Fakes & Counterfeits Documentary On Abc Tv

[TheTunersGroup]

Hi All,

In case you missed it, last night ABC TV broadcast part one of a documentary about fakes and counterfeits called "Fakes".

It is available to view online, so we have posted links to the online video so anyone who missed it can watch it.

The "Fakes" documentary is an in depth look at the counterfeits trade, the people behind it, how they operate, and particularly shows that buying counterfeit products is definitely not the victimless crime that many manufacturers, importers and sellers of counterfeit, copied and knocked off products would like customers to think that it is.

The "Fakes" documentary showed some shocking examples of counterfeits of everything from Callaway golf clubs, to counterfeit breast cancer medication, to counterfeit condoms which are sold to people in Africa where AIDS is rife, and even counterfeit eggs - yes you read that right - fake eggs that are made from chemicals and cast in a mold.

The claims made in the video that some people in China think that counterfeiting goods in China is somehow justifiable as a form of "economic revenge" against legitimate businesses in Western countries who actually spend money innovating are an absolute disgrace.

If you counterfeit products, there is no justification for it - counterfeiting is simple theft. Period.

We missed the first few minutes of the Fakes documentary on the TV, so we were very pleased to see that it has been made available to view online by veoh.com

And most importantly, remember this documentary next time you are offerred parts for your car that are copies, knock offs or counterfeits.

When it comes to counterfeit car parts, there are no grey areas - you are either part of the problem, or part of the solution.

By only buying genuine parts from the original innovative manufacturers, and refusing to buy fakes, counterfeits or knock off parts, you become part of the solution.

You can find the links to watch the video online at ...

http://www.tunersgroup.com/TunerWire_Live/...iters_doco.html

- Adam

[floody]

You know what? I'm sick of this propaganda crap.

Compete or die.

[Yo-Yo]

lol counterfeit eggs

How can a company that has invested their time and money into Research and Development compete with a counterfeiter who has no regard for product quality whatsoever? They can't.

There will always be grubs in it to make a quick buck, and suckers who buy it because it's cheap

[GTR-N1]

...As I was completing a tour of Ephesus (the place where Paul the apostle addressed the Ephesians), I had to walk through a gallery of tourist shops. These in turn were plastered with glitzy jewellery fronts with large signs saying...

"GENUINE FAKE WATCHES"!

I wondered if these business people had ancestors that were in the same sort of trade 2000 yrs before?

...And then (tongue in cheek) I asked the tour guide if those watch-vendors would give out a Certificate of Authenticity; to which she remarked glibly, "Oh they're fakes as well"!

[scathing]

You know what? I'm sick of this propaganda crap.

Compete or die.

I'm sick of watching good companies die because they'll spend the dosh making sure their products work really well and are manufactured consistently only to have some muppet buy one, copy it so it resembles the original, and churn it out as quickly as possible.

I like driving my car, not posing in it, so I guess my aims are a bit different.

[Iron Chef]

lol I remember going to KL, and our tour guide mentioned that, at the markets, "the only thing genuine is the fruit"...

[scathing]

lol I remember going to KL, and our tour guide mentioned that, at the markets, "the only thing genuine is the fruit"...

Wow, lucky.

In China, even the rice and soy sauce get faked.

[babyskyline]

You know what? I'm sick of this propaganda crap.

Compete or die.

Yeh because all those greddy copy plenums are the top quality that they pretend to be.

In my experience most copy's/fakes are pathetic quality and dont do much for performance when compared to a good quality product.

I will support the makers of good quality stuff as it actually work.

Like scathing said....

I like driving my car, not posing in it, so I guess my aims are a bit different.

[666DAN]

I demand to see these fake eggs! Surely it would cost more to make a psuedo-egg than pop one out of a chicken?

[Mayuri Krab]

I demand to see these fake eggs! Surely it would cost more to make a psuedo-egg than pop one out of a chicken?

Apparently not, this was on the Chinese news years ago, they make like a couple of cent of profit with each fake egg compared to real one, as with anything in china, if it makes $, then its worth doing.

Which reminds me, did anyone see that fake USB-drive from china, they opened it up, it turned out to be just a usb plug with its cable cut off & the plug glued into a USB drive case. So theres no flash memory at all!

On the topic, I don't mind fake stuff like cloths. I think all my cloth are Chinese fakes, still wears fine. I look for genuine stuff for anything electrical.

Fake stuff have a large market in china coz many people are poor, mainly those that comes from country side to the main cities to work, whom earn like a couple $100s Chinese dollars a month, so they can't afford real geniune stuff with their massive price tag so of course they are going for the fakes coz its cheap, simple as that.

