I bought a belt at Wal-Mart for $11 -- it's a great belt for $11.
I bought a pair of hiking boots for $44 -- Damn good boots at any price.
I buy Nike's at the Outlet store for half or more off retail.
My friend got a great looking tie (seriously) for $3 on sale at a place he used to work.

If you wanna pay more because you 'think' it's better, that's your prerogative. But cheap doesn't=crappy. I don't base my buying decisions solely on price. The better things in this world don't always come at a high price. If asked, our audi guru Percy will be happy to point out to you that Krell audio components sound and are built better than Mark Levinson, yet Krell costs a whole lot less. Case in point -- Lexus! My GS400 costs $8,000-$10,000 less than a comparable BMW or Mercedes. Is Lexus quality as good? It's better!

I'm not rich. Most of us here aren't. Cost does play a factor in what we buy. It doesn't mean we buy junk; it means that if we can't buy we want at a price we like, we won't buy it at all. I didn't buy the Carbon Fiber borlas because they were cheap, I bought them because I liked the look and heard good things about their quality. It's just icing on the cake that they cost 30-50% less than some of the other wheel-back exhausts. FWIW, beside the damage I've inflicted, I've had no problem with build of my Borlas.

Please don't be offended -- I have absolutely no problem with you buying what you wish. But don't criticize others for wanting value for their money.

Brian

 

Kodai,

we all want the BEST QUALITY mod stuff for our beloved LEX. and if we can get them at the most "reasonable" price, why not? hey, my 1998 ls400 with the new 290hp engine(brand new car, silver with NAK) costed me $10k discount from msrp+fees, simply because i have done tons of research and negotioation and the dealer was having a promotion, i got the good, if not the best quality car at rock bottom price. wouldn't you be happy if something like this happened to you?

every co. and mfg. has "lemons" on their apple trees, and if there are too many bad lemons, we will stay away from them. toyota/lex/honda all make quality cars. but i do hear, on rare occasion, of bad quality stuff. since nothing is perfect in this world, we strive to look for the co.with the least errors.

whenever we get newbies on the board, they never cease to be impressed of how good the memebrs are. that is why you are here, and i am here too. hey, i wish i could get a greddy, it looked good. but as MG said, sometimes there are other factors that each indivual must assess when it comes to buying things for our cars. just as long as you are happy and tried to make others feel good, this club would truly be a success.

looking forward to see your ride in the next meet.

 

OK guys, while kodai may not have eloquently stated his case, I do agree with him in one sense... YOU GENERALLY GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR.

One reason I've gone L-Tuned and TRD for all my mods (except wheels/tires) is that while they cost more than some other brands, the quality IS excellent. However, a set of TEINs for example, *are* technically superior to the L-Tuned setup, and correspondingly costs quite a bit more. However, if one's budget is constrained, the L-Tuned springs/shocks are a "no brainer" upgrade from stock.

My wheels/tires look good (to me), but they DON'T look as good as a set of HREs for example, but then they didn't cost anywhere near as much. I got what I paid for. And one wheel place I talked to turned his nose up at Nittos - now I know why. You get what you pay for. They're noisier than the Potenzas and, surprisingly, have more sidewall flex than the HIGHER profile Potenzas that came on the stock 17s. I will most likely replace them before they wear out.

Percy says you can improve the stock stereo a lot with Dynaudio speaker replacements... probably for about $1000. Even though I could afford a GS400, $1000 isn't an insignificant amount of money, and I don't feel compelled to do the upgrade, yet. But I'm sure if you get some $50 replacement speakers from Circuit City, it's NOT going to sound the same as the Dynaudios.

So in summary, I do feel you generally get what you pay for.

Maybe that what Kodai's point - the GS is a high quality and certainly NOT inexpensive car, so don't buy mods that are the least expensive - and in that sense, I think he's generally right. The sore point here is that HE had a bad experience with Borla, which seems to be the LEAST EXPENSIVE exhaust upgrade, whereas it seems like no one else has. So if we separate the Borla issue from his point, I think it's a good one.