What incentive does DMC or its franchises have for making super-reliable parts?

Obviously a business needs to be profitable or it cannot survive.

Decisions must be made between quality and cost. Couple this with research and development/testing.

I'm obviously a big fan of the brand, but I hope it does something (I don't know what) to pump some new blood and excitement into the brand.

I have read all the post on this subject, and everyone of you got it right. They make parts for 6,000 Delorean (+or -) and of course they may sell at the most 10% of these. I want to thank DMCH, Hervey and all the other vendors for making and stocking part for such a few amount of cars. Yes, I work in the power industry and even some of our parts that cost thousands of dollars sometime fail. I know that DHCH and all out other vendors will treat you right, they have me for over 31 years, I am glad they are there and if now and then a part is bad hey replace it.

What other extremely low volume marque has the kind of vendor support that we do as DeLorean owners?

Personally, I can't think of any and am thankful for that support. Given the limited market that they're dealing with, an expectation of perfection from the vendors is a little unrealistic IMHO.

As long they always try to do the right thing, and the mistakes/flubs aren't intentional or known before marketing/sales commence, I for one will continue to stand by our vendors.

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Originally Posted by NightFlyer

What other extremely low volume marque has the kind of vendor support that we do as DeLorean owners?

Personally, I can't think of any and am thankful for that support. Given the limited market that they're dealing with, an expectation of perfection from the vendors is a little unrealistic IMHO.

As long they always try to do the right thing, and the mistakes/flubs aren't intentional or known before marketing/sales commence, I for one will continue to stand by our vendors.

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I agree with you 100% and then some more.

People always ask me, "Isn't it hard to get parts for these cars?"

It always surprises them that not only pretty much any part is readily available, but I can pick and choose which vendor or location I want to buy them from. This was a deciding factor in the purchase of my car.

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Originally Posted by Accipiter

All of this really circles back to my original question:

How often does this happen with companies? Specifically those that deal in niche markets?

For the purposes of my concerns, replace "DeLorean" with any other car that has a small community and has parts that are difficult to obtain. What kind of incentive does a business have to offer excellent and highly-reliable parts for those cars?

The only thing I can think of is the kind of business that spins up short-term to make an immediate profit off of a need, and then wind down after they made their money and the customers are happy so the owner(s) can retire. That doesn't jibe at all with DMC's business plan, as they're quite obviously (as far as I can tell) in it for the long haul.

I really and truly don't believe that DMCH is shipping shoddy parts on purpose, but the question still remains.

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The answer is the free marketplace. The incentive is to make quality parts and offer quality service so that the customers don't want to go anywhere else and develop some loyalty.

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Originally Posted by rothsean

The answer is the free marketplace. The incentive is to make quality parts and offer quality service so that the customers don't want to go anywhere else and develop some loyalty.

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That's not really an answer though, when it comes to exclusive parts.

For example, where else are you going to get a modern pump/sender combo unit for the DeLorean?

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Originally Posted by Accipiter

That's not really an answer though, when it comes to exclusive parts.

For example, where else are you going to get a modern pump/sender combo unit for the DeLorean?

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Nowhere, but other companies offer alternatives to that item. It is not the situation where it is DMC or bust.

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Originally Posted by Accipiter

This is a pretty big annoyance, which was exacerbated recently by the failure of my DMCH angle drive. The factory-original angle drive on my car finally failed last year, so I went ahead and purchased the replacement angle drive from DMCH and installed it. It worked great, up until about a month ago (almost a year after its purchase) when it started wandering around the speedo dial, exhibiting the same symptoms as the last failure. Finally the other day while on the road it failed completely and the speedo dropped to 0 on the interstate.

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(Note: Since type is bad expressing tone and I'm a known advocate for long lasting angle drives - I'd like to say that there is NO intention of sarcasm in this post.)

DMCH is still having issues with angle drive failures? I figure they would have them worked out by now.

James,
You guys should look into the supplier that Martin G. had over in the UK to supply your angle drives. I know they are not making them anymore (one reason due to low quantities) but at the quantities you would order they would probably start making again. They are very reliable (at least my unit is). I haven't broken one yet with all the miles I drive.

They will still make them to order, but I don't re-sell them due to their poor customer service. The DOC UK also re-sold them for a time but they too found Speedograph a pain to deal with.

I sold about 20-30 units and have sent out two replacement stub axle cables (of the original 5 I had!) since.

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Originally Posted by DCUK Martin

They will still make them to order, but I don't re-sell them due to their poor customer service. The DOC UK also re-sold them for a time but they too found Speedograph a pain to deal with.

I sold about 20-30 units and have sent out two replacement stub axle cables (of the original 5 I had!) since.

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We waited and waited and waited on these people. What a nightmare.....