Edited November 21, 2008 by Mayuri Krab

[scathing]

I demand to see these fake eggs!

http://chinaview.wordpress.com/2007/08/15/...a-night-market/

Easier to manufacture than try to keep chickens, even battery ones, alive.

[TheTunersGroup]

You know what? I'm sick of this propaganda crap.

Compete or die.

Counterfeiting is not "competing" - it is theft, pure and simple theft.

To suggest that genuine manufacturers (who actually spend money on research and development and actually engineer their products) should "compete or die" with the counterfeiters, is like saying that stores like HMV, JB Hi-Fi etc should have no problem with people who make pirate DVD's which are illegally produced and sold in markets and that HMV, JB Hi-Fi etc should compete with the DVD pirates.

Counterfeits are illegal. Period.

THE DAMAGE CAUSED BY COUNTERFEITS

If you don't understand the link between counterfeiting and how it damages the entire parts industry as a whole, read this post by Ben @ The Real JDM titled "An Inconvenient Truth…about JDM - AKA The Death of Innovation" ...

http://www.bespokeventures.com/blog/2008/0...-of-innovation/

Part of Ben's post reads ...

So there you have it. Another product is now dead. Do people care yet? Probably not…Will people care the next time Voltex needs to look at the costs to decide if they want to produce an Aero hood for their next car and conclude that its not worth it? Probably still not. Will people care when there are almost no new products coming out with proper R&D because no company can find a way to make their money back? Yeah…probably then people will care…but it wont matter because by that point it’ll be too late to say we’re sorry and turn back the clock.

We will always reserve the right to tell people the truth about counterfeits.

Sharing info like the Fake Trade video is not "propaganda crap" as you so eloquently put it - it is simply showing people what is really going on. It is simply the truth laid bare.

It is very clear who would not like us simply exposing the undeniable truth.

IN CONCLUSION

There is a saying in the engineering business ... "any product can be made cheaper by making it worse".

Genuine manufacturers rightfully refuse to make their products worse. They make their products carefully and with true innovation and craftsmanship. And they price their genuine products at a fair price, often with a much lower percentage profit margin than what the counterfeits make.

Fortunately a growing number of people in Australia understand why genuine products from the original innovative manufacturer are superior to counterfeits and knock offs.

And for those who don't yet understand this, we'll go on repeating the same message until everyone finally gets it

And if you still don't get it, have a read of some of the posts on this blog ...

http://datruthcometh.blogspot.com

- Adam

[TheTunersGroup]

I demand to see these fake eggs! Surely it would cost more to make a psuedo-egg than pop one out of a chicken?

Go to this page, and you can see them being made 22 minutes into the video. You can click on the slider to jump to that part of the video ...

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5947862651880646162

- Adam

[(B1) MR_fanny]

wow this has really ruffed you up the wrong way hey. supply and demand, social and economical status...not everyone can afford the real thing and make do with fakes and people see an oportunity to exploit it and produce fakes. its unfortunate but it happens and its usually the poor that get the bad end of the stick. no real ground breaking news here.

[funkymonkey]

counterfieting has been around since long before any of your ancestors would've even known what a car was. In fact, the press (ie newspaper) was actually born out of the need to mass counterfeit documents, then adapted for more legal and useful purposes.

As for your JB/HMV example... The only reason these companies struggle against piraters and counterfeiters is because they are not up to date with the latest market trends and needlessly cut themselves off from their target market (think iTunes selling a track for $0.30 vs HMV trying to push a whole album of garbage just so you can own one track you need for $15... which would cost them about $0.30 to make anyway, because of the quantities they produce them in... no wonder iTUnes is making a killing).

At the end of the day, a large corporation is disadvantaged only by its sheer size, having to pay each person involved in the process each step of the way, including management and administration. Then when it comes time to revise a model, make a change or sell a product a certain way there are processes that need to be followed and a time consuming bureaucratic juggling act to endure.

Counterfeiters on the other hand change strategies on the fly and structure their business that there's not that much loss in administration. At the end of the day they may spend less on development, but everyone knows they compromise on quality. If you can justify yourself to the consumer that you have a product worth spending money for, or the difference in price is negligible compared to counterfeits, then you'll have NOTHING to worry about. However if you have a one trick pony product that you charge stupid amounts of money for, expect to be run out of business the moment someone reverse engineers your product.

