Thoughts on fake AKRA tips, lets have a convo about expensive M parts

[RussianPete]

Hey guys

I always wondered why our M products were so expensive. As my brother being an engineer he always laughed when i told him the prices of some of these carbon things we buy and the actual manufacturing cost.

I mean seriously do you not see the shop cars they build?? they must be rolling in cash lol

So i was gonna upgrade my tips and as i was searching through the internet i came across these. (link below) Why is it that they can build a very close copy of the product and sell it for less that 20% of the real manufactures cost?

In some cases like a watch for example buying a fake one can run you into problems like it may stop working or fall apart. Exhaust tips are just bent metal, why such a high price tag??

Would appreciate everyone's thoughts in this, im not here to bash companies or sellers im simply here to get some answers to settle my mind.

PS according to my brother carbon pieces we are buying cost around 5% of what we pay for them to manufacture.

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/High-...9-c9c67948637b

[Msmall143]

i wouldnt consider those fake akra tips rather fake m exhaust tips. in my experience when you buy fake stuff it may look one way in a picture and another when it shows up. You arent just paying for material but also fit, finish, consistancy etc.

if you can put them side by side with the real thing and not notice a difference then go for it. but 9 times out of 10 you can tell a difference.
CF is a good example of you get what you pay for.

[RussianPete]

Originally Posted by Msmall143

i wouldnt consider those fake akra tips rather fake m exhaust tips. in my experience when you buy fake stuff it may look one way in a picture and another when it shows up. You arent just paying for material but also fit, finish, consistancy etc.

if you can put them side by side with the real thing and not notice a difference then go for it. but 9 times out of 10 you can tell a difference.
CF is a good example of you get what you pay for.

I mean of course they arent going to be as perfect as the real thing but honestly when you get some dirt on those things from use will you even be able to tell a difference or a $1300 difference? In regards to fitment its guaranteed since the site protects you against scammers.

[AutoTalent]

I'm not arguing the cost of the real products but when you buy those "fake" tips the weave and quality of the carbon are usually horrible.

[apexit]

Just want to point out that you cannot compare the costs of manufacturing something in smaller quantities to something made by the thousands

[JamesGames]

It's fairly simple IMO..
New M owners = Usually willing to spend = simple supply and demand. Until no one is willing to pay these prices, prices will stay up. Look at E36 part prices - my friend just bought urethane entire front bumper , rear bumper and side skirts for 650.. and I'm willing to bet these things weren't that price when the E36 M3 was new, even WITH the inflation 20 years later..

And usually the companies that make these products do spend the time and r&d and have high overhead costs. Not justifying the pricing, but it is a combination of the time / r&d and overhead costs to have a company, and then the supply and demand ramps up the costs.

A lot of replica parts in CF do fit like trash, and weave is jacked up. There always is a few companies that make quality reps however.

Have you ever seen a "Hermes" or whatever bag? I walked by a store the other day and they were selling purses or bags or whatever they are for 20,000...... same principle going on here, on a larger scale.

[V3rbatim]

I say go for it. Its a hit or miss but There are times the cf is actually made well. For $128 for the pair then why the hell not.

[nyc f82]

Looks like a good find, at the end of day they are just exhaust tips that wont be noticed much. I agree though the oem m performance tips are ridiculously expensive for a set of tips. I say try them and report back!

[Reach]

I don't think our muffler outlets are 60mm, so confirming that or finding ones that fit might be a good first move.

[FC4]

Originally Posted by JamesGames

Have you ever seen a "Hermes" or whatever bag? I walked by a store the other day and they were selling purses or bags or whatever they are for 20,000...... same principle going on here, on a larger scale.

It's Hermès.

[apexit]

Originally Posted by FC4

It's Hermès.

My wife loves them for whatever reason. I like to call them herpes, also chanel is channel.

[Arcades]

I would never trust fake CF. If your car is worth 70-80k give or take why bother trying to buy fake things anyway?

Good fake CF things would look ok, but more likely it would look terrible and you can tell. Do not ruin Akrapovic things by buying fake Akra tips. The entire idea of buying Akrapovic is having the real thing, not fake ones.

[hdubf80]

Get it most of the CF comes from china anyway. Unless made in house.

[s4mmie_]

Originally Posted by Msmall143

i wouldnt consider those fake akra tips rather fake m exhaust tips.

The Akra tips are further down

[dzvero]

In china they dont make few hundred dollars per hour, they make cents

[RussianPete]

Chiming in on the Hermes bags and all. My GF bought a replica YLS and Chanel bag long ago. Retail both worth over $20,000, we took them to the store in Vegas as a joke to see if they could tell the difference and they couldnt.

Same concept why pay $1500 for tips when these $128 x2 do the same job.

Im not a stingy person but at the same time why pay full price when you can save some money to take your gf out to dinner 4-5 times with that money saved.

Arcades, i kind of disagree with you. IF i like the look of something on my car why should i pay full price for it, why should i take such a hit and pay out a manufacture who makes millions of dollars a year of bent metal. I think its crazy and i will refuse to support big monopolies like that.

Now if i were thinking of buying a fake akra full exhaust thats a whole different story, i would never do such a thing. It could damage my car and make it unsafe to drive but tips? come on. You have to be a sucker to pay full price for those things or be rolling in money, because i dont know a single person who can say " yeah tips $1500, no problem"

[psuwcc112]

Those knockoff will never fit. I am not sure about this particular one. Many of them are false advertisement. Some members bought those online the fitment was not even close, no way in hell it will goes on without some extensive exhaust modification.. If you search, i am sure you will find few stories regarding to those.

IMO, no one love to pay M-Tax and myself include. But sometimes you are paying for quality, fitment and customer support. FWIW, the real Akra or MP tip are titanium and i doubt those are...

[dzvero]

I looked at their CF diffuser and seems pics are stolen , not sure about the tips but likely pics are not from selling product

[RussianPete]

Originally Posted by dzvero

I looked at their CF diffuser and seems pics are stolen , not sure about the tips but likely pics are not from selling product

Yes all the pics are stolen but their products are legit, a friend of mine bought his diffuser on there for $600, its a replica of a vorsteiner. The fitment was actually better than vorsteiner itself believe it or not.

[G4Z808]

regarding the knock off M performance tips. I had a pair on my F22 and they were great. definitely worth the price. if they fit my F80 I would get them again . spending $300 a tip for the OEM is just not even close to worth it

[John Tanglewood]

Those photos are kind of disappointing if you are trying to showcase the quality of something...

[G4Z808]

Originally Posted by John Tanglewood

Those photos are kind of disappointing if you are trying to showcase the quality of something...

Sorry i didn't take those pictures just now to showcase their quality. Those are just pics i took at the car wash many months back. I dont own the F22 anymore so i cant get better pictures. Also it seems uploading those pics from the app compressed the pics to shit

also to expand on the construction of the knock off tips, the inner pipe is single walled unlike the OEM which is double walled with perforations, the OEM tips do look nicer with the double wall. But for the immense cost savings of the knocks offs the trade off was worth it . otherwise the construction was solid, the CF weave had no problems, fitment was correct