Brian,
So am I! You snooze...
Maybe next time...
Sal,
Interestingly, my mother has proposed the same thing.
Mr. Bruce,
Not quite there yet. But we will, of course, post them as soon as we possibly can. It will probably be more of a beta test. Our last one didn't turn out the way we expected (fiberglass) so we will limit this one until we can evaluate where it is going. One of the biggest problems in this industry is no one really understands the market and what customers actually want. Well, at least I don't.
Xl,
We have thought, and thought about this until I have about gone crazy. One thing I know is customers will customize their cars. Is that good??? Or Bad??? Who knows. We can't stop them...so...I got thinking.
One of our most expensive cars, SEMA 2003, has aftermarket racing seats in it. I thought I was going to puke when the customer asked for them...until I saw them in the car. I was shocked; I actually thought they looked good.
Our most expensive car, SEMA 2004, had many thousands of dollars of "custom" work done on it by us. All of the mods were really, really nice.
Another one of our top end cars (Morris) did the same thing. He wanted custom gauges and all sorts of things. I thought I was going to puke. Then I saw how his cool gauge set up looked after we installed it. Then I looked at his wiring and threw ours out the window...
Then Pat Buckley puts this weird windshield on an otherwise spactacular car. "How dumb will that look!" I thought to myself. Then I saw it and couldn't believe how cool it was. Now I am saying, "How dumb do I look by NOT giving our customers what they want!" I would love to own ANY of those cars.
Then I got thinking; maybe I am smart enough to not STAY dumb. Why am I FORCING all of our customers to buy EVERYTHING so we can "maintain quality control and all of our cars will look the same blah, blah, blah," when our very NICEST customer's cars are all quite heavily modified and look better than mine!
What if we just give our customers the "tools" or building blocks they need so they can have a great "Garage Therapy" session--and we get to see the progress and improve our products as a result.
Next problem.
Price.
How can we lower our price? Our car is terribly labor intensive. Answer, TAKE OUT LABOR. I am certain many, many of our customers can do fine interior panel work. I am certain many of our customers can do a fine assembly job. I am certain NONE of our customers can build an aluminum body. (Well, at least not cost effectively and in the quantity we do.)
Sanding, takes forever and is a dirty job. We can make a car in the same amount of time it takes to sand one, (at least it feels that way as anyone who has sanded a car can attest to.) Why are we making customers buy sanded cars when they can do that for themselves--or worse, why are we sanding cars customers want to PAINT!!! Now, that is dumb.
So, logic follows we should open up our market to those who want to tinker and make their cars cool. Why should I tell them NO?
David
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