For example... given the choice between Rotas and real TE37's, I'll spend the extra coin on real TE37's because the product justifies its cost by superior quality and finish. Ask me to spend lots of money on a genuine gear knob from Trust compared to a knockoff and I'll have bought the knockoff before you even get to finish your sentence... why? Because I know as an educated consumer there is sweet fuck all difference between the two.

The days of dumb customers with brand loyalty are long gone. Retailers and manufacturers need to embrace this truth and realise that they need to convey worth not just by saying "real JDM, not chinese"... or "real Origin, not a copy". The old "oh no they steal our ideas and sell our product at 1/10th the price" whinge won't work in this day and age because if someone can replicate your product for 1/10th the price with lower quality materials AND outsell your product, then you haven't come up with a good marketing plan or product life cycle BEFORE you invest time and money into the product.

[TheTunersGroup]

wow this has really ruffed you up the wrong way hey. supply and demand, social and economical status...not everyone can afford the real thing and make do with fakes and people see an oportunity to exploit it and produce fakes. its unfortunate but it happens and its usually the poor that get the bad end of the stick.

You've hit the nail on the head MR-Fanny - it is exactly people who think they can't afford the real thing who get the wrong end of the stick.

Worse still is when people who buy a counterfeit think that they are getting a product that is in any way comparable to the real thing.

Or when counterfeits break and people think that because a counterfeit broke that that is some kind of reflection on the design of the geunine product, which of course it definitely is not.

And you're right that it has rubbed me up the wrong way - at the end of the day I have no respect whatsoever for counterfeiters or thieves (and counterfeiting is theft of course).

THE DAMAGE BEING DONE

People simply don't understand the damage that is being done to the entire tuning industry by the counterfeits.

I also have no respect whatsoever for anyone who sells counterfeit products. Nor for some overseas magazines who happily accept advertising revenue from companies who sell copy, knock off or counterfeit products and help those companies market those products to young guys who trust those magazines for advice.

As it says in Ben's post at The Real JDM ...

Let me preface this post by mentioning that what I’m going to say here is something you’re probably not used to reading in magazines or other professional media.

Unlike media which requires advertising money to survive (the same advertisers I’m about to talk about), I don’t have those biases and conflicts of interest which limit my ability to speak the truth.

The cover-up of the damage being done is massive.

Everyone (from magazine editors and website forum owners who happily accept their advertising money, to the very retail companies which sell these problematic parts and happily reap the profits) will admit behind closed doors that this is an industry crushing problem and yet everyone says they cant change it or do anything about it. The fact is nobody wants to stick their neck on the line to do anything about it

The simple fact is that we are one of the very few companies sounding the alarm bell about this problem.

Are we going to have some overseas magazines angry at us for saying that ? Probably.

But while saying this may annoy some magazines, if it comes down to a choice between the survival of some overseas magazines that happily accept advertising money from companies selling knock offs, or the survival of the genuine companies who actualy innovate and engineer new products, then I'll pick the innovators any day of the week.

The tuning industry can survive without yet another magazine, but it simply cannot survive and prosper long term without the original innovators, and without those innovators being able to develop new products.

Quite simply, if we have a situation in 5 years where most of the original innovators are gone, and all we are left with are companies in China producing counterfeits, I don't want to look back and say "wow - I wish we had've made more noise about this problem when we first spotted it".

That's why we are ringing the alarm bell now, and ringing it loudly.

WHAT IF I CAN'T AFFORD THE REAL THING ?

I remember exactly what it's like to want certain products and not having the earning power to be able to afford to buy products I wanted. When I first started modifying cars, I was 17, earning sweet FA dollar wise, and there was simply stuff I wanted but couldn't afford.

But instead of buying fakes and counterfeits, I either saved up the old fashioned way for the real thing, or bought genuine used parts and learnt how to restore and rebuild parts.

These days many people seem to think that if you can't afford the real deal original part today, that instead of waiting a few weeks and saving up for the real thing, instead that it is somehow acceptable to go and buy a fake or counterfeit product that has been manufactured by a company who has simply stolen someone else's design.

I think that's a really sad reflection on certain elements of the modifying community - quite apart from ending up with counterfeit parts, they also never learn the skills of refinishing and rebuilding genuine parts that IMHO every modifier should learn.

But quite simply, back when I first started modifying cars, if I couldn't afford the real deal parts new, I saved up for the real deal. And if I then couldn't afford the real deal parts new, I found used genuine parts and rebuilt them. And if I couldn't afford used genuine, then I simply accepted that I couldn't afford them at all.

