hooleyboy

I'm headed to the renntech dealer this week to pick up my airbox and I'm going to make an offer for a set of headers for my C55. I was wondering if anyone had an idea as to what kind of price offer i should make on the headers. I guess the retail is $4500 for a set. what do you think a good starting offer is?

crazeazn

$2000 cash....


j/k i have no idea.

hooleyboy

I have no idea too. maybe i should go with evo headers and get an LSD rather than drop major cash on renntech headers.

alroumi

3,800 without installation, that seems fair. The Kleemann headers are much cheaper for that price of 4,500 you can get the Kleemann headers and secondary cats and still have money to install the parts.

moosejaw

Which renntech location,
the one in West Palm or a local dealer
I can tell you from personal experience the West Palm doesnt do deals and frowns upon selling C Class stuff.

I was actually told by the head sales guy "You C Class Guys dont like spending money!" Turbo 16lbs was there and can corraborate this story.

genome

its ridiculous the crap these high end salesman get away with.

wawy

In my opinion, that's waay too much money for a set of headers. Heck, you're almost 1/3 into the price of a Kleemann blower for $4,500!! But, then again, I'm a C Class owner and us "C Class Guys dont like spending money!"

wawy

Correct me if I'm wrong, but, are the Evosport headers not supposed to be be almost the same design as the Renntech ones?? I

Carl Lassiter

What a toolbag.

turbo16lbs

Me and a few other board members went to the MBUSA meet at Renntech and I was there when Bob himself said, and I quote "Why make headers for the 32 engines? Those guys won't spend money on the car". However they were praising how some banker from the west coast was having X-Y-Z done to the car and that they had to find another E55 block for her. That comment alone translated to lots of $.

racetested

Maybe but seeing your expensive car list you must like to be payed well and so do others.

YES some things are ridiculously priced IMO but if you have the clientele willing to spend the money I wouldn't mess around nickel and diming either.

Note: I am saying this as a very middle class person and am not some arrogant rich person but if someone wants to pay me more I am all for it. I deal with the nickel and diming in one of my business's and I have to say it's stupid on my end. I'd love to have the easier life of richer clientele and would cater to them as well.

Newzchspy

I find this thread fascinating. Some of the wealthiest clients I have drive C or E Classes and if you saw them on the street, you'd think they didn't have 2 nickels to rub together, yet they could buy and sell many of us all day long. My dad always said, don't count other peoples money (since you don't know what they have in their wallet). How do they know if any of us will spend money on their cars? They don't and thats the point. Before he died, the world's richest man BY FAR (Sam Walton) drove a 20 year old pickup and lived in a very modest home (sort of like Warren Buffet in the same home for 40 years and driving a few years old Lincoln Town car). People who truly have a LOT of $$ dont flaunt it and dont want you to know it. Its often the "poseurs" that appear to have the $$, but truly dont.

Back to the subject at hand, $4,500 for headers?? You'd be better off finding a used Kleeman SC and juicing it up than buying headers that'll give you what, 20-30 HP???

SLK55R

have to be shorty headers?

I used to use the renntech headers ... and have now switched to Supersprint Long tube headers.

c32used

Wow...way to expensive!!

I dont think it cost more then $500 to actually make. Better hope LET/C3P are planning on making a more price worthy option for you guys.

racetested

You're not talking about the same situation at all.

I am sure Renntech is experience enough to know what sells and doesn't sell. Nothing wrong with saying "those type of people don't spend money" if it's true or compared to Renntech's usual market.

Newzchspy

OH, BUT I am!! The C Class people are seen as NOT spending on their cars vis a vis the 63 and 65 guys. How would Renntech know who is spending unless they actually had the product and people bought it. Sorta like, " Build it and they will come."

msheredy

Not when companies price them like they are made from titanium!!! Lets not kid ourselves here, they [headers] are metal tubing welded together. Sure it takes someone to actually build a set which takes time and money . Then there's the supply vs demand . But 4500.00 for some freakin headers is downright stupid.

Doesn't Renntech even realize that the C class is Mercedes bread and butter, meaning there are lots and lots of cars out there [read=a market]? And that if they were to support that by producing price conscience performance parts in quantity might actually be a good thing for business? I don't care at all for tuners who exclusively cater to the high end crowd period.

