In two main areas:
1.
Releasing the car too soon. The Xray was being announced as the ultimate winning machine.
Yokomo had won the Worlds and was offering the Replica.
The Losi car was on the works
...and HPI had no "new” generation car.
They rushed to design a radical new car but strangely enough they seemed to test it very lightly.
2.
Grabbing the World Champion under contract and eventually making a judgement error about his multi sponsorship.
They ended up with a talented driver that can (I'm sure there's no breach of contract here...) modify completely the car, leaving HPI in a bad spot and all the HPI competitors smiling. And after all those damn Losi and Yok cars win everything.
Sure they can tell is R&D etc etc but they need to get a positive spin on this. Sure it's R&D but not HPI's R&D... It's got to hurt!
Being caught totally unprepared is the only explanation I can find for HPI seeing after market manufacturers releasing "complete" Pro 3 kits while they have just a few hop up parts. How many bucks is HPI going to make selling graphite molded chassis? And upper decks? (Ooh I forgot that they don't have one...) and alu bulkheads? and grafite shock towers?
I have a Pro 2 and I went the hop up route. But that was not critical for the car to handle well. It was just my newbie belief that purple is faster.
However the Pro 3 flexes, the arms used to break (3rd version now), the CVD's were a little under par, the outdrives had the bad habit of loosing the rings (remember the grafite outdrives for the Pro 2? I have them and never had any problem with them in one year racing modified)
If you are in the US it seems that some of the manufacturing flaws on the original kit are handled by HPI, but on other countries you have TO PAY for the replacements of defective parts.
I'm so glad that I bought an Xray
. And on top of that I removed the dust from my purple Pro 2 and now I have two EXCELLENT cars.
Sometimes pure marketing can just blow on our faces (I was a marketing guy in a former life...). Not even the best marketing effort can help sell a piece of junk.
You may fool all for a limited period, or a few forever, but it's impossible to fool all, forever.
What HPI execs should think when they plan the Pro 4
Make a Pro car
Make more restrictive contracts with a few good drivers
Don't disappoint fans
Do not become Nikko at all costs
Keep a short leash on those marketing loonies
Then they have at least one (me) person buying their cars again. Until then, I'll go for another car.