WILDLY varying locker prices

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Originally Posted by cookiesa

Very Niave, it's basic maths, watch what happens to locker prices in the States.

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It sure is basic maths!

Looking from the consumers point of view, ......two ARB lockers from the States - AU$1800 to my door, whereas travelling 20 mins to my local ARB store to pickup the same product will cost me AU$2500!

...and as a consumer wanting to buy NOW, who cares what happens to the locker prices in future, only the current pricing matters!

I admit that warranty may be an issue, but that's effectively a AU$700 insurance policy (39% premium!), which may be worth it for competition users who are stressing the parts to the max, but for the average user (like me :p), it's very hard to justify.

To be fair, Australian retail prices generally for any product are amongst the highest in the world now. This is a very expensive country in which to shop.
Choose any product you like and compare the price here and overseas and it will almost always be dearer here. As someone said, local retail prices are disconnected from the cost of production when a company operates internationally, since the usual practice is to get it made as cheaply as possible somewhere and then price it differently in each market, depending on what people will pay. So, if you think the price is too high, the answer is simple - import it yourself!

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Originally Posted by LowRanger

Despite what ARB like to tell us,the Locker may be designed here and assembled here.But a majority of the parts for it are made in P.R.C.
I have spoken to several resellers in the U.S. and when they have ordered parts for broken lockers (and despite what the ARB pundits tell us,they do break fairly frequently):wasntme:The parts arrive in boxes with made in P.R.C. on them.I know of one well known reseller there that won't sell them any more!!!! Maybe here they just rebox them or remove the sticker and just give us the mushroom treatment.

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I think it works along the lines of whatever country adds the most value to the product it may then be labelled 'product of' (or 'made in', apparently they mean different things too)
eg. if a widget is made in the PRC but painted and packaged in Oz, and the painting and packaging costs more than 51% of the actual total cost it can be labelled 'Made in Oz'

Someone will be along shortly to correct the %'s etc, but I'm pretty sure that's the gist of it.

Looking at some of the prices of 4wd accessories overseas, in some cases the retail price of products overseas is cheaper than the wholesale price i pay here.

Its hard to tell people to support local businesses when the prices are so much cheaper overseas.

If the price difference was only a couple of hundred bucks then people might not bother with the increased hassle of shopping overseas, but when you are saving $700 its hard to knock that back.

Matt

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Originally Posted by rick130

I think it works along the lines of whatever country adds the most value to the product it may then be labelled 'product of' (or 'made in', apparently they mean different things too)
eg. if a widget is made in the PRC but painted and packaged in Oz, and the painting and packaging costs more than 51% of the actual total cost it can be labelled 'Made in Oz'

Someone will be along shortly to correct the %'s etc, but I'm pretty sure that's the gist of it.

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You have obviously not seen the airlocker section at Kilsyth, where the parts are machined, a few rows over you will find where the compressors are assembled and tested, from parts mostly made in house

Have a look on youtube and search for arb factory tour

Here's a few examples from the recent issue of Land Rover International. All prices are quoted in pounds. An Aussie dollar is buying 59 pence today.

ARB air locker: 10 spline, 24 spline - 640 pounds.

Pro Comp shock absorbers from 30 pounds

Optima batteries: red top 146 pounds; yellow top 175 pounds

BFG AT 235/70/16 set of four fitted to 7 x 16 black modular wheels 585 pounds

EW9000 T-Max winch 299 pounds

Big Country 40 inch drawers for Defenders from 763 pounds

P38 winch bumper 320 pounds

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Originally Posted by cookiesa

You have obviously not seen the airlocker section at Kilsyth, where the parts are machined, a few rows over you will find where the compressors are assembled and tested, from parts mostly made in house

Have a look on youtube and search for arb factory tour

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All said with the corporate hat sitting squarely on head;)

Video can be distorted to show just about anything you want to show,or maybe only the overseas markets get the P.R.C. parts????:wasntme:

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Originally Posted by LowRanger

.......or maybe only the overseas markets get the P.R.C. parts????:wasntme:

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Now that would be a reason to pay more for Australian products!! :cool:

...I wonder what the statistics for failures overseas are compared to here? :eek:

Probably the same, as they can make to pretty much any quality required by the customer.

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Originally Posted by LowRanger

Despite what ARB like to tell us,the Locker may be designed here and assembled here.But a majority of the parts for it are made in P.R.C.
I have spoken to several resellers in the U.S. and when they have ordered parts for broken lockers (and despite what the ARB pundits tell us,they do break fairly frequently):wasntme:The parts arrive in boxes with made in P.R.C. on them.I know of one well known reseller there that won't sell them any more!!!! Maybe here they just rebox them or remove the sticker and just give us the mushroom treatment.

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Ahhhh....tall poppy at its very very best.
Rather than get the facts straight it makes for a better story to knife one of the last Aussie manufacturers square between the shoulder blades.

How about stopping by the factory in Melbourne to meet some of the fitter-turners or assembly crew yourself? - or take a short drive across the street to watch the bulkhead fitting parts being made, or the diff springs being spun out? - Or drive an hour away from here to watch the blue tubing being extruded? - or while you're on holiday in Brisbane you can see our aluminium extrusions being made and polyurethane parts being moulded? - or simply drive an hour away from you in Sydney to watch our castings get poured or our shims getting punched out? ...etc...etc...etc.

It's experts like you who have made Australia the prosperous manufacturing hub that it is. :BigThumb:

That's OK, once I and over 1000 other fellow Australian ARB employees, and countless other Australian suppliers and subcontractors lose our jobs due to the sad state of Australian manufacturing and the virtual absence of support for Australian made products from the consumer base and the Australian government, we can all spend our days sitting around typing up smart arsed comments on internet forums about subjects we know nothing about.

-daniel
AIR LOCKER