Now what I would really like to see is companies like LET or VRP license their header designs to major manufactures like Edlebrock so that we could have a great header at a good price.

Newzchspy

CIII has some brake discs coming that I'd like to jump on in addition to the products he already has. Remember too, its not always about price, its also about what works and surely, LET and Code III thus far have produced products at reasonable prices that DO work.

ChicagoX

For that price, I would go custom. You could get a sweet set for around 3k

I know LET is coming out with some C55 headers.

c32AMG-DTM

Agree w/ all others - Renntech's entitled to their opinion, consequently they can develop and market products to whomever they see fit... but they've missed the boat on a portion of the Mercedes tuning market that IMHO is not insignificant - the success of LET/VRP/C3P shows there's certainly a demand for innovative, reasonably priced tuners out there. Pride goeth before a fall... Renntech used to be the low-cost option, remember, when compared against Lorinser, Carlsson, Brabus, MKB, etc... not the case anymore with the current crop of other high quality U.S. based MB tuners.

Given ChicagoX's comment, I would strongly encourage hooleyboy to wait for LET's headers - they'll likely given dyno-proven results at an extremely competitive price vs. the other stuff available for you guys now (i.e. Renntech, Kleemann, Supersprint, etc.)

hooleyboy

Yeah I dont think im going to go with renntech headers based on cost alone. Its just not a wise use of my money. I might get the evo headers this week if my bank roll allows. Lots of good points in this thread for sure... ITs true though headers are just welded metal pipes. and sure there is some labor involved. Companies like LET and VRP, code3 will take gobs of biz away from renntech and Kleemann that they maybe forced to to offer lower prices. and that's a good thing. The thing is I got some loot to spend and its going to go to the company that can get me the best deal on a good product. I have a friend who is a certified navy welder and would weld me up a set of headers for $1000 labor i buy the metal stock. this might be a road i might go down.

SLK55R

I wouldn't recommend the friend approach ...

Spend a little money ... if you don't want to spend Brabus, Carlsson, MKB money then look at Kleemann or Renntech, if that is still to expensive then look at some of the new alternatives that are out now.

Please make sure to make the right comparisons ... a renntech shorty header compared to a supersprint longtube header is like apples to oranges.

Btw you get what you pay for ... sometimes its not just about the product.

racetested

As I said when a company is in a specific market I would hope and assume they know what sells and maybe Renntech didn't see the numbers they wanted in both volume and price from the C Class customers.

I speak from experience developing some products and having a friend who is an engineer and does a lot of work in the auto industry and helps me design as well. "Build it an they will come" comes with a lot of gray area sometimes.

Renntech "appears" to be doing pretty well so I'm just saying they must know what works for them.

racetested

One last thing before I shut up on this subject.

Most people don't realize the cost in equipment to make parts and this has to tally in. I gained understanding and respect working with quality machine shops and seeing how much they have invested in tools alone not to mention experience.

A person may look at a small part and be like "$100 for this piece of metal" and not think about the $100K+ the machine shop has invested in one lathe, mill, and CNC machine that has to be paid for someway.

I don't know Renntech much beyond their name but maybe they have a $50k engine dyno to develop those headers or maybe they just are way overpriced.

I'm just saying there is much more than just the material cost and small labor of a part to consider.

Now people want to cut corners and find a part cheap and think they deserve to. That's fine but what if those "overpriced" companies stopped doing proper R&D and the knock off companies have no reputable part to copy anymore. Now were back to square one *****ing we have no quality parts to buy.

moosejaw

I can tell you a visit to their shop would reveal they are no different than any other warehouse with a dyno,a SLR, and expensive engines in it. The overhead is absolutely minimal. They use a dynojet and the facilities I would say are sub par at best. A real disapointement. Renntch will tell you they invest hundreds of thousands of hours in R&D on theiur products, but from what I can see it's no more than Ikea spends on a table. Granted the owner was a head AMG tuner and you are paying for that. Their products don't fail and they sound like they stand behind their product.

From the visit I did they have moved on though, doing Bentleys and the higher end cars now being their main focus.