As an example, when you can find genuine used genuine BBS wheels and used genuine Rays Volks so cheaply these days, I cannot understand why anyone would instead choose to fit knock offs.

I just had a look on eBay and found these ...

"BBS 4 x 17" INCH WHEELS ... In the centre rim it has the following stamped:- BBS GERMANY GESCHMIEDET RG133 4530 99 800500"

$600 opening bid - zero bids.

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/BBS-4-x-17-INCH-WHE...%3A1|240%3A1318

... and these ...

"BBS 18x8 Wheels - Pair Only"

$200 buy it now price.

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/BBS-18x8-Wheels-Pai...p3286.m20.l1116

As you can probably guess, I've never fitted counterfeit parts to any of my cars, and I never will.

- Adam

[TheTunersGroup]

At the end of the day, a large corporation is disadvantaged only by its sheer size, having to pay each person involved in the process each step of the way, including management and administration. Then when it comes time to revise a model, make a change or sell a product a certain way there are processes that need to be followed and a time consuming bureaucratic juggling act to endure.

Counterfeiters on the other hand change strategies on the fly and structure their business that there's not that much loss in administration. At the end of the day they may spend less on development, but everyone knows they compromise on quality. If you can justify yourself to the consumer that you have a product worth spending money for, or the difference in price is negligible compared to counterfeits, then you'll have NOTHING to worry about. However if you have a one trick pony product that you charge stupid amounts of money for, expect to be run out of business the moment someone reverse engineers your product.

With the greatest respect, are you really going to try to argue that counterfeiters somehow have some kind of more efficient business model ?

If you applied that kind of logic, you could argue that working to make money is inefficient because bank robbers make more money in less time.

Counterfeiting is illegal. Period.

The difference in price of genuine products will NEVER be negligible compared to counterfeits, for the simple reason that manufacturing a particular genuine product takes a fixed cost on materials, and a fixed cost on machining to the appropriate tolerances.

And let's not try to legitimize counterfeiting by calling it "reverse engineering". Counterfeiting is stealing a design - not real innovative engineering.

For example... given the choice between Rotas and real TE37's, I'll spend the extra coin on real TE37's because the product justifies its cost by superior quality and finish.

I'm glad to hear that

Ask me to spend lots of money on a genuine gear knob from Trust compared to a knockoff and I'll have bought the knockoff before you even get to finish your sentence... why? Because I know as an educated consumer there is sweet fuck all difference between the two.

Except for the fact that a counterfeit Trust gear knob is made by stealing Trust's design ? And the fact that by buying a genuine Trust gearknob you know that the revenue goes straight back into R&D on new Trust products ?

With the greatest respect, I don't think you want to be advertising that you'd buy a knock off instead of genuine Trust - you've seen this right ? ...

http://www.bespokeventures.com/blog/2008/0...reddy-bankrupt/

The days of dumb customers with brand loyalty are long gone. Retailers and manufacturers need to embrace this truth and realise that they need to convey worth not just by saying "real JDM, not chinese"... or "real Origin, not a copy". The old "oh no they steal our ideas and sell our product at 1/10th the price" whinge won't work in this day and age because if someone can replicate your product for 1/10th the price with lower quality materials AND outsell your product, then you haven't come up with a good marketing plan or product life cycle BEFORE you invest time and money into the product.

Again with the greatest respect, having brand loyalty and only buying genuine is not and never will be "dumb".

Your suggestion that "Retailers and manufacturers need to embrace this truth" is missing the entire point of this thread.

Counterfeiting is theft - always has been.

The "old oh no they steal our ideas and sell our product at 1/10th the price whinge" is not a whinge - it's reporting theft of intellectual property and product design.

If someone breaks into your house and steals your stuff, you're not "whingeing" by reporting the theft to the police are you ? When the intellectual property and product designs of genuine manufacturers are stolen by counterfeiters, it's exactly the same thing - the manufacturer who has been stolen from has every right to report the fact that their design has been stolen.

Counterfeiters will always try to find a way to make a counterfeit product for 1/10th the price of the original, and as I said above - "any product can be made cheaper by making it worse".

At the end of the day, if people keep supporting counterfeiters and buying counterfeit products, it won't be customers with brand loyalty who are long gone ... the real deal innovative manufacturers will be long gone - they'll simply move to aerospace engineering and defence work where genuine products are more highly valued, and where skills like high quality machining, metallurgy knowledge and composites knowledge are respected.

Or they'll stop making parts for the kind of cars which are driven by people who buy counterfeits and instead focus on vehicles which are typically not owned by demographics where counterfeits are accepted.

