Hi Keith,
It seems that Poverty has caused quite a stir with his review of your new software package not only here but over on the SEAT forums.
Its threads like this that keep us guys interested in improving and falling in love again with our cars
but its also good to have some good old competion , so welcome to the uk
I was probably one of those people who was swayed to go Revo after all the hype around APR v Revo , with 90% of forum members going Revo and saying it was the best thing since sliced bread , but i did have an upsolute map on my old volvo 2.0t (yes i know the shame of it) and i have to say that was the best £ to smile than i ever had even better than the Revo map i have today , so i do think its unfair to judge companies before trying their product , so im very interested in the new development work that APR is doing.
I do have a question though , now it would seem that APR is taking a big interest in the uk , especially since you have said you are here full time , will there be any synergies now between American and uk pricing?
I think its been demonstarated already that we can import APR parts into the uk and still make a substanial saving over UK APR pricing , obviously maps will have to come from the uk , is there any chance that APR will review their parts pricing policies?
oh and welcome to the UK
Thanks for the welcome!
I've priced everything as low as possible.
I've taken the cost that APR USA has to make the products, added in 10% for profit plus what's necessary to cover the costs of the UK operation and then added in margin for dealers to arrive at the retail prices.
I'm not sure how you guys get them in any cheaper. I am shipping by pallets and paying very, very low shipping prices, less than 1 USD per pound of shipping weight.
The only thing I can figure is that when you import them yourselves, the companies you buy from are reducing the invoices or sending them as a gift or warranty repair so you don't pay any import duties. This would dramatically reduce the prices as you've relayed.
The only catch to importing them yourself however, is there is no warranty for products purchased in this manner and if we find out which APR dealers are doing this, they lose part of their discount and if they continue to do so, they will no longer be an APR dealer.
We like to run a clean business and have enough margin in the products to provide outstanding warranty and customer service.
I do understand everyone likes to save money so I can empathize with those of you that do participate in gray market sourcing.
The unfortunate fact of the matter though, is that if me being here just results in more people from the UK buying from other countries, we will have to pull out of the market as we won't be able to sustain the costs of the operation. However, I'm not terribly worried about it because most people will buy from us due to our levels of service and most importantly because they want to have a warranty.
I wish there was more I could do to lower the prices but its really up to the Queen.