Importing APR products from the US

[kryten2001]

What does that law have to do with a mechanic fitting the same part sourced overseas from one sourced from an Australian distributor?

Stupid law anyway. How can a workshop possibly warrant every single bolt they put onto a car. All this does is force up costs due to compliancy, back to what I was saying about labour before.

[kryten2001]

And I also suspect that consumer law was written to make sure garages back their products with warranties, and to ensure if they fix something that causes consequential damage.

Eg a cheap Chinese filter is fitted by a mechanic and it screws something up, then they have to rectify. Has nothing to
Do with where that part was sourced from.

Interesting though. Wasn't aware of that one. It would certainly give me reason to pause if I was considering setting up shop.

[whiteVR6]

What does that law have to do with a mechanic fitting the same part sourced overseas from one sourced from an Australian distributor?

Stupid law anyway. How can a workshop possibly warrant every single bolt they put onto a car. All this does is force up costs due to compliancy, back to what I was saying about labour before.

If a part is sourced locally then it could be claimed under warranty locally. If its sourced overseas then Australian consumer laws have no effect on overseas purchases. Whoever imports the part is held liable. What Transporter has posted is saying that the mechanic that fits the parts should always be responsible!

[Preen59]

Gav, If tuning was 100% of your income, and you didn't have a full time job as well. I'm sure you would be doing business differently too

Very happy employing Australians in our business, even happier that we get to export 100% Aussie made products to international tuning markets. Call me old fashion, but I hate seeing all our talented engineers lose their jobs in Australia.

Totally agree.

[Transporter]

If a part is sourced locally then it could be claimed under warranty locally. If its sourced overseas then Australian consumer laws have no effect on overseas purchases. Whoever imports the part is held liable. What Transporter has posted is saying that the mechanic that fits the parts should always be responsible!

Yes, if the business you bought it from was sufficiently insured.
IMO, that's the reason for that law. The workshop that fitted the faulty part is responsible for it. Believe me, I don't like it either.

Because, it means that the customer would be suing the workshop that fitted the faulty part not the chan**hong manufacturer somewhere else while you can claim from your insurer. IMO, that's the purpose of that law. What your insurance cover and what not is something you can find later, but the first thing what the insurance does; they check how they can void the claim (said simply).

I've never had to claim anything of my insurance under these circumstances, because I’ve always preferred to lose the customers who come with the part in the hand that they bought who knows where. I choose my suppliers wisely.
I'm not saying that you don't and my post wasn't about the businesses that import the parts and offer the warranty for them.

The individuals that import the parts themself are the risk for the business.
Hence, having the right partner as your parts supplier with the right quality parts (products) is important.

For others:
I know some could say, it's all about the balancing the risk, but I don't gamble.

[Bug_racer]

So this now allows the mechanic the ability to sue the customer for supplying wrongly supplied parts and wasting their time in doing so . Would love to see how messy this could end up in a court of law .

[DkN]

So this now allows the mechanic the ability to sue the customer for supplying wrongly supplied parts and wasting their time in doing so . Would love to see how messy this could end up in a court of law .

I think you got that the other way around.

I think it's interesting to see how different the direction of the discussion is over on vwgolf forums. It's true that everything in Australia is generally priced higher, but we've seen a trend of the ridiculous prices gradually coming down and become more aligned with global competition. I would gladly support local dealers, but I would not support a local dealer who uses the local status as an excuse to inflate prices. If you tell me Guy wouldn't make enough money / cannot survive if he lowers his prices to match local competition, I would be laughing.

Of course, from a purely business perspective, why would he lower the prices if so many people defend him and are happy to pay the premium? As a business APR is out there to make money after all.

To sum up, yes, local businesses need support, but IMO sometimes the support can be over zealous and counter intuitive. Just look at the construction unions for an example.

Not that I expect anything to change, It would probably take years for consumers to turn around and realise their support is in fact fuelling inefficiency and price inflation, by which point APR Australia would already be laughing with all the money it made. I just wish I could say they truly deserve it.

In the mean time, if you care about your hard-earned money, I honestly would do some more research. Everyone knows the same can be had for less, and I don't just mean importing - there are plenty of cheaper local alternatives. Not everyone's happy to throw away a few hundred dollars for virtually no reason.

[Klink1313]

But if you bought a down pipe from company A, a HPFP from company B, an intercooler from company C and got it tuned by company D and then something went bang, who would you turn to?

Myself, i would go to my APR dealer and say it is all APR stuff what went wrong and please fix.

It may cost more if nothing goes wrong, it may cost less if something does.

Each to their own.

[DkN]

I would go to a trustworthy local VW specialist that knows what they're doing, get it diagnosed and take it up with the responsible company. If you did your research then you would have picked companies with decent after sales support and the problem would probably be sorted out as fast if not faster than if you took it to APR. Say what you like about APR's service but someone like Jimmy from Alba European will always know more about your VW than your APR dealer.

This argument is like saying you prefer to buy genuine VW parts from Austral VW dealer, and perhaps you do just prefer to be as safe as possible, but if you did more research you would know better. Besides, if you wanted to be 100% safe, you shouldn't be modifying your car at all.

[kryten2001]

As with all things in life, you pay your bucks and you make your choices. Just depends on your goals and your risk profile.

Each and every situation is different. I have no doubt the "apr experience" is only in part down to the quality of the products, but mainly in the quality of the local workshop. If my local guy (who is brilliant) was selling an alternative, I would have gone with that. I bought into the support network and the integrated approach, as I wanted it to all work together and be supported by one person who understands and is responsible for everything in my car - and the result shows.

