Re: Authenticity vs. Modification

Posted by portlandon On 2009/4/22 12:27:11

much as we'd all like to see this happen, it just simply won't, it's a matter of demand. For every Packard there's 1000 Chevies or Fords, or more.

Correct.

For instance, our company is trying to reproduce a dash bezel. There were 320,000 cars built using this bezel. With a 3-7% survivor rate that leaves roughly 16,000 cars left. Of those 16,000 roughly half need this part leaving 8,000.

Tooling costs for such bezel were quoted at $13,000. Production runs were at 3000 pieces each run. Our cost would be $4.00 each bezel. Retail would be $17.95. We estimate to sell 80-120 per year. It would take 6 years to sell enough to recoup the cost of the tooling and break even NOT including the initial run of 3000 pieces.

Packard cars were made in smaller production numbers,have a smaller following than Big 3 automakers. It is hard to justify making a part for a Packard when it would take so long to recoup investment costs and still sell the part for a price that a customer would deem reasonable.