Re: [alfa] Shared tail lights not so curious

[Richard Welty <rwelty@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, 27 May 2004 05:20:27 -0400 Brian Shorey <bshorey@domain.elided> wrote:

> > While it would strike me as odd for someone to use a 
> > stylistically inappropriate tail light on an otherwise 
> > nice-looking, expensive, exotic car, when you realize what it 
> > cost  to design, tool, and manufacture unique, multi-lens, 
> > over-molded tailight assemblies, it shouldn't be surprising 
> > at all that low volume manufacturers simply found 
> > acceptable-looking, off-the-shelf parts which they could 
> > simply buy ready-made.Making road cars, even exotic ones,  
> > has generally been a "for-profit" enterprise!

> Nobody is questioning that (at least *I'm* not).  The thing I find curious
> is the price difference between the same part, when purchased from an Alfa,
> vs a Maserati, supplier.

ah, but price fixing is illegal. distributors (car manufacturers/importers)
cannot instruct their retailers (dealerships) what price to charge. the
taillight manufacturer (carello or whoever) can only set the price they
charge Alfa or Maserati or Lamborghini, they cannot influence the
suggested retail, nor can Alfa or Maserati or Lamborghini order their
downstreams how to behave.

this is why the Albany area MB dealership could attempt to charge
me $200 for a radiator hose for my wife's 96 E300D, and why i could
go elsewhere and pay $16 for the exact same part.

richard
-- 
Richard Welty                                         rwelty@domain.elided
Averill Park Networking                                         518-573-7592
    Java, PHP, PostgreSQL, Unix, Linux, IP Network Engineering, Security
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