Exactly... I too can see their pricing structure made sense back in the day... But now??? WTF???

Mr. SuperPicky, meet Mr. SoapBox <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" />

Profit
Low profits in the 80's and early 90's. Larger profits now.
Hopefully they will reinvest most of the profits into R&D for groundbreaking future powerplants and vehicles that can be produced here in the US. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" />

Everything's too damn expensive these days.. and I'm not knockin' Ford, Dodge or Chevy; but the quality of a Toy, Honda, or even Nissan (I've owned 3 4x4's) is the justification for their price tag. Last truck I owned was a 3.0L Ranger 4x4. That darn thing cost me roughly $1200 per year near the end (owned it for 6 years, from 47K to ~140K miles). And it needed even MORE at the time of the sale. I wasn't touchin that .. the new owner was well aware of it's needs and took it off my hands for the asking price. So when all of the little things on my Ford started goin' on me, I thought, "Should've bought an import". So I dump in say $4K along the way just to keep 'er on the road.. and I'm not hard on my trucks, light off road (I mean Light). So that $4K maybe would've cost me say $2K if I had one of my trusty Nissans or a Toy.. and saved me the grief of becoming best friends with the Service Station or my back yard with my Ford. Reliability is just not something I think of when I look back on my years of owning that truck (and a jeep a while back .. ECU problems ..whew!). I wouldn't go spend $48K on a 4Runner either .. I guess we'll just have to wait until the yuppies buy them, break 'em in for us then I'll get one... <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/baby.gif" alt="" />

They never break them. They just get tired of them and want the newest, lastest, whatevertheirneighborhasbutbetter thing.

Yep... All about competing with the Jones'. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" />

"TRD has implemented a new part number change for all 2003-2004 V8 Superchargers effective December 15, 2003. There is now one main supercharger assembly part number and a set of unique Vehicle Installation Kit part numbers that represent each individual 2003 and 2004 application as detailed in the chart below. Each Vehicle Installation Kit includes application-specific TRD supplemental ECU and hardware. The cost for this 'Vehicle Installation Kit' is $795. From the looks of it, all '03-on will require an ECU upgrade. Site...

Both of my Toys were purchased after the Yuppie break in period. I have grown to appreciate Yuppies. They drive a vehicle for 2-4 years and I save over $10k. I think it works well for those of us who actually buy a vehicle to use off-road. I bought my 4Runner for $16K in 2001. It only had 38K miles! Not even broken in yet, and a factory e-locker to boot! I asked the previous owner if he liked having a locker to climb the snow drifts; he looked at me and asked why his high school daughter would need her (school)locker to climb a snow drift! My 4Runner was his daughters' "school car". Man, I wish we all could have been that lucky. It all worked out in the end. I got the deal of the century and his daughter got a brand new Lexus RX 300. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />