mtpocketsracing

iTrader: (2)

that's a myth. it's cheaper to an extent. but wait till china's cost of living is what it is here and it will no longer be cheaper either.

there's a big movement to bring manufacturing jobs back to america (by american companies).
toyota builds all of it's cars here and I don't see them hurting or the cars 4 times more expensive. I know people that work at a toyota plant making $19/hr driving a fork lift. the cars are priced competitively and they're not asking for government bailouts.

all these companies that claim that myth are just blowing smoke up everyone's ass so they can keep 95% of the profits for the ceo's.

Herrsavage

Well said..

Read an article recently about the reverse trend in German companies - "insourcing" I guess..

Jaz240

iTrader: (52)

Our economy would turn around in a heartbeat if we started "insourcing" Ed Bridges is supposed to be offering an Amercian made nitro Engine soon. I am supper stoked about that!

Rsickles

iTrader: (21)

This is so ignorantly wrong it's unbelievable. You're talking about a company (GM) making 8 BILLION in PROFITS a year.... and you're whining about seven million for the CEO's salary? Do you realize that is less than 0.09%? What kind of math is that?

The truth of the matter is a company like GM makes half the profits Toyota or VW does because it has so much complexity to it compared to Toyota or VW.... from the way their basic structure is comprised, to their product line complexity, to foreign auto sales, to negative brand identity connotations, to price discrimination (Asian suppliers giving Asian companies discounts but discriminating against US automakers), etc. Labor isn't a forefront issue... but since you want to harp on about your friend, it's important to understand some huge differences between labor in GM and labor in Toyota. Most of them are political, including the fact GM has really, really aggressive labor unions that demand pay to do a fraction of the labor an equivalent Toyota worker would do.


The reason RC nitro engines are so expensive are not because of materials or labor, it's because of markup in the distribution chain and consumer WTP. When engines cost a Taiwan factory less than $30USD their cost, and we are paying $250, that's not their fault. That's our fault as consumers for being willing to pay that much of a markup, and it's greedy distributors/importers who lie through their teeth and charge over 100% markup because of conscious parallelism.... but that's the nature of the RC industry with so much saturation.

Roelof

Also not true....

Without internet and shops like Hobbyking we would never knew the prices in Asian shops. In the time before internet there were distribution channels and up until today shops can still be forced by laws to purchase products through distribution channels. Today the construction of distribution channels is indeed making the price but still with distributors any kind of warranty is better arranged.
Over here in Europe we have CE certificates which are needed to sell products within Europe. A legal CE marking on a product says that the product is made by Europian rules for health and safety. Also by Europian rules the shops and distributors are forced to give an acceptable warranty. These rules are also lifting the price.

Labor is also giving some costs. In some Asian countries manufacturers do not care a lot about health and enviroment while here in Europe there are strict rules about this issue lifting the price of the labor a lot. And ofcorse the whole economic situation, some prices are made by the economics (Big Mag index)

Our engines can be made with an automated proces so not much labor is involved. With that the costs of machines and needed materials does not matter a lot arround the world. The most difference with our engines is how they are devellopped. Anyone can make an RC engine, Making a decent and competive engine is something different where more expensive materials and toplevel drivers are involved.

Matt Piva

iTrader: (25)

The truth is we as the consumer will pay 2-5 hundred dollars on engines, so these big companies would never drop prices but rather add a little more for every 'new generation' they bring out. Example, o.s. speed .19 came out and was more then the .21 and sales were not good so they dropped the price by a lot. In my opinion it probably only cost o.s. 100-150$ to get the engine to the shelves but name and quality and the special feature like their crank drive people nuts to save all thief money up to buy something that could break as easily as breaking it in wrong. My opinion, you will never see an engine cost anywhere near what they should but if you look around you can find cheaper priced quality engines. A speed should cost 250$ and a blue head should cost 150$, an Orion crf should cost 150$ but y'all will pay 400$ for it and that's what these companies know. Sorry we're all dumb but these dang Rc cars are a serious addiction.

Matthew Bailey

I live in Italy and we can get the Italian motors cheaper than in the United States, but it honestly is not that big of a difference. I pay about 160 dollars for a P5 before sales tax. Europeans pay 20% sales tax, and that eats up the difference in price. So I am paying 200 dollars and a big part of it is taxes. You are paying 200 dollars and the extra is going to the distributor.

We are both paying about the same thing, and the distributors have to make a profit. Do you know what chaos there would be without distributors? The distributors significantly lower the cost to the LHS of purchasing items. If you wanted a NovaRossi P5 engine and your local hobby shop had to order them from Italy and deal with the customs and import taxes you would be paying at least 250 dollars per engine.

sschultz

iTrader: (15)

China and Japan are 2 very very different countries. Just say in. Many people think there the same.