Due to the inherent characteristics of hand-laid fiberglass and carbon fiber, there is a possibility of cosmetic blemishes on such products. This may include, but is not limited to, spider cracks, haziness or fogginess, distorted carbon fiber weave, and waviness. They are inevitable and occur on products from even the most expensive manufacturers. In addition, due to the tolerances of hand-laid components and the wear on the molds, fiberglass and carbon fiber components generally do not fit as well as the original OEM components they are intended to replace. Thus, even with authentic aero parts it is the responsibility of the owner to take all parts to a qualified body shop to properly prep and fit aero parts. Products with a clear coat or primer should still be taken to a body shop for another layer. However, there is still large variability between the quality of replica, authentic, and custom aero parts.
Typical aero parts manufacturer do not even test fit their products, let alone use numerous cars, which have never been in an accident, to account for variability. Those that do test fit their products typically use one car and do one test fit session. However, if during the test fit session flaws in the product are discovered, the retailer is most likely not going to do anything about it. Why?
1) At that point the mold for the product is already made. The manufacturer is not going discard the mold they already invested money in and make another mold because of “imperfections.” They are going to keep their mouths shut about fitment problems and start selling the product in order to cover the costs of the project and also to start making some profit.
2) The market may be small, and most owners may have a small budget. Most owners, for example, expect to pay $300 for a carbon fiber hood and $400 for a complete body kit. This means a few things.
a) Most manufacturers are not going to put their time and money into improving their products and making more molds. Very rarely do you see a manufacturer that will make “version 2” of the same product. First of all, there is no motivation to do so, since making the new mold is not going to change the fact that the market is not going to be willing to spend more money on the same product. Secondly, most of the owners that were interested in the product in the first place now own it. The initial demand has been met. With decreased demand, investing money to improve a product is a high risk. In most instances, the manufacturer may struggle to pay off the second mold.
b) This pushes most retailers to manufacturer their products over seas where the labor rate is much cheaper than it is in the United States. Otherwise, the price customers are expecting to pay is lower than the “at cost” price of the retailer. The downside of making products overseas is that it is typically associated with a decrease in quality.
3) The retailer’s manufacturer is over seas. This has various negative consequences.
a) There is a time zone difference that hinders communication. For example, one cannot pick up a phone during business hours in the United States to talk to someone in China.
b) There is a language barrier to overcome. Although some manufacturers may speak English, many do not. Moreover, those that do may not know it well. Likewise, the retailers may not speak the language of the manufacturer.
c) There is a physical distance barrier. The retailer cannot drop by the warehouse or the manufacturer to check out the product first hand. The manufacturer is on the other side of the ocean. Employers are not going to get digital cameras and take pictures of the fitment and send them to the retailer in the United States to take a look before a mold is made. Likewise, the retailer is not going to fly to the manufacturer over seas to see the product first hand. Most of the time, no test fit sessions are done. The first time the retailer gets a look at the product is when it arrives in a large crate in large quantities. At that point, the retailer can test fit the product on the car, however, by then it is too late. The mold has already been made and is paid for. The manufacturer has already begun to produce the product in large quantities.
d) There is a slow turn around time or time delay. This is similar to the physical barrier concept described above. Since the manufacturer is far away, everything naturally takes longer and may be less efficient. If you want something shipped from overseas, ocean freight takes 4-6 weeks alone. It then has to clear through customs, which causes further delays. In fact, if there is something illegal on the crate, such as a running Nissan Skyline for example, the entire crate is frozen until the matter is resolved. United States Customs are similar to every other government agency in that things are accomplished extremely slowly and they require lots of paperwork.
After the crate clears through customs, the retailer has to unload the crate and create an inventory list. This may take anywhere from 1 to 2 weeks and sometimes more. This is just to get the product into the United States. If for some reason you want to send the product back to the manufacturer, you have to go through a similar process all over again to get it back to the foreign country. Once whatever issue is resolved, you once again have to go through the same wait you went through to get the product to the United States. Assuming United States Customs does not put a freeze on the crate, the turn around time to get something from the manufacturer overseas, send it back, and have it redelivered has now added up to about 20 weeks.
e) Poor quality control.
