Silvia conversions: business idea

[JustinM]

Okay this might be far-fetched but a good idea nonetheless. Imagine aftermarket body part mfg's in the USA such as Certi-fit. They offer decent aftermarket body parts for vehicles sold in the USA for a respectable cost. There has to be a numerous amount of companies in Japan that are similar and offer Silvia body panels for vehicles that have been in an accident. I would imagine it would cost approx. $625 for the parts (fenders $200, hood $150, front bumper $200, brackets $75) plus the headlights (I would figure these will be the most expensive). So maybe $1000 for all? All we'd need is to find someone who is fluent in Japanese or a local in Japan to find these companies who have the product, and then find a carrier to import. All the parts would be in boxes or wrapped, so the shipping might even be affordable. I think a lot of people would be willing to pay double the amount for NEW parts that simply need a light sanding and a $150-250 paint job. It would be expensive to get this going, and I don't have the money, but a good idea. Let's hear some feedback! Justin

[[s3]]

http://www.jspec.com

Something like that?

[JustinM]

All I saw was used, except the brackets and such, no fenders or hood or new lights.

[[s3]]

All I saw was used, except the brackets and such, no fenders or hood or new lights.

Well here are a few reasons why your idea won't work.

1) It will cost an enormous amounts of money to ship your products over here to the states. Not counting the trade tariffs and taxes etc etc. You'd just be broke finding a ship to haul your stuff. They also probably won' t transport anything less than 1 container. Ship 2 kits over? Forget about it.

2) These JDM things have already been done to death by the hundreds of compaines scouring japan for used/new parts. Contrary to what you think, you can get brand new parts from Japan for any car, it just depends on how much money you have. Sourcing the parts is not hard, shipping them over is. And if you plan to mass market them, you better be sure these parts are DOT certified and would not cause death/injury when installed properly into cars. Thats the last thing you want to see your nice JDM carbon fiber hood collapsing into the windshield and slicing your head off.....

Besides, everything is made in China nowadays. =)

[JustinM]

I have no interest in carbon fiber, but anyway how can a guy get a replacement fender or cracked headlight? E-bay? I hate E-bay. Or just wait for someone to miraculously sell one just like the one your looking for? The taxes and such are something I didn't think of, I'm sure it would be a *****, but if someone's got the money I'll take 15% profit for the idea. Ha ha.....

[[s3]]

Thats the risk you take when you order JDM parts, if they break you would need replacement JDM parts.

The idea has been around for a while, but the implementation and marketing could use a big overhaul.

A lot of these companies are realizing that China is growing to be a huge manufacturing giant. Actually I was thinking of having a couple thousand intercoolers made in China. Aluminum and welding is cheap enough, so is the labor. It would cost about $50 american dollars to make a FMIC. Shipping costs around 2k-3k for a container. It would however require an initial order of about 1000 to 2000 units before the factory would actaully lift a finger.

Then you have to worry about where its going to be shipped, usually a big dock yard like Jersey or New York, then find a couple 18 wheelers to haul your goods.

Finally, you'll need a big warehouse to store all your goods....not so easy when you actually start looking deeper eh?

[Wuss]

Wow.. great idea, very similar to Afterdark and NIght7's ideas.

Hmm what went wrong?

[[s3]]

Wow.. great idea, very similar to Afterdark and NIght7's ideas.

Hmm what went wrong?

I'm missing a few things,

1) Warehouse2) Truckers3) Workers to move the 2 tons of stuff4) About $200,000

Yea thats about it

=)

[Wuss]

I guess you didn't hear the sarcasm in my post. If you don't know, both After Dark and Night 7 both hyped out their new business's with months and months of talk, pre-sales, etc etc.

After Dark turned out to be total scam, taking orders on tens of thousands worth of merchandise and never delivering. Night 7 also took orders on motors and never delivered. To night 7's credit though, I do believe he is trying to rectify the situation.

Dont' worry, neither of these guys had a warehouse, truckers, workers, or 200,000.

And that part was the whole joke. But now it's dumb cuz i had to explain it all.

[[s3]]

I guess you didn't hear the sarcasm in my post. If you don't know, both After Dark and Night 7 both hyped out their new business's with months and months of talk, pre-sales, etc etc.

