Bride Fakes - Beware!

[STATUS]

  themeaton said:

Its good to raise some awareness on this. Just out of curiosity, has anyone done some comparisons between the real and fake seats; i.e. weight, strength of joins etc? it would be interesting to see how they compare. Sure, someone who wants the best is going to buy the real thing, but i'd like to know just how good are the copies really are.

they are plain junk, pretty but junk and the gias copies have poor recliner mechs. I have had to break the "you own copies" to a few customers now.... after getting in the cars and feeling not as comfortable as i usually would in a genuine seat. If you sit in one then the other it is like going from a sofa to a park bench the material is prone to pilling and the lumbar supports are porrly padded and wear out in months not years....

be warned they are shit. I have seen them for sale on this forum advertised as bride too.....

[midnight]

link here. how to spot fake brides.

http://www.bride-jp.com/info_copy_m.html

コピー商品 means copy

正規商品 means proper (real)

so the photos on the left with the material back ground are fakes, and the ones on the right with no background are real.

[Antimatter]

Great find!

I have actually noticed that there is a seller on eBay with Bride Cugas with FRP backs. The seller claims "official bride documentation and stickers". Here you can see that Bride do not make the Cuga with a FRP back:

http://www.bride-jp.com/copy/18.pdf

  midnight said:

link here. how to spot fake brides.

http://www.bride-jp.com/info_copy_m.html

コピー商品 means copy

正規商品 means proper (real)

so the photos on the left with the material back ground are fakes, and the ones on the right with no background are real.

Edited June 23, 2009 by Antimatter

[Beer Baron]

  gfunkk said:

has anyone brought a copy seat, does it at least feel the same to sit/drive in?

no, they feel just like a cheap second rate seat.

think of it like this. try on a $2,000 ermenegildo zegna suit. see how nice the fabric and stiching is, and how when you wear it you feel like a million bucks. now put on a $300 lowes/kelly/country/whatever cheap suit. and surprise surprise you feel cheap, uncomfortable etc.

all the cheap copy seats of tried felt just like I expected. crap...

companies like bride are not profit hungry rip off merchants. there is no giant scam going on. they spend the right money on good materials, top designers, research and development and safety testing, and when producing the seats they have strict quality control measures. that is where your money goes, it's not keeping thousands of overweight japanese salary men in $200 a glass sake and hostess bars. you get what you pay for. pay good money, get good safe seats. pay half the price and sadly you do not even get half as good. it's actually worse value as you pay half as much but only get a quarter of a genuine product.

[thrtytwo]

Can u pm me which trader on here is selling fakes. Just about to order a set of digo's and rails. Don't wanna drop 2.5k on fakes lol

[DCIEVE]

Ok dug these up. A mate took these after picking them up for me - the writing on the pics is so I'd pick the differences seeing as I couldnt check them out in person (o/s).

Pretty good copies hey!

Edited June 23, 2009 by DCIEVE

[WARLORD BAS]

wowww, bloody unbelievable how they came up with pretty decent fakes (as in just looking at the two if you didnt know they actually had fakes)

Edited June 24, 2009 by WARLORD BAS

[R34GTFOUR]

I bought a set of the Bride Gias "copies" for my r34, the only thing that gave it away was the fact that the backing wasn't carbon fiber or kevlar.

Maybe i got a good one, but all the stiching is spot on, no holes or anything along the lines of that like the above pics. No funny logos, everything lined up.

I bought genuine bride low rails and they bolted straight up. The only thing that i will mention like URAS said, the recline mech isn't the smoothest, but once its set I'm the only one that drives my car so it doesnt need to be moved. Granted the seats dont weigh the same as a carbon kevlar/fibre, but they do weigh about 2-3kg less than the stock r34 seats (rails etc incl).

As for comfort, they are a racing "design" seat at the end of the day, they are built to hold you in place and they do a bloody good job at that. The first time i took my car for a drive it felt like i was in a go-kart, very direct feel.

Each to their own, I was never in the market for seats but these came up in a deal i couldnt turn down, and I can't justify spending over 2k for EACH seat regardless if they are worth the $$, near on 5k can be better spent elsewhere imo.

Also i've had mine for approximately a year now, no tears or marks etc.

Edited June 24, 2009 by R34GTFOUR

[Bok boK GuN]

http://www.zerotohundred.com/newforums/int...x-for-sale.html

Made a call to the guy selling and he would not want to take a picture of the structural design of the seat for me. Product is said to be from Taiwan and wrapped with real Bride cloth.

[Blitz]

  thrtytwo said:

Can u pm me which trader on here is selling fakes. Just about to order a set of digo's and rails. Don't wanna drop 2.5k on fakes lol

To the best of our knowledge, there are no business traders on this forum trying to pass off fake Brides as the real deal, however there have been a couple of private sellers doing so and claiming they 'bought the seats from a mate and they didn't come with boxes or doco' etc etc.

As Antimatter said, while its getting harder and harder to immediately spot the visual differences between the genuine article and the fake at first glance, if you look hard enough, it is still quite obvious (in my mind anyway)

[Blitz]

  Bok boK GuN said:

http://www.zerotohundred.com/newforums/int...x-for-sale.html

Made a call to the guy selling and he would not want to take a picture of the structural design of the seat for me. Product is said to be from Taiwan and wrapped with real Bride cloth.

At least that thread states that they are 'imitation' Brides.

There are a few sellers hammering these on Ebay, and they all note 'Postage from Taiwan'