4) The retailer is going to make a profit regardless of whether or not the fitment is good. Retailers know that most customers are going to be turned off by the high prices of authentic aero parts. This is especially true when the customer has to end up going through the hassle and paying a Japanese tax, customs tax, and shipping from Japan to the United States. Hence, even if the customer knows that the aero part has poor fitment, they are still going to purchase the product. Unfortunately, no matter how much prior warning or low expectations the customer had, they will still be disappointed in the quality of the aero part. Some products are of so low quality that some body shops will not even work on them. Those that do will end up charging the customer more hours of labor to prep and fit the product. Most of the money that was originally saved by going with the cheaper alternative aero part has now been spent on labor.
5) Retailers who make their aero parts overseas do not put a lot of priority on customer satisfaction. Their main profit is not going to be from returning customers. It is going to be from selling large quantities of aero parts to a large number of people. For example, the “at cost” price for a replica fiberglass front bumper made overseas is only around $30. This allows a very large profit margin and ability to keep sale prices low in order to lure more customers. Most of these products end up selling on Ebay, because the marketing strategy of the retailer is to whore the products out in order to increase profit.
6) Variability of standards. Mad PSI will not accept anything short of perfection. They will keep dumping time and money into research, design and test fitting sessions. With regards to research and design, products are track tested and used in competition as well. For example, Mad PSI has been one of the most active sponsors for MR2s in elite competitions such as Sports Compact Car's Ultimate Street Car Challenge (USCC), Sports Compact Car's and Super Street's Time Attack Challenge. In addition, some of the fastest MR2s in drag racing, which are on track to run nine second quarter mile times this season, are using Mad PSI products. Their parts are race inspired and tested. For example, the competition carbon fiber Type B vented hood for the MR2 not only cools off the radiator, but it also reduces front end lift and is the lightest hood available for the MR2 (the heaviest hood weighed by a customer was only 7 pounds!). Not only are the products designed to perform, but they are designed to look good as well. Unlike other retailers, Mad PSI is not afraid of posting numerous high resolution pictures of their products at every angle imaginable on their website. In addition, the Mad PSI team consists of some of the most highly respected MR2s in the show scene and a project car that keeps pushing the envelope for daily driving performance. Mad PSI uses only the best manufacturers in the United States and does not make their aero kits overseas. Multiple molds are made. Products are updated and improved. Once again, let us use the Mad PSI Type B Version 2 vented hood as an example to show the typical evolution of our parts:
In order to account for the variability between MR2s, a white 1993 turbo MR2 and a 1991 normally aspirated red MR2 were both used. A Carfax report was made to see if either car had been in an accident. In addition, the frame of both cars was checked. Mad PSI made sure the prototype vented hood fit perfect on BOTH MR2s before we used it for our mold. This meant hours of labor for sanding and test fitting numerous hoods. 10 months of work went into make two different of molds from different manufacturers. They then picked the better of the two. After producing one mold that was used to make the Type B version 1 vented hood, we decided to update our mold to make the vented hood even better. We started the development of our Type B version 2 vented hood, which was redesigned from the skeleton up. Once again, more test fit sessions were done to ensure good fitment of our product. Hoods made between July 17, 2003, and April 24, 2005 were version 2 vented hoods. Vented hoods made after April 25, 2005 are version 3 vented hoods. No one said being a perfectionist was easy!
Mad PSI is aiming for a different target audience. The target audience includes customers who know the meaning of “you get what you pay for”, customers who want the best for their car in terms of both performance and cosmetics, customers who do not want to be turned down by body shops due to a products poor quality, customers whose cars end up winning car shows, customers who get the spread in an Import Magazine, customers who end up in music videos and movies, customers who race competitively, etc.
On the other hand, other retailers may not put high priority on making sure the aero parts fit well. Research and design is non-existent. Rarely anything original is created. Most, if not all, of the products are direct replicas of some authentic aero part. More often, they are direct replicas off of other replicas, which were most likely a poor quality replica. As explained above test fit sessions are either rare and pointless or non-existent. Most retailers do not even use pictures of their own products on their own website, that is not a good sign. Instead, they either use pictures of the authentic kits or of other companies replicas. Cheap manufacturers overseas are used in order to increase profit, instead of the best manufacturers in order to increase quality. One mold is made whether or not that mold turned out good. When the mold is made, the project is deemed complete. No updated or improved versions will come out. Their target audience is customers that wants to get an aero part for as cheap as possible regardless of fitment, customers who are gullible or inexperienced with aero parts, customers that do not understand the meaning of “you get what you pay for”, etc.