Fordmods Logo

Aftermarket ecu's over priced???? 

 

Page 1 of 2 [ 16 posts ] Go to page 1, 2  Next

 
 Post subject: Aftermarket ecu's over priced????
Posted: Wed Feb 04, 2009 6:03 pm 
Getting Side Ways
Offline

Posts: 2410

Joined: 4th Sep 2006

Location: Sydney
NSW, Australia

Hi all,

Today i was thinking the pricing of aftermarket ecu's like Autronic, Vipec and Motec. Now for a Autronic SM4 is $2200.00 complete with wiring and all. Then install and tune and next thing its $4000-5000 grand.

I think to myself geez for $2200.00 i can get myself a Sony W series or Samsung LCD 6 series LCD in 40inch for that much or a pretty sick Laptop or desktop pc. I can see 2200.00 worth in these items but for a little box with a board in there im not convinced its worth the money there asking.

Im no electrical engineer of anything but comparing board sizes and what not of a LCD, laptop and desktop pc i would imagine that they probably do more than what a ECU does, in regards to processing.

So why are we customers forking out so much for a ECU???

Id like to see whats all behind this so at least the ecu companies can justify there pricing as i dont believe we should be paying the money there asking.

What are your thought's???

 

_________________

Wanted Either Capri/Cortina/XY/XW/XR/XT with tough V8 stroker engine, auto, 9inch, upgraded brakes etc[/SIZE][/size][/color]

Top
 Profile  
 
 
 Post subject: Re: Aftermarket ecu's over priced????
Posted: Wed Feb 04, 2009 6:13 pm 
Getting Side Ways
Offline
User avatar

Age: 39

Posts: 1832

Joined: 3rd May 2007

Gallery: 8 images

Ride: AUII XR6 Uterus

Location: South Coast
NSW, Australia

they don't have to justify it, they have monopoly. it's the automotive industry! the most over inflated rip off trade there is, coz at the end of the day they have u by the balls. coz we all need cars, and some of us need faster ones.

 

_________________

Not to get technical, but according to chemistry alcohol is a solution.

Top
 Profile  
 
 
 Post subject: Re: Aftermarket ecu's over priced????
Posted: Wed Feb 04, 2009 6:58 pm 
Getting Side Ways
Offline

Posts: 539

Joined: 30th Nov 2004

Location: Melbourne
VIC, Australia

Yep Overpriced
But they are not selling on Volume
How many LCD's / Laptops whatever are selling compared to an aftermarket ECU

More you sell the lower the price per unit anything can be.
Top
 Profile  
 
 
 Post subject: Re: Aftermarket ecu's over priced????
Posted: Wed Feb 04, 2009 7:58 pm 
Stock as a Rock
Offline

Age: 39

Posts: 118

Joined: 16th Dec 2008

Ride: EL fairmont

Location: Mid North Coast
NSW, Australia

{USERNAME} wrote:
Yep Overpriced
But they are not selling on Volume
How many LCD's / Laptops whatever are selling compared to an aftermarket ECU

More you sell the lower the price per unit anything can be.


raise ur hand here if you would have purchased an aftermarket ecu if the price was reasonable...

they just dont know this thing called MONEY.... they wantz lotz... but dont have the brains to get it.
Top
 Profile  
 
 
 Post subject: Re: Aftermarket ecu's over priced????
Posted: Wed Feb 04, 2009 8:14 pm 
Getting Side Ways
Offline
User avatar

Age: 39

Posts: 1832

Joined: 3rd May 2007

Gallery: 8 images

Ride: AUII XR6 Uterus

Location: South Coast
NSW, Australia

i

 

_________________

Not to get technical, but according to chemistry alcohol is a solution.

Top
 Profile  
 
 
 Post subject: Re: Aftermarket ecu's over priced????
Posted: Wed Feb 04, 2009 8:44 pm 
Fordmods Junkie
Offline
User avatar

Posts: 11752

Joined: 17th May 2005

Gallery: 11 images

Ride: EL Fairmont, VFR400 racer

Power: 144 rwkw

Location: Melbourne
VIC, Australia

Not many aftermarket ECUs are sold...the higher the demand, the cheaper you can get them...thus group buys tend to be cheaper.

