"Smitty Two" wrote in message
news
In article uNZWe.123865$084.68527@attbi_s22,
"LCT Paintball" wrote:


Go look at a new car lot, and then go look at some new airplanes, and
give me ONE reason why an airplane costs ten times as much as a car.



Because there are 1000 cars sold for every airplane. The cost of special
tooling isn't being absorbed by enough volume.

Volume, my ass. I'll go back to Henry Ford again. The Model T was priced
at $825 when it was introduced in 1908. He continually cut prices. By
1916, the cars sold for $345. Every time he cut prices, more people
could afford cars, and his volume went up. Every time his profit per car
went down, his total profit went up. It was his pricing policies that
made him the largest carmaker in the world. And his accountants,
investors, competitors, and everyone else thought he was crazy. Yeah,
sure.

Your analogy is off-base. The Model T offered more practical transportation
than the horse and buggy, and transportation is a must have. A LSA,
regardless of price, is a toy, not practical transportation. You won't sell
a million, and I think 5,000 a year will be a stretch if the cost is $50k.


That's the real world. You can't wait for increased volume to decrease
prices. You have to work it the other way around. People here are saying
Skyhawks are a bargain at $150,000? What percentage of Americans can buy
a toy of that magnitude? Price them as though you were going to sell a
million a year, and by god, you will.

Don't think so. You could give 'em away and there are not enough people
interested in aviation to take 'em all.


Try selling a product to Home Depot, as I've done. They RETAIL stuff for
less than their competition can buy it for. Why? Volume. You don't tell
them what your product costs, they tell you what they'll pay. Go to
Continental and Lycoming and tell them you want to buy a million
airplane engines per year, but you need the price to be $6500. Ask them
which one of them wants the contract. They'll probably both come back
begging to undercut that target.

Jeez, I've gotten myself all worked up again. I guess I better get a
small glass of wine and go back out to the shop and squeeze a few rivets
on the RV.

Enjoy the RV. Great airplanes. And you have a point about volume making
aircraft more reasonable. That's why Van's is able to offer competitive
prices on their kits, engines, etc. Still, even though they offer a heck of
a high performance airplane for $50k plus labor, there are only 4,000
flying...

KB