URO license plate light quality and best vendor to purchase from? |
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URO license plate light quality and best vendor to purchase from? |
doug_b_928 |
Jan 23 2018, 10:32 AM
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#1
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 692 Joined: 17-January 13 From: Winnipeg Member No.: 15,382 Region Association: Canada |
It would appear that the early license plate light (914 631 601 00) is NLA. To purchase new it looks like URO is the only option. I did a search and found one negative view of the quality of these lights, but no positive comments either. Can anyone comment on their quality?
Also, Pelican, Stoddard, and Sierra Madre have them, with the latter having a slightly better price at the moment. Is there any preference for dealing with one of these vendors? I've bought from Pelican before, but not the others. |
mepstein |
Jan 24 2018, 11:59 AM
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#2
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914-6 GT in waiting Group: Members Posts: 19,307 Joined: 19-September 09 From: Landenberg, PA/Wilmington, DE Member No.: 10,825 Region Association: MidAtlantic Region |
A rep from one of the largest part distibutors in the US told me that uro specifically remakes parts already on the market. They just use china manufacturing to have them made cheaper. They use reproductions to model their parts, a copy of a copy, so thats why parts are often i'll fitting and cheap.
Mark - If you send them a list of what you make, they will duplicate every part. That is their business model. |
UROpartsman |
Jan 24 2018, 01:50 PM
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#3
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Member Group: Members Posts: 291 Joined: 22-October 15 From: Simi Valley, CA Member No.: 19,288 Region Association: None |
A rep from one of the largest part distibutors in the US told me that uro specifically remakes parts already on the market. They just use china manufacturing to have them made cheaper. They use reproductions to model their parts, a copy of a copy, so thats why parts are often i'll fitting and cheap. Mark - If you send them a list of what you make, they will duplicate every part. That is their business model. That is 100%, absolutely not true. It's illogical and completely absurd, actually. Who would believe such a thing? Our parts are definitely based on the OEM part. We have a huge library of several thousand OEM parts in our facility, in fact we recently had to expand the library area. If any forum members are ever in the Simi Valley, CA area and want a tour to see for themselves, we'd be happy to show you around. You're welcome to look at as many OEM parts as you like until your hands give out; we've got some really rare (and expensive) parts. We purchase the OEM part (or NOS if the item is dealer NLA, or used OE if NOS is no longer available), our engineers digitize the dimensions and analyze the materials with the FTIR (Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy) and XRF (x-ray fluorescence) equipment in our in-house lab (that place with the famous periodic table), we provide the manufacturing specifications to the factory, and after a several rounds of manufacturing samples and testing the materials, physical dimensions and performance, an item eventually gets the green light and is released for sale. To say that we intentionally copy new parts offered by a competitor is ridiculous. Our new product ideas and suggestions come from our extensive customer network of shops, or emails we receive from enthusiasts (and research confirms the item would be a good seller). It makes no sense to spend thousands of dollars (or tens of thousands) to intentionally develop a part that's already available from a competitor. You'd never recoup your tooling investment, unless it's a very simple item. Simply not worth it, but some love David vs Goliath marketing campaign drama. Given there are only so many parts on a car, and that it's logical to put the highest demand items (or most common failures) at the top of the to-do list, it's inevitable that we'll develop a new item at the same time a competitor is developing it. Creating a new item can take years, so there's plenty of potential for overlapping projects that end up being released at roughly the same time. Those who don't understand product development might project a conspiracy there, but that's all it is. You'd be surprised which brands sell the same parts that come in our boxes. We chuckle when these items get rave reviews on the forums, but the important thing is the end user's needs have been met. |
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