Coolant Tank Demand

[Chris Attias <cattias@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

AlfaBill raises an interesting point about the economics of producing low
volume parts.  It is damned expensive to make small runs of things.  On the
other hand, if you could sell coolant tanks wholesale for $50 rather than
$12 each, the break-even point drops a bit.  The time horizon for selling a
run of 1000 could be a few years anyway--the last tank I bought new was
four years old (by the mold date) when I got it.

I guess what gets me worked up about this particular part is that it is
fairly perishable and is critical to the operation of the car.  It's a
pressurized header tank to the cooling system, not just a catch bottle.  It
is located in a fairly oddly shaped part of the engine bay.  If you don't
have one the car won't run.  There are no substitutes.  And Alfa Romeo has
the tooling.  AR can' be that cash-poor that they couldn't  make these
things up on spec.  Finally, how will the folks in Milano know when they
have 1000 orders, since it doesn't look like wholesalers are taking
backorders from end users?  End of rant...

Chris Attias
'84 GTV-6

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