Also they need to make the money back for research, patent, copyright and all that jazz...getting something patent and copyrighted then manufactured costs a fair bit, and not being able to sell in the thousands in a year, makes it harder for them to get their money back...thus high price.

phong =P~

 

_________________

phongus = Post whore 2006
EL XR6 motor, EL ECU + J3 chip, WADE 1673 Camshaft, 3" S/S intake, Pacy 4480, 2.5" Hi flow cat, 2.5" Lukey exhaust.
Max Power = 144.6 rwkw (03/05/2008)

Top
 Profile  
 
 
 Post subject: Re: Aftermarket ecu's over priced????
Posted: Wed Feb 04, 2009 9:44 pm 
Getting Side Ways
Offline

Posts: 2410

Joined: 4th Sep 2006

Location: Sydney
NSW, Australia

Some good suggestions here but im still not convinced as if we talk about more volume = less price on the product is true to a certain extent.

Im a sales rep and i see how much from Supplier to retailer makes and u will be supprised on how much the mark up is. I wouldnt be suprised that % GP would be over 50%

Thing is these units are sold all over the world so i would expect a decent amount of units out there being sold daily. So i would assume there made in one factory then sent to each country.

1 example is AEM ecu which is sold in the US and there price for a stand along unit is high aswell and guess what, look at there population campared to ours so u would assume that the volume there sold would 10 fold the units here. So why arent there ECU's cheaper???

Believe me you guys will be very suprised on what u pay at the counter and see how much it costs the company to make a small electrical device.

 

_________________

Wanted Either Capri/Cortina/XY/XW/XR/XT with tough V8 stroker engine, auto, 9inch, upgraded brakes etc[/SIZE][/size][/color]

Top
 Profile  
 
 
 Post subject: Re: Aftermarket ecu's over priced????
Posted: Wed Feb 04, 2009 10:05 pm 
Getting Side Ways
Offline
User avatar

Posts: 1139

Joined: 27th Feb 2005

Ride: Supercharged EF Fairmont

Location: T.I. Performance HQ
VIC, Australia

i dont understand the need to replace factory ecus in all but very seriously modified vehicles.
Top
 Profile  
 
 
 Post subject: Re: Aftermarket ecu's over priced????
Posted: Wed Feb 04, 2009 10:05 pm 
Fordmods Junkie
Offline
User avatar

Posts: 11752

Joined: 17th May 2005

Gallery: 11 images

Ride: EL Fairmont, VFR400 racer

Power: 144 rwkw

Location: Melbourne
VIC, Australia

That is true micky...ridiculous up market on items sold and I don't believe it should cost that much...but we can't really do much about it :(.

A lot of money is spent on research and development, final product is cheap to produce, but getting from your mind, on paper and then into production...with all the legal fees and what not, it adds up a fair bit. Just think IT stuff...hardware is cheap and software is expensive. Software (I think) requires much more research and debugging...which is time consuming, rather then producing a chip. Initially the chip is expensive, but once the technique has been conquered, make them smaller and squash more transistors in using the same production line.

phong =P~

 

_________________

phongus = Post whore 2006
EL XR6 motor, EL ECU + J3 chip, WADE 1673 Camshaft, 3" S/S intake, Pacy 4480, 2.5" Hi flow cat, 2.5" Lukey exhaust.
Max Power = 144.6 rwkw (03/05/2008)

Top
 Profile  
 
 
 Post subject: Re: Aftermarket ecu's over priced????
Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2009 8:06 am 
Stock as a Rock
Offline

Age: 45

Posts: 199

Joined: 5th Nov 2004

Ride: BF XR6 Ute

Location: Sydney
NSW, Australia

The Autronic SM4 mentioned at the top of thread is damn near as good as you can get. There are a few ECUs around the 1500-1800 mark that will cope with anything you throw at it. Have a look at ViPEC or LINK.

An ECU can be swapped between cars and retuned. Tuners must get paid s**t. I saw a job advertised for a dyno tuner for 100+k pa.

I have been writing up an ECU guide for the mag over the last week. My head is full of analogue input this and injector driver that...

