = quite a bit more per unit = $500 car.

Remember the cost of the plastic parts in our cars is more about recovering the mould tool design / manufacture / maintenance costs rather than the relatively small amount of material injected.

The more 4wd cars that get sold the better the projections will be at the time of initial pricing and the closer to the cost of a 2wd car the MRP will become.

Add to all that the fact that most of the mouldings are being made in countries with growing economies which push exchange rates in their favour and the cost for each subsequent release is likely to increase also.

Hope that makes sense.

TonyD.

iTrader: (43)

You can get the new PR SB401LW 4wd for less then $400. and its a great car.

EricW

iTrader: (1)

Well, when you build your off road tracks to resemble on road track what is to be expected? Everyone wants the hard packed, smooth as glass, no dust, high traction tracks. Well what you get is $400 2wd buggies and $550 4wd buggies.

We're basically driving touring cars with more suspension travel.

EricW

iTrader: (1)

Someone should tell PR Racing to come up with more sensible names for their cars

7TL14

iTrader: (182)

In my opinion RC racer's are doing it to them self...The manufacture's has everyone thinking that they have to have the newest latest greatest to be competitive and that's just not the case....so in return they can make little minute changes(it's always geometry) year after year that most any racer other than the top tier racers aren't ever going to notice..and raise the price year after year....and let's talk the price of how high plastic parts are getting to be...come on $12 for a part that doesn't have 5cents worth of plastic in it...and I don't even want to get into how high aluminum parts are getting especially YOKOMO's gold I mean aluminum....Most everybody are doing just what the manufactures want you to do and think....Just my opinion.......

urnotevenwrg2

iTrader: (1)

Did you not click the link?

Davidka

iTrader: (86)

Not a new phenomenon at all and Roger M explains it perfectly. For all the ebb and flow of the choices in 4wd kits, the price levels have been pretty consistent over the years with AE and TLR/Losi costing a little less and everything else costing a little more.

The market leading cars (AE & TLR) are still $320 for a 2wd kit and sub $400 for a 4wd kit. Sure, you can spend more on a European or Japanese kit, but you won't go any faster for it.

I had a Schumacher Cat in 1990 that had about $1k in it, and a case full of batteries, motors, and brushess to feed it. This hobby has gotten much cheaper against inflation.