And if that happens, there will be no new automotive products. Period.

Like I've said many times, when it comes to counterfeit car parts, there are no grey areas - you are either part of the problem, or part of the solution.

By only buying genuine parts from the original innovative manufacturers, and refusing to buy fakes, counterfeits or knock off parts, you become part of the solution.

And if people choose to fit counterfeit or knock off parts, they'll understand why some people will be justifiably pissed at them, right ?

- Adam

[floody]

Adam/"The tuners group",

I'm not advocating BUYING counterfeit gear - I don't, I run genuine Nissan or quality aftermarket parts exclusively - I'm just sick to fvcking death of holier than thou twats prattling on about what a massive issue it is. And funnily enough, it all sounds redundant coming from someone with a vested financial interest in reducing their competition.

As for datruthcometh...whoop dee doo.

You know what, maybe someone should make a blog to thrash the idiot ricer Americans who mostly perpetrate the entire issue.

End of the day, those who want/need/can afford quality will buy it, and companies with competitive structures and sound strategies will survive. At the same time, sideways cap 240sx and civic drivers in Buttf**k, USA will keep buying the crap.

I suppose I won't earn any JayDeeEm points for this post but whatever.

Edited November 21, 2008 by floody

[TheTunersGroup]

Adam/"The tuners group",

I'm not advocating BUYING counterfeit gear - I don't, I run genuine Nissan or quality aftermarket parts exclusively

Good to hear

I'm just sick to fvcking death of holier than thou twats prattling on about what a massive issue it is.

It truly is a massive issue which is threatening the entire future of innovation in the automotive parts industry - it's the biggest issue there is in the entire modifying industry.

With the greatest respect, people who are bringing attention to this issue and trying to do their bit to help ensure the future of innovation are not "holier than thou twats" as you put it ... they are simply people who care about and are passionate about innovation and don't want to see the most innovative companies in the industry go out of business because of the actions of counterfeiters and intellectual property thieves.

And let's face it, without the innovation of companies like Trust, HKS, and all the other companies whose products are counterfeited, can you imagine how boring the modifying scene would be ? Those guys helped create the entire JDM modifying community.

And funnily enough, it all sounds redundant coming from someone with a vested financial interest in reducing their competition.

Competition ? People who manufacturer counterfeit products are not "competition". As I said above ... Counterfeiting is not "competing" - it is theft, pure and simple theft.

As I also said above ... "If someone breaks into your house and steals your stuff, you're not "whingeing" by reporting the theft to the police are you ? When the intellectual property and product designs of genuine manufacturers are stolen by counterfeiters, it's exactly the same thing - the manufacturer who has been stolen from has every right to report the fact that their design has been stolen."

The fact is that it costs money and time to track down and shut down counterfeiters, so the only way that can be done is for genuine manufacturers to use some of the revenue from the sales of genuine products to invest in legal fees and investigators to track down the counterfeiters.

I know of a particular Australian distributor of genuine products who has a full time staff member who spends all day every day tracking down counterfeits being sold in Australia and working with the team of lawyers who then take legal action against the companies selling the counterfeits.

And of course, money which is spent on the salaries of staff who spend all day tracking down counterfeits and tracking down the people who sell them, and money spent on lawyers fees etc, is money which cannot be spent on innovating new products, so there's yet another example of how counterfeiting destroys innovation.

It's not a matter of "a vested financial interest" as you put it ... the fact is that the genuine manufacturers and genuine distributors are simply looking after their legal rights - counterfeiting is illegal.

Genuine manufacturers and genuine distributors have every right to expose and eradicate counterfeits, and there is no need for genuine manufacturers and genuine distributors to make any apologies whatsoever for exposing and eradicating counterfeits.

As for datruthcometh...whoop dee doo.

You know what, maybe someone should make a blog to thrash the idiot ricer Americans who mostly perpetrate the entire issue.

The datruthcometh blog is one of the few places who are actually having the guts to expose the truth about the scale of the counterfeits problem.

And it's not just "the idiot ricer Americans who mostly perpetrate the entire issue" as you put it - in particular a number of magazines overseas have a huge case to answer for publicising counterfeit and knock off products in their editorial, and happily accepting advertising money from companies manufacturing or selling counterfeits and knock offs.

The magazines that do that should know better than that ... either they know that the products are counterfeit or knock offs and accept the advertising money anyway, or they don't realise that the products are knock offs or counterfeits (which is not much better - if you run a magazine you should know what is genuine and what isn't).