 

_________________

BF XR6 Ute,ED XR6 Manual (SOLD),XD 4V 351 toploader 9in

Zoom and Extreme magazines Production Editor

Top
 Profile  
 
 
 Post subject: Re: Aftermarket ecu's over priced????
Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2009 11:01 am 
Getting Side Ways
Offline

Posts: 2410

Joined: 4th Sep 2006

Location: Sydney
NSW, Australia

Check these ECU's from Africa, yes i know 3rd world country but they seem alright and there cheap. A prime example of mark up's on ECU's.

http://www.d**k.co.za/

This is there web store link
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Engine-M ... QQtcZphoto


http://www.perfectpower.com/

There are already 3 Australian Dealers and our very own Joe from Crescent motorsports is a dealer. Maybe he can shed some light on this ecu???

 

_________________

Wanted Either Capri/Cortina/XY/XW/XR/XT with tough V8 stroker engine, auto, 9inch, upgraded brakes etc[/SIZE][/size][/color]

Top
 Profile  
 
 
 Post subject: Re: Aftermarket ecu's over priced????
Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2009 11:24 am 
Stock as a Rock
Offline

Age: 45

Posts: 199

Joined: 5th Nov 2004

Ride: BF XR6 Ute

Location: Sydney
NSW, Australia

d**k ecu!

bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

but seriously, it only has one general purpose ouput!

 

_________________

BF XR6 Ute,ED XR6 Manual (SOLD),XD 4V 351 toploader 9in

Zoom and Extreme magazines Production Editor

Top
 Profile  
 
 
 Post subject: Re: Aftermarket ecu's over priced????
Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2009 11:26 am 
Stock as a Rock
Offline

Age: 45

Posts: 199

Joined: 5th Nov 2004

Ride: BF XR6 Ute

Location: Sydney
NSW, Australia

fkn censor is buggering up my posts

d!cktator ecu

lets try that lol

 

_________________

BF XR6 Ute,ED XR6 Manual (SOLD),XD 4V 351 toploader 9in

Zoom and Extreme magazines Production Editor

Top
 Profile  
 
 
 Post subject: Re: Aftermarket ecu's over priced????
Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2009 12:18 pm 
Site Admin
Offline
User avatar

Age: 41

Posts: 8836

Joined: 18th Dec 2002

Gallery: 6 images

Ride: AUII V8 LTD

Power: 270 rwkw

Location: Sydney
NSW, Australia

If they sold as many aftermarket ECU's as they did LCD and Plasma TV's, Im sure they would be selling for $1000 each and the companies would be making way more money than they are now.

The proof is out there that the components required to make a reasonable ECU dont cost a packet - I think the Megasquirt kits sell for ~$200-300. Then add on the software development, maintenance and general R&D work which isn't cheap for a team of 10 engineers and developers. $1000 a pop is a good price, $2000-4000 with such low demand is understandable.

If you want a cheap ECU, go for the megasquirt!

 

_________________

WAG363: AUII LTD Supercharged 363 Dart Stroker [{DESCRIPTION}]
WAGGIN: 2012 Volkswagen Passat Wagon - V6 4Motion.

Top
 Profile  
 
 
 Post subject: Re: Aftermarket ecu's over priced????
Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2009 5:04 pm 
Getting Side Ways
Offline
User avatar

Age: 39

Posts: 1832

Joined: 3rd May 2007

Gallery: 8 images

Ride: AUII XR6 Uterus

Location: South Coast
NSW, Australia

i agree i wouldn't replace the ecu in my bf, but i would in my ea, i want to boost it, and it's not going to last forever (maybe it will its my first ford love lol) so when the time comes i could retain the ecu for another project car.

try group buy. or has it been done ?

 

_________________

Not to get technical, but according to chemistry alcohol is a solution.

Top
 Profile  
 
Display posts from previous:
Sort by  
 Page 1 of 2  [ 16 posts ]  Go to page 1, 2  Next

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 30 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

 

 

It is currently Thu Dec 26, 2024 12:18 am All times are UTC + 11 hours

 

 

(c)2014 Total Web Solutions Australia - Australian Web Hosting and Domain Names