A Lesson in Quality & The Cost of Doing Business

Here is a saying we love: "The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the happiness of a low price is forgotten!"

It couldn't be more true and many of you reading this have unfortunately found this out the hard way! We now in our early modding years in the 80's we fell for the gimmicks too!

Before we get started we want to make clear everything mentioned in this and future blogs pertains only to UR products. Other companies may make parts that look or seem similar to ours but rest assured they are not.

Can UR products seem expensive? Sure but when you realize what determines the price of quality products like ours you begin to appreciate their true value. First and foremost there are development costs which in our case started accumulating years before we even incorporated or even sold our first product. We spent close to $100,000.00 in man hours, equipment, software and materials. Then there are all the other costs before we opened our doors to sell in May of 1997. Incorporation, registering our name as a trademark, product liability costs (which none of our current knock-offs artists ever have), office insurance, web-site development costs, lease costs for our facility's, electric, water, gas, workers compensation, disability insurance, credit card processing. We haven't even paid any salaries yet, nor the matching social security payments for those salaries, payroll taxes, health insurance and 401k program. What it comes down to is we spend in excess of $50-75K just to open the door each year, not including salaries, depending on the size of our staff.

We've herd many numbers thrown out over the years by arm chair experts about what things should cost and what profit margins are. The best one we've herd, which was focused at our pulleys, was a 300% profit margin all said and done. If that was the case I would have been retired a long time ago! The fact is that profit margins are no where near that percentage unless of course you are a manufacturer in the clothing, jewelry, beauty, software or computers. I would like to how these arm chair blabber mouths even justify the filth they spew. I'm tired of the baseless, clueless crap that these jealous hate mongers throw out for other, unfortunately impressionable, younger clients to read and stew over. These younger clients don't have the experience to realize that these blabber mouths have no idea what they are talking about.

What's even worse is the copy cats try to convince you that there products are ok through marketing lies and propaganda. Our favorite lie, thrown out there specifically by a johnny Come Lately Subaru pulley vendor, is that underdrive pulleys are bad for your engine. There couldn't be anything further from the truth than this insidious marketing myth! We specifically test every vehicle we make an underdrive pulley for, no other vendor can claim this, to make sure that with everything turned on in the vehicle that voltage stays over 12 volts. This includes items you would never have on at the same time and it also includes having an additional draw of up to 600 watts RMS or an equivalent lighting or auxiliary electrical draw. Now what we will say is for those that have a need for electrical output above these levels or because of bolting on an aftermarket supercharger we do make stock diameter crank pulleys. As with the sport compact underdrive pulleys we were the first to bring these stock diameter pulleys to the market in 1999 for cars with these special needs. Our second favorite lie is that there pulleys are lighter than ours. We are at a minimum are a few ounces lighter to mostly pounds lighter than the competition. Don't believe the hype because weight reduction means more machining which means higher cost which is impossible at the prices the knock off artists charge.

What it comes down to in the end is if you can't currently afford to buy a quality brand don't go out and buy a cheap knock-off because you'll end up paying twice to do it right when you could have done it right the first time. Save your money and try to be patient which will save you a lot of hassle and aggravation in the long run. Also realize that in the case of our products, especially pulleys, that you are bolting a critical component to your engine. Our parts costs what they cost not only because of our overhead but because we take the time to design and make them them right which includes the right strength and most importantly the proper balance. No other brand can make these claims. UR has been making pulleys since 1996, we always keep our customers best interest first and we back that up with 5 year guarantee. So is it worth it to save a few bucks when compared to the thousands it will cost you to repair the damage inferior parts will cause your engine. Maybe the part won't cause any damage, maybe the engine can handle the inferior quality but is it worth the chance?