CRXtoRX7

I don't have the money, time, or willpower to go standalone for a long time, but I was wondering: what would one expect to spend for converting to standalone. This includes buying the EMS, adapters, sensors, wiring, install, tuning prices, etc... Whats one lump ball park guess? I know there is alot to go into it, but just humor me

-Ben

ps. this is just for my peace of mind.

White_FC

If your willing to buy a second hand unit, even a couple of years old model will still function very very well you can pick 2nd hand ones up very cheap, I dunno what tunning is like where you are, but over here for a full dyno tune is usually about $500(Aus).....

You should be able to do the wiring yourself and the sensor placement, it's not hard..

Well worth the money to go standalone...

Evil Aviator

Pettit is selling the Wolf now, so that should help with the RX-7 market. Still, I think I can almost count the number of current US Wolf dealers on one hand, lol.

I can tell you why the budget EMS products never get set up well in the US market:

1) Labor is too expensive in the US. Few Americans are willing to spend the money they should on a proper installation and tuning, so they try to do everything themselves, which more often ends up in total disaster, as you well know. Additionally, businesses cannot mark up the product enough to cover the cost of user support. If you think about it, how long could a US business last if they only profit a couple hunderd dollars on a low-volume product that requires hours and hours of user support, including an incredible amount of support to prospective buyers who don't end up buying, or for those who bought their EMS from an internet or other non-support dealer?

2) The liability of the EMS dealer and tuner is incredible. I can't imagine the number of engines replaced at the cost of the EMS dealer because of a maintenance or tuning error that had nothing to do with the EMS. As you know, the US courts always favor the little guy, especially when the jury is even more ignorant of technology than the plaintiff. Just wait, I'm sure there will be a law case in the US soon where the EMS dealer gets sued for billions of dollars because some idiot teenager drove too fast and killed himself or others.

3) An EMS is an extremely complicated and all-encompassing product. Any dealer would need to have a very wide range of mechanical and engineering knowledge. How many people in the US who fit this description are going to work for peanuts?

Yes, Australia is absolutely my least favorite country to deal with in commerce, but I don't think that hinders the US EMS market as much as the other things I mentioned, as I have always gotten good service from Motec. I think Motec has an advantage because they sell only high-end products, and therefore they generally do not have to deal with the same level of incompetence and financial limitations that the low-end EMS dealers have to put up with on a daily basis.

Evil Aviator

The price varies a lot, depending on what hardware you get, who installs and tunes it, and how they tune it. Basically:

$900 - $12,000 for the EMS and other hardware
$300 - $800 for installation
$300 - $3,000 for tuning