Is it me?

Hi Boobook

You may have to be more specific - What "products"? Otherwise possibly OT.

Cheers
The ModSquad

Absolutely correct BooBook , unless you settle for second best which is usually the quick way.

Its hard to think of a product I have brought which doesn't need modifying for best performance.

That includes the car I drive, yesterday I pulled off the cast brackets that used to hold the patrols front swaybar. Off my earlier same type car they were fabricated out of several steel bits and 1/2 a kilo each lighter.

In the end we make many things ourselves - from tanks to towbars , its annoying , today we measured 4 different sets of 2inch lift shocks , in each case the shock was only some 10-15mm longer than standard and so we had to drill out washes and cut some rubber bushes in half to add them to the shockers just to get an extra 13mm of travel and return the car to the articulation it had at the start.

Cool. Then don't buy them. Too easy!
Lou

Absolutly correct, so many products and services we see now are far from as good as they could be.

People are short cutting, near enough is good enoughing and generally not doing the best job they can and doing so deliberatly.

It comes down to price, the vast mojority of people would not know quality if it bit them on the ...... and most manufacturers are not prepared to do the hard thing a sell on quality ...... selling bassed on price is easier and gets faster results.

As I look arround and encounter stuff, inspite of stricter regulations, higher penalties and more comprehensive standards, I see item after item that no only is not as good as it could be, but fails to comply with Australian regulations and standards.

It has never been easier to manufacture or have manufactured here or over seas and bring a product to market, BUT we no longer have routiene and comprehensive government inspection and enforcement of standards and regulations.

SO, we have heaps of non-compliant and below standard products on the market.

Seriuosly if this sort of thing realy bothers you, don't look too hard, because if you have high expectations you will be disapointed in almost every item you pick up.

One of my pet niggles is washers...so many items could be improved considerably by the addition of washers under the heads of fasteners......but so offten they are omitted......Oh come on now how much does it cost to add a washer.

Oh that and grease, soo many items ( trailers are the big one) would benifit from a simple smear of grease during assembly, but are assembled dry and have their life consideably reduced because of it.

OH HELL YEH....it is you...you have an unreasonable expectation of quality...or that is what people will try to tell you.

cheers

Many things are driven by price.... the 4x4 industry would have to be one of the worst for this and you see it every day in forums..... why pay more when I can get something for less.

It's seems if someone is a pastry chief by day at night they turn into a fully qualified engineer, product developer and expert in every thing man made.

It makes me laugh when people want a quote for work and they are going to compare it to other quotes...... bit like me getting a quote for roofing and guttering and then settling for the lowest.... I'm no expert on roofing or guttering so how the hell do I know what I'm getting for my money and is the cheapest quote REALLY going to save me money.

And getting gear custom made is a good way to go but I can't see every one who wanted product X getting it custom made with a higher price tag.

When carrying out product and market research for a new product you have four main areas to consider.... make less profit and sell cheap.... make more profit and sell it dearer.... make it for the majority of customers.... make it for the minority of customers.