Originally Posted by MarylandSpeed
Well..I guess this proves..even if I stay out a thread..the subject still causes an argument.
At the end of the day this is pretty simple. If you don't want to spend money on American made headers, and lowest price is the biggest factor in your header decison, then yes you have options, including overseas copies. It's your money, do what you want and have fun modding your car. I am not here to hurt anyone's feelings, make them feel bad about what they bought, or whatever. However everything with this is not happy unicorns jumping over rainbows. The reason they are cheap is they took another companies design, and copied it using inferior materials and workmanship overseas. No matter how cheap they are, that fact is unavoidable and the 800lbs gorilla in every one of these threads.
So with that in mind...
A.) Don't expect to go parading around the forums about how great they are, and how you saved so much money and not expect a response. The people who already have a set, or are only gonna spend $500 willl agree with you, and cheer you on for thumbing your nose at the chinese header haters. However there are also a lot of people pay good money for a premium product, and do not take kindly to having people brag about how great a cheap knock off is. This is not limited to headers, pretty much every retail market I know on, it is frowned upon to support knockoffs or brag about purchasing them. It's like going an a sunglass forum and bragging about your fake Oakley's.
B.) In terms of build quality, they are not the same as the premium headers they copies..or even in the ball park. We are talking exhaust pipe here..so it is pretty easy for the stuff to be functional and do the job...but that does not mean the quality is there. It's easy to see shiny headers and think "OMGZ..pretty!", but if you know what you are looking at..there is a big difference.
I will be at Camaro5 fest and have both brands on display. I had both at Camaro5fest last year, and will this year too..and lets say after seeing both..no one was asking me about how to get the cheaper set.
Lastly, there is no "Camaro Tax". Maybe we want to have an ego trip and think that somehow the Camaro is such a hot market that vendors can charge whatever they want and the poor customer gets screwed. The reality is, this is the most competitive market in the aftermarket right now. There are competitors crawling all over one another to get business. Additionally, with most of this happening online, most customers don't care as much about service, and often let whoever has the absolute lowest price dictate who they buy from. If you a a customer, you have a lot more pricing leverage owning a Camaro, which is made in pretty high numbers than say...a SSR, Challenger, or LT1 Camaro where there are many less options parts wise, and fewer vendors fighting for your business.
There are 5 premium header companies out there, and pretty much all of their pricing is within $300 of one another. These are VERY competitive companies, and if one could undercut the other by $400 and run a profitable business, it would happen. The problem is, you can't drop prices that much unless you off shore production..and normally you take a quality and reputation hit. People can buy a $300 set of no name knock offs on ebay..and if the hardware sucks, and they need to be hammered to fit..whatever..it's what you expect. Buy budget name brand headers made in China, and there is a fit issue, not only do you expect a higher level of service than you would the ebay headers..but now there is also the reputation hit from customers being suspicious some of your products are made overseas.
Additionally..do some price research. Kooks headers, and catted connection pipes for a Camaro run $1349 (minimum advertised price).
The same set up for each vehicle below runs-
Dodge Challenger- $1500
Pontiac G8- $1349
LS1 4th Gen Camaro- $1500
C6 Corvette- $1700
Shelby Mustang- $1400
2005-2010 Mustang GT- $1300 (these are much smaller headers).
Additionally in terms of premium, US made headers, Kooks is on the cheaper end. The bottom line is if you want to design your own header in the US, with as much US sourced material as possible, and make it in a non job shop/contract environment (meaning all you make is exhaust, not like lawn furniture when things are slow), then these prices are what you have to charge.
|