It reminds me of that old joke.
A manufacturing plant was having trouble with a new machine. The huge mechanical monster simply wouldn’t run. They had tried everything. Nothing worked. It hiccuped, it moaned, it struggled. But it didn’t run. It was costing a fortune each day it was down.
Finally the CEO called in a consultant. The man arrived at 10 AM. He had a briefcase. He opened the briefcase and took out a pair of overalls and put them on. He then took out a ball peen hammer.
The consultant climbed into the barely running machine, stared at it for a moment, then took the hammer and hit the machine. It immediately settled down and ran perfectly. He took off his overalls, and put them and the hammer in his briefcase.
He then left at 10:15, telling the CEO he would submit his invoice.
A week later the CEO received an invoice for $100,000. Incensed, he called the consultant and demanded an itemized statement. He received the following:
Wear and tear on Ball Peen Hammer……….$1.50
Dry cleaning of Overalls ………………………..$8.50
Knowing where to hit…………………….$99,990.00
The invoice was paid the next day.
It’s all about knowing which part to use. I thought this had been explained by a few people, but I don’t think the OP gets it.
Apart from the ludicrous fact that you are angry they didn’t tell you their commercial secrets over the phone, you are upset that they are using an OEM part and putting markup on it.
You didn’t know what part it was beforehand. So why do you think you know more than them now?
If Dinan changed a spring rate, are you now capable of recommending a bump stop from the BMW catalogue? No. Or you could run out, spent a shitload on R&D, determine what is right, and go on a forum to let people know ... but you’d probably want a little money to offset the time, effort and cost in that R&D. How much is your time worth per hour? Mustn’t be much.
Having spent many years modifying vehicles, I’ve found OEM stuff to be a lot better than aftermarket, so you use it where possible. Anyone can take urethane and shove it in suspension, but the EOM stuff is so much more forgiving. Sure, it doesn’t have as long a life, as rubber breaks down more quickly ... but I personally prefer to replace cheap rubber more often, than have expensive urethane parts go rock hard when they wear out.
No one likes paying more than what something costs, but OP is effectively saying every nut and bolt in any product ever, should be at cost, because that’s all it costs the manufacturer.
Crazy.
Hey OP, are you the guy in the clip below? He was building his own iPhone from components. Stupid suckers paying Apple money for something already assembled. The smart people save money and do it themselves.