944crazy

If you are in a pinch you can easily jump the DME relay with some wire wrapped around the pins. I had to do that once...no need for a tow.

morghen

Not really my business as i'm a 2L guy...but you can have 20pounds of DME relays in the back of the car, you're still going to look silly when your car does not start and you have to mess with it before you can leave the restaurant with your lovely date

Ftech9

As some have noticed, there appears to be a price increase for the Solid-State Relays, and I feel you guys deserve an explanation. I think it is clear that for everyone to be able to buy this product, production is going to need to be ramped up to much higher volumes. The good news is I am working on options to accomplish just that. The bad news is it’s going to take some time and even more money to get to that point. The situation is this, the last batch was actually two because I expedited the one that was scheduled after it. At the moment, I am still catching up on backorders. So, with higher volumes on the horizon the question is what to do about the present. On the one hand I receive more requests to be placed on a back-order list than I have product for. On the other I sell out almost as fast as I get product in. One option is the standard capitalist way of rising prices until the supply meets the demand. Another is to keep the status quo and let whoever happens to be on the website when product is available win. Nether option seem especially fair to me. I don’t have product to sell at the moment, so I took the sale price off while I decide what to do. I build these things for you guys, so what would you do if you were me?

tempest411

What ever you have to do to stay in the black. If this relay were an OEM item it would probably cost twice as much. How much interest are you getting from the 911 guys? I would think they would be less of a price-sensitive group.

snb13

I'm glad you're producing this product. Whike I wish I was able to get in on the intro price, I will still get it without the discount when I can.

I love that people are still producing new ideas and products for these cars. Let's encourage it.

Arominus

Do what you gotta do, If you get a bigger batch maybe continue to offer a discount for everyone for a bit since supply has been short. That said, if you need the capital from the increased price to keep production moving, i can understand!

As for your product, its holding up fine to cold days and no problems so far.

bonus12

My lovely date happens to be impressed when I fix the car mid rain storm to save the day, haha

That hasn't happened actually. But it did happen with some hitchhikers a while ago. lol! got stuck at a green light, but I knew just what it was. Damn thing needed an adjustment. I think they almost got out of the car.

I think Ftech's response is completely valid and understandable. I'm glad he explained himself. I think you, ftech, should continue to make this work for you because this is seemingly your first product for the 944. So do what you need to do to keep yourself floating financially so that you can continue to innovate new products for our large-and-in-charge community of enthusiasts. We are what you can call an "addressable market." So please, as they say on aircraft, get yourself an oxygen mask before you get one to us. Not to be obvious, but be assured that you will do the most business when you have 1) enough stock and 2) good prices. The second one is huge!

CO951

Yeah, it's a tough call, but sale prices drive sales, too. In my case I was going to buy one at the sale price, but just kept missing it. At full price I won't bother to buy one. I have two mechanical relays so it's not an urgent need for me.

Dan87951

Judging by the demand I would have done the same thing. It's a smart move and even at the higher price they will probably go quick.

racerbvd

So, the increase in price was not caused by an increase in cost to build, but because of the demand. Well, if you want to drive demand down, that is one way to do it, course not a very "Club Friendly" way, but what do I know, only been in Business for myself for 30 years, and too have provided some high quality bits for our cars as needs allowed, but never felt the urge to increase the price just because something sold out. While it does appear to be a nice part, and we were going to order them for the 5 B&B cars my buddy & I are keeping to play with, the new price, has changed that plan, because, it just doesn't make sense, when you can by brand new relays for $15 and some change, sometimes less,
http://www.partsgeek.com/gbproducts/...LflBoCRSXw_wcB,
or rebuild old ones. to pay $90 for one, sorry. If there had been a legitimate reason for the cost increase, other than "I Can", we would have probably still been willing to support the venture.\, because like others here, we believe in doing things to help each other out. Time will tell if they still sell out or if someone pulls a Lindsey Racing, and builds a their own at a lower price.

catamount

A URO part, I shiver at the thought. Is there anything they make that lasts more than a few months?

The OEM supplier part on Pelican is $27 which is $13 more than the URO one. Given the questionable quality of URO parts, the extra cost of the OEM part still makes keeping more than one on hand and inexpensive proposition.

For the record, before I knew about UROs reputation I had bought a DME relay from them. Suffice to say, it didn't last long. When I had my '94 M-B E320 I learned all about questionable URO parts on the M-B boards.

J1NX3D

The 3rd and lastest batch sold out on 2nd Feb not long after the first posts about the price hike.

racerbvd

That is good to know, fortunately I too have spare factory ones. Bought a few when Paragon Products had a sale and were ordering some other stuff anyway

curtisr

Even with a 70 cent dollar (Canadian) this is a good buy. Why? Peace of mind...

tempest411

Yes, exactly. Not being stuck or delayed while out on the road is VERY important to me. I just received my solid state DME today and I don't even have a car to plug it into yet. You can't get more preemptive than that! That's how important reliability is to me.