[InterlagosRob]

Originally Posted by Corey

If this is the general attitude of BMW owners then I'm done tuning Nissans.

It sure is with E46 M3 guys. Dropping $1500-2000 on a catback exhaust is normal and expected. Most of them drop $4k on wheels, $4k on big brake kits, $4k on body kits, and $2k on exhausts....and that's just "a few bolt-ons".

[musc]

Originally Posted by InterlagosRob

It sure is with E46 M3 guys. Dropping $1500-2000 on a catback exhaust is normal and expected. Most of them drop $4k on wheels, $4k on big brake kits, $4k on body kits, and $2k on exhausts....and that's just "a few bolt-ons".

Amen. $1300 seems like an absolute bargain.

[lkraven]

Originally Posted by Corey

If this is the general attitude of BMW owners then I'm done tuning Nissans.

Come over! The more tuners the better =)

Obviously, it goes back to basic economics, size of market, etc. There's many times more Hondas and Nissans out there than BMWs, so your margin per unit is less, but your potential market is much larger. R&D costs can also be spread out over a larger market, so you can afford to sell things for less.

Once you go into BMW tuning, your target market is smaller in size and so your R&D costs must be recouped with fewer sales, so your margin must be greater, and your prices must be higher...

I'm not telling you anything you don't already know, of course-- but for those who question the price of things related to higher end cars, it has to do with initial development costs. Kind of like the old saying about pharmaceuticals... why does a $.02 pill cost $30/dose? Easy... the second one cost $.02... the first one cost $200 million in R&D.

[The Cleaner]

To early to tell what it's worth, in a year it could be a lot less as engines grenade and turbos fail the true price of this upgrade will be realized. You don't get the power for free. I am sure it's something I will eventually use but not till we have some of the early adopters determine what the weak points are in the engine.

I am also not convinced this is a stealth change and as BMW pays for early engine failures they will learn to detect changes like boost rate and fuel consumption.

[Jeff@Eurobahn.us]

I think what Shiv charges for his system is a bargain for it's complexity and what you get for your money. Also having been involved in R&D projects I can say that the only way you will be able to afford to do the work is to amortize it based on your expected market share.

For example we decided up front what we wanted to offer with the Turbo Tuner. It was a simple one size fits all solution that we gambled would be attractive to a lot of people. That was our assumption and based on it we set an inexpensive price point that would we hoped sell in large quantities to offset the R&D and production costs. Luckily we ended up being very right in our assumptions, but we could just as easily have been wrong!

So for those who want maximum power on their cars and the ability to upgrade with the same device as more R&D gets done, Shiv's unit is a good deal in fact it's probably too cheap!

Jeff
Eurobahn