What would you pay for an exhaust system?

[Chase]

As some of you might know i am buying the rights to the Ek Tuning products and one of those products happens to be their dual system for the SC400.

I am trying to work out new pricing for all the parts and thought this would be a good opportunity to ask you guys what you realistically would be willing to pay for a good quality system. Since i am just starting out in my venture i am willing to be flexible on pricing as long as it keeps me in business and allows me to grow.

I think this is a great opportunity for all of us as i can supply with quality products and you can buy at affordable prices.

This thread is just to get an idea, no promises yet.

I'll look up some pictures this weekend of the exhaust and post them up. Its a dual with a single tip at each muffler. If there is enough interest, i can have a set available for all lexus models.

 

[Jake Breyck]

well, first of all what is Good Quality, what materal is it made of? what brand mufflers or atleast what are they made of? what type of bends? what type of flanges? what type of hangers, how much user fabracation is needed to install? what types of tips and how asteticly pleaseing are these? how does it sound? how well does it fit, what hardware does it come with? gaskets, bolts, rubber hangers ect? what power gains are made and where in the power band are they made? how much engenerring and testing went into this system to design it? has it been tested with verious other mods to see how it continues to perform combined with these other mods.

i know this seems like a lot of questions but these are all the things a customer could be thinking about..

on top of all that a bussness point of view, has these to add, what is the materal + labor + packageing cost to produce one, how much did it cost to deign it? how much profit do you need to make it worth coninueing to sell these, and not scrap it to make room to sell a more profitable item?

these last questions you dont need to answer to us but atleast to your self. figure out a figure that covers all these costs and thas basicly your minumium.

good quality is a very vuage term. ive heard people refer to pace setter as a quality system, personally it think they are junk.


but to give you somewhat of an answer i would say $600 to $1000 for what i would call a quality system.

 

[Chase]

well, first of all what is Good Quality, what materal is it made of? what brand mufflers or atleast what are they made of? what type of bends? what type of flanges? what type of hangers, how much user fabracation is needed to install? what types of tips and how asteticly pleaseing are these? how does it sound? how well does it fit, what hardware does it come with? gaskets, bolts, rubber hangers ect? what power gains are made and where in the power band are they made? how much engenerring and testing went into this system to design it? has it been tested with verious other mods to see how it continues to perform combined with these other mods.

i know this seems like a lot of questions but these are all the things a customer could be thinking about..

on top of all that a bussness point of view, has these to add, what is the materal + labor + packageing cost to produce one, how much did it cost to deign it? how much profit do you need to make it worth coninueing to sell these, and not scrap it to make room to sell a more profitable item?

these last questions you dont need to answer to us but atleast to your self. figure out a figure that covers all these costs and thas basicly your minumium.

good quality is a very vuage term. ive heard people refer to pace setter as a quality system, personally it think they are junk.


but to give you somewhat of an answer i would say $600 to $1000 for what i would call a quality system.

I'm sorry, when i say good quality, in my mind i am comparing it to the major brand name companies. Of course its all 304 stainless steel (100%) and its a direct bolt on with no modifications required. This system went through 4 or 5 different versions before finalizing the end results. It has been tested with headers, y-pipe and a high flow cat (together and by itself). HP rating is between 12-15whp (the numbers it dynoed at different times). It sounded really good to me but that question is better left to customers once it becomes available. All necessary hardware is included.

I know you have a lot of questions that require a lot of answers but to sum it up, this would be a system that Ek Tuning was charging $1,200.00 for, and for a good reason. It also comes with a lifetime limited warranty.

Pace setter is still in business? i wouldn't put any of their products on my car if it was free.

I am know i am new here and no one knows me, hopefully in time people will learn that when i talk about a product that i offer, it will be top quality, i dont bother with cheap parts or cheap prices.

Your answer though, $600-1,000 is what i was looking for. Anything under $600, wont be worth my time unless i can sell 200 sets in one shot.

I'll post some pictures of the exhaust this weekend so you'll have a better idea of its quality and looks.