After Dark turned out to be total scam, taking orders on tens of thousands worth of merchandise and never delivering. Night 7 also took orders on motors and never delivered. To night 7's credit though, I do believe he is trying to rectify the situation.

Dont' worry, neither of these guys had a warehouse, truckers, workers, or 200,000.

And that part was the whole joke. But now it's dumb cuz i had to explain it all.

haha, actually it's kinda ironic because I did travel to China and brought a intercooler with me for them to check out.

The head at the factory says that intercoolers are easy to make but would require a commitment from me ($$$) as well as kickbacks from sales ($$$).

The funny thing is, factories like those are a dime a dozen but unfortunately if you don't know anyone you can easily get taken for a ride and get 1000 pieces of crap that won't pass any QA standards.

I wouldn't hype out my products until I have them in hand, which might be in the future along with my plans for my own tuning/speed shop.

[trpower7]

Ideas like this are ludicrous. If it could make money it would and is already being done by enough people. There is plenty of supply for the available demand. You can't do it any cheaper or any better than the established companies. That's why 99.95% of the new companies will fail miserably. It's simple business theory people.

[[s3]]

Ideas like this are ludicrous. If it could make money it would and is already being done by enough people. There is plenty of supply for the available demand. You can't do it any cheaper or any better than the established companies. That's why 99.95% of the new companies will fail miserably. It's simple business theory people.

Do you have your MBA yet?

[hannibal]

Business is all about innovation. if you find a better way to do waht companies are already doing, that's valuable stuff. But you can't copy them and expect the same results.

Jay

[carnal_c30]

ok heres a few of my opinions

I used to import parts, cars and stuff over here up until last year I still deal in some things like HIDs and the like

it is a good idea, but you must realize the market for such parts is just a tiny portion of the whole collison replacement part industry

to make new parts, your costs just go insane- to be honest certi-fit amazes me. My friend just picked up a front and rear bumper for his Maxima a few weeks ago for 25 bucks each I just cant believe they can make profit off of that

the market for this stuff may be bigger than just the used parts coming out of Japan, but its not big enough to set up factories to make OEM quality metal replacement parts... that niche is filled by fiberglass parts from companies like GTP International (impoertfan.com)

with the importation- tariffs are kind of high, but the biggest problem we started running into was that aftetr Sept 11th our containers could wind up sitting in customs for 3 monthes for no good reasons... we either had to have a huge inventory to supply people while our containers were stuck in customs... or we keep them waiting for 3 monthes... didnt have the inventory to do that didnt have the money to invest so much in wharehouses and overstock items like crazy... sooooo... we just called it quits

I've heard customs has changed alot, but I just had enough of it... its been a huge pain in the butt

[[s3]]

ok heres a few of my opinions

I used to import parts, cars and stuff over here up until last year I still deal in some things like HIDs and the like

it is a good idea, but you must realize the market for such parts is just a tiny portion of the whole collison replacement part industry

to make new parts, your costs just go insane- to be honest certi-fit amazes me. My friend just picked up a front and rear bumper for his Maxima a few weeks ago for 25 bucks each I just cant believe they can make profit off of that

the market for this stuff may be bigger than just the used parts coming out of Japan, but its not big enough to set up factories to make OEM quality metal replacement parts... that niche is filled by fiberglass parts from companies like GTP International (impoertfan.com)

with the importation- tariffs are kind of high, but the biggest problem we started running into was that aftetr Sept 11th our containers could wind up sitting in customs for 3 monthes for no good reasons... we either had to have a huge inventory to supply people while our containers were stuck in customs... or we keep them waiting for 3 monthes... didnt have the inventory to do that didnt have the money to invest so much in wharehouses and overstock items like crazy... sooooo... we just called it quits

I've heard customs has changed alot, but I just had enough of it... its been a huge pain in the butt

Customs has dogs sniffing everything now =)

[JustinM]

It's raining on my parade...

[JustinM]

Ludacris, he's a great rapper....TRpower7whatshis****, thanks for the input, I appreciate it. So what's up with night7racing besides a ****ty website? Are they going under before they even started?

[carnal_c30]

Customs has dogs sniffing everything now =)

they sniff for jdm parts