That however is different from the argument over pricing. If my local dealer bought stuff in from the states direct (which he can't), then I couldn't have cared less. I bought into the support of somebody who knew what they were doing, but that might not be so important or valuable for others who don't have access to such a great mechanic, or can do the work themselves.

Personally I didn't want to screw around with a $100k project, so I paid the price.

That being said though, we really do get robbed on just about anything we buy here - so it's not fair to single out APR. Oppressive taxes, high wages, high transport and insurance costs and overregulation coupled with a small market - it's just the australian experience that makes us all pay huge bucks. And naturally if you buy an exhaust from a single man band who runs his business out of his house, it will be cheaper. All they're doing is what you can do yourself (import) - and pass on a small margin, so of course it's cheaper than a business who has to pay wages/advertise/insure etc.

You will always save by cherrypicking, and in some cases it's the wisest thing to do. Like I said if all you were after was a HPFP or a few bits and pieces, by all means get it from overseas. I've recently completed several motorcycle restorations and EVERY part was bought overseas at HUGE savings, no way was I going to get ripped off by a local dealer for what I can buy overseas for 1/2 the price and fit myself. Just depends on what's important.

Just don't expect any love if you buy it all overseas and want it fitted and supported here. All part of the Aussie way. Very annoying for sure, but the only thing you can do is vote with your wallet/feet - assuming you don't need the service.

[DkN]

Good points there but as I said it's not a matter of APR or overseas. There are plenty of local alternatives, like GIAC, Revo, DNA, Custom Code, Viezu etc just to name a few. While most don't sell hardware, there are plenty of workshops that do - e.g. quite a few Milltek distributors in Aus. APR is being singled out because even by Australian standards their prices are high. Quality and reliability is really not the issue, there are plenty who swear they were better taken care of by GIAC or Revo etc. As I said, there will be people who feel something like APR is the safest / most reliable choice and are prepared to pay the premium and that is understandable, I'm just saying that in actual fact the same quality or arguably better is available locally for less, which makes the premium essentially a waste of money for the consumer. I don't see anyone defending VW dealer services / parts pricing around here...

[kryten2001]

Good points there but as I said it's not a matter of APR or overseas. There are plenty of local alternatives, like GIAC, Revo, DNA, Custom Code, Viezu etc just to name a few. While most don't sell hardware, there are plenty of workshops that do - e.g. quite a few Milltek distributors in Aus. APR is being singled out because even by Australian standards their prices are high. Quality and reliability is really not the issue, there are plenty who swear they were better taken care of by GIAC or Revo etc. As I said, there will be people who feel something like APR is the safest / most reliable choice and are prepared to pay the premium and that is understandable, I'm just saying that in actual fact the same quality or arguably better is available locally for less, which makes the premium essentially a waste of money for the consumer. I don't see anyone defending VW dealer services / parts pricing around here...

Yep, I agree whatever works for you. I went pretty hardcore with mine so I needed access to a good mechanic. The best one here only fits and sells APR, so the decision was easy for me. If he was selling something else, I would have gone with that.. The tuners you mentioned do not have any local representation here.

The rivalry between tuners and owners of tuned parts is really quite silly (and annoying) IMHO. We're already a small part of the car community so we should stick together, irrespective of what tune or what exhaust we have - we're all dubbers. Just with all things in life, our path to our decisions are different - we don't all live in the same suburb or do the same job, our discovery of our options are different - and therefore so are our decisions.

And what you say about VW dealers is moot. Some people may LOVE their local VW dealer and are not performance orientated like we are on here. I'd never take mine to my local VW dealer in a dying fit, but I think if they saw mine they'd refuse to work on it anyway!

That's the beauty of choice I suppose. I still don't get why people have to rip into each other over what mods they've got, it's silly.

And the reason APR is more expensive in aus is due to a few reasons I suspect. Competition (there is none for APR gear in Australia), overheads and turnover. Most of the other systems out there are sold by a number of direct importers with little overheads and in a competitive market. So yep I agree they are far better value in terms of hardware costs - but the hardware cost is only one part of the project.

Kind of like the old PC vs MAC argument. PC's are cheaper, have better components, and you can source them yourself from wherever you like rather than go through the Apple 'experience'. But which is a better overall package, integrates better together and is better supported? Depends on your goals, right?

I've often been branded an APR fanboy (usually by anti APR people), it's simply not true. I wanted the best overall package. It did upset me what I paid for some of my gear, but the overall package is exemplary - and I'm talking about FAR more than just the APR gear. My mechanic did all the other non APR work as well (and he's a VW master), which was extensive. This is why everything worked so well.

Frankly there was no other option to have mine done as well as it was - but that's obviously different for everybody, and each person needs to weigh up their own options/needs/goals.

[DkN]

Yeah mate I have no intention of rip into APR customers (unless they can't stand any criticism on APR and try to rip into me instead), it's just some of APR's tactics that are not to my liking. And for the record, I'm 100% Android over iPhone don't get me started on the difference between "better" and a preset all-in-one package...

[DonJuan]

the simple matter of fact is... do your own research before deciding which tune, which company, which parts, which mechanic you wish to use. by having a direction and an understanding of what you hope to achieve will ensure you make the right decision up front without any complaints during or after the experience.

this will ensure you know all about service, price, quality, etc before you do anything and therefore you will know what to expect during your modding journey.

sorry, just my 2 cents...

[kryten2001]

the simple matter of fact is... do your own research before deciding which tune, which company, which parts, which mechanic you wish to use. by having a direction and an understanding of what you hope to achieve will ensure you make the right decision up front without any complaints during or after the experience.

this will ensure you know all about service, price, quality, etc before you do anything and therefore you will know what to expect during your modding journey.

sorry, just my 2 cents...

Yep...

Now get that Stage 3 for your pirelli.. You'll be a happy man.