 

[Jake Breyck]

Thats good, info, 1200 seems steep, persanally i wouldnt consider spending that much unless i was building a race car and it was very very high flow and made of titanium. or inconol or some other light strong rare materal

with the info provided ide have to put it near the upper middle of my 600-1000 price maybe $800ish possably $900 That life time warentee makes a big diffrence tho.. thats worth a lot, but only if the company is well known enough to leave confadance that it will be around for a long time. im currently in the process of patching up holes in my 6-7 year old apexi exhaust before it goes back on to my supra. somthing that would have been covered it it had a lifetime warentee also if it had a warentee i would have trusted that it would be covered, as would i trust greddy, (trust hahaha!) tanabe, hks ect magor bands, a warentee from ek tuning doent hold nearly as much value as the company accually did go out of bussness till you bought it.

warentees like that are great for the company too, its a good sellng point but rarely does someone cash in on it.

anyhow i would love to see pics, so post them up.

 

[Chase]

Thats good, info, 1200 seems steep, persanally i wouldnt consider spending that much unless i was building a race car and it was very very high flow and made of titanium. or inconol or some other light strong rare materal

with the info provided ide have to put it near the upper middle of my 600-1000 price maybe $800ish possably $900 That life time warentee makes a big diffrence tho.. thats worth a lot, but only if the company is well known enough to leave confadance that it will be around for a long time. im currently in the process of patching up holes in my 6-7 year old apexi exhaust before it goes back on to my supra. somthing that would have been covered it it had a lifetime warentee also if it had a warentee i would have trusted that it would be covered, as would i trust greddy, (trust hahaha!) tanabe, hks ect magor bands, a warentee from ek tuning doent hold nearly as much value as the company accually did go out of bussness till you bought it.

warentees like that are great for the company too, its a good sellng point but rarely does someone cash in on it.

anyhow i would love to see pics, so post them up.

Well, since i am going to be a brand new company, you are right, only time will tell if i will become a major player or just another company. I have hopes and dreams but time will tell.

EK Tuning actually didnt really go out of business, they were/are a manufacture (they make parts for other companies as well). They tried retailing but they never had enough drive to really make it happen, they make most of their business by making other companies parts.

I built a good relationship with them when they prototyped parts on the SC400 and now i am going to take over some of their parts in order to launch my own brand company.

Did you get the N1 (i dont think that one was full stainless steel, only the muffler).

I'll look up all the pictures i have for the EK Tuning parts and post them up.

I was thinking retail the exhaust for less then $1k and possibly doing a group buy at around $700-850 depending on interest, but we got time for that.

 

[Jake Breyck]

Ya i have an N1 and you are correct its not stainless pipeing. but even being mild steel with a weak paint coating its served its porpose, ill be putting it back on the car in the mean time untill i have the time to make a whole new exhaust. the 1uz demands two pipes (although ill have them come out on the same side of the car.)

 

[rms]

1200 seems steep, persanally i wouldnt consider spending that much unless i was building a race car and it was very very high flow and made of titanium. or inconol or some other light strong rare materal

Hey Jake - Custom headers for race vehicles cost quite a bit more than that.
I just completed a 4 cyl set from stainless - $1200 USD for material alone, plus freight etc, $2000 AUD landed, then I had to make them, try to make a profit and keep the customer happy !

 

[Jake Breyck]

Hey Jake - Custom headers for race vehicles cost quite a bit more than that

Dude where talking about Exhaust, as in cat back not headers, where the materal is mainly straight and just one peice and the engenerring it a little more then makeing sure it wont hit anything under the car.

Whole diffrent beast then headers that range up into the 10s of thousands of $$$

I dont think your point applys at all, although im not dissagreeing with it, you just might as well come in here talking about how much it cost for your rims.


but how in the hell did it cost $2000 to ship?


part of the problem with exhaust is once the price gets too high you can go to a local explaranced custom exhaust builder, usually a tuning or racing shop and just get them to make one for you. and if you do that usually its a more complete system then your tipical cat back usually they would go ahead and make it header back.


but rms, i love those headers good job.

 

[1UZ-MX83]

but how in the hell did it cost $2000 to ship?

I just completed a 4 cyl set from stainless - $1200 USD for material alone, plus freight etc, $2000 AUD landed

I think Erol means "$USD1200 + freight = $AUD2000 ALL-UP to Australia...

 

[Chase]

Sorry, i couldnt find any of my old pictures this past weekend. The good news is the i still have my exhaust system sitting in the garage so i'll take new pictures in the next couplde of days and post them up.