Date: 2 Apr 2004 01:36:09 GMT From: Dave Hinz <davehinznospamcop.net> Subject: Re: Rant - parts prices
On Thu, 01 Apr 2004 18:10:45 -0700, Bill Jeffrey <wjeffreynospamAMalum.mit.edu> wrote: > Right you are. Has anyone priced the hydraulic lift cylinders for a 900 > convertible top? I swear I could have bought a whole 'nuther car for > about the same price. And there is nothing particularly special about > these cylinders, fabrication-wise, to make them so expensive. Maybe they're not all that unique, but if it's a small-batch item, you're sharing in the tooling cost for it. Even Saab, I suppose, has engineers who design blindly, rather than seeing what's out there. Often an engineer can adjust their design to use a commonly available part, avoiding it being a custom or one-off job, but sometimes they either choose not to, or quality dicatate that they don't. Hard to say which it is in this case; I'd like to think it's the latter. Dave Hinz