End of the day, those who want/need/can afford quality will buy it, and companies with competitive structures and sound strategies will survive. At the same time, sideways cap 240sx and civic drivers in Buttf**k, USA will keep buying the crap.

What makes you think that it's only Americans who buy the counterfeits ? It's a global problem.

It'd be nice if innovative companies with sound strategies who innovate, manufacture their products with high quality and sell their genuine products at a fair price could simply survive by doing sound business, but the fact is that the counterfeits problem is becoming so serious that genuine manufacturers with years of experience and sound strategies are being driven out of business, and counterfeits have played a huge role in that. It's not simply a matter of having true innovation, competitive structures and sound strategies.

Look at what happened recently to Trust ...

http://www.bespokeventures.com/blog/2008/0...reddy-bankrupt/

... and Buddy Club Japan ...

http://www.honda-tech.com/showthread.php?t=1181891

http://www.honda-tech.com/showpost.php?p=1...mp;postcount=17

... and Apexi ... we found this quote online about Apexi ...

"APEXi has been on the tuning scene in Japan for a long time. Apexi was originally started by a high ranking HKS employee who broke off from HKS to do their own company. Most recent innovations include the Power FC. They have officially filed for bankruptcy protection in 2007 and are currently trying to restructure the company. To get an idea of what the company is going through Apexi went from a 304 page master catalog before bankruptcy to a 120 page catalog after filing for bankruptcy."

There's a perfect example of a Japanese company whose products have been counterfeited. Almost two thirds of their catalog became no longer available.

I suppose I won't earn any JayDeeEm points for this post but whatever.

With the greatest respect, a shrug of the shoulders and a "whatever" is a bit like ignoring the problem.

If you care about innovation, and want to be able to buy new innovative products for your car in the future, "whatever" isn't going to cut it.

As I said above ...

Like I've said many times, when it comes to counterfeit car parts, there are no grey areas - you are either part of the problem, or part of the solution.

By only buying genuine parts from the original innovative manufacturers, and refusing to buy fakes, counterfeits or knock off parts, you become part of the solution.

And if people choose to fit counterfeit or knock off parts, they'll understand why some people will be justifiably pissed at them, right ?

- Adam

[2BNVS]

"For example... given the choice between Rotas and real TE37's, I'll spend the extra coin on real TE37's because the product justifies its cost by superior quality and finish. Ask me to spend lots of money on a genuine gear knob from Trust compared to a knockoff and I'll have bought the knockoff before you even get to finish your sentence... why? Because I know as an educated consumer there is sweet f**k all difference between the two.

The days of dumb customers with brand loyalty are long gone. Retailers and manufacturers need to embrace this truth and realise that they need to convey worth not just by saying "real JDM, not chinese"... or "real Origin, not a copy". The old "oh no they steal our ideas and sell our product at 1/10th the price" whinge won't work in this day and age because if someone can replicate your product for 1/10th the price with lower quality materials AND outsell your product, then you haven't come up with a good marketing plan or product life cycle BEFORE you invest time and money into the product."

im on the same track as funkey monkey, is no doubt i prefer genuine parts that i can honestly see the justification of the price, but there are alot of other products from trust/hks etc which have a high price just for the name when theres cheaper alternatives that do the exact bloody job. when it comes to mechanical/electrical no doubt my car is full of the top designed stuff, but lets say my front bar is a trust copy, its light, does the exact same thing, 1/4 the price i really couldnt justify there extra cost, what R&D to make sure it lines up perfect? so does mine. but mechanical stuff where tests have been proven is a different story.

copies are gonna be around forever just how it is like was mentioned although its less quality its also a fraction of the cost.

Look at TV's i have alot of LG ones, then i have a $120 Aldi tv with some shonky brand ive never heard of which u know what, has outlasted all of my top brand TVs, its cheap as shit, probably full of the shittest materials u could ever put in them but hey it lasted longer than my $900 Sony.

an old friend of mine has just finished his gtst build after 7 years, why? coz no bullshit EVERYTHING on the car is Trust items. i like brand loyalty but when it comes down to price i mix n match with local brands ( although they are still proven) and for a similar result it owes me 1/3 as much. to me $3k on a manifold is stupid and there are other local proven items which work better for 1/3rd price. ( ive had both so i can compare what i believe)

Its a touchy issue that i agree in buying (majority) of genuine parts but some things you just have to be logical with. might be slightly different but i prefer helping the little guy ( not scammers, but a legit little business) rather than supporting some overly hyped Brand Name