Hello folks. I've been asked to stop by and join in on this discussion. I have scanned the messages and will go back and read more later. The most important information I would think is where things stand now and where it is going. I believe I have it on a positive track now and will explain.
I must first apologize for the more than reasonable delay in this production. As some of you know, I have done two previous production runs of the 354 gear sets. The first run of 200 sets became available in 2001 or 2002 and were sold out upon delivery from the factory. The second run of 200 sets followed three to four years later and around half had been sold prior to delivery, the remaining were sold within about a year. With 400 sets out there, and the vast majority installed and in use, they have a proven track record. The gears are manufactured by US Gear, a major manufacturer and seller to the Detroit auto industry. It was important to me from the beginning to have quality gears made. My cost is more than three times what it would cost to have the gears made in China. One might be tempted to go with price, but I prefer quality and I believe that has been no small part of making them a positive experience for people.
This third run, which I'm told has been dragging on for four years (I lose track of time) has been more difficult for me. Much of the reason is my fault I'm sure, but much of it has also been financial. The gears cost considerably more today than that first run in 2001. The cost issue was made greater by my desire to have 300 sets manufactured this time around. I wanted to make enough sets so that another run would not be necessary in the near future, and maybe not at all.
As many of you know, I employed a policy of collecting checks, but not cashing until actual payment to the factory was needed. I did this because of the delays and not wanting to hold other peoples' money for long periods of time. My feeling was that holding money in addition to the delays would cause some trust concerns, and I didn't want that. Of course, that was a bigger concern the first time around when people did not know me, unlike today when I have some name recognition. It seems banks were more flexible back then and I didn't have a problem with checks that were dated much earlier. That policy worked well then, but has created problems for me this time around. Each time I approached the target number, I had to have checks reissued. Additionally, due to my extensive delays in making this happen, I lost orders, including some quantity purchases. I do not have the personal resources to fund the gears even in part, unlike with the earlier runs. Lastly, my steering wheel work has consumed most of my time and I'm always behind in that work as well. I had periods of months where I did not give the gear project any attention at all. I've had to hire help with the steering wheels, which comes and goes, and I recognize that I am unable to do all of this. As a result, and with my understanding that I have exhausted peoples patience, I have given the project to my son, Daniel, who will be taking it forward with appropriate urgency.
Dan is in better shape than I am to help fund the project, although he too will need to collect funds from orders. I have been passing to him my records and contacts so that he can make contact and inform. I will be available to him as counsel, but he will be managing the project and I will relay any future inquiries to him. Anyone that has paid me already for gear sets, typically, but not exclusively, people in other countries, will have their sets represented by me. I have become a customer of the project for those sets. Dan will sell me a quantity to satisfy those orders. I will be honoring my price commitments to those customers regardless of my cost. Those that have uncashed checks with me will likely need to reissue them and the price may increase by ten to twenty percent due to my delays; this will be subject to Daniel's pricing. However, I expect he will take basically the same approach that I have in the past; to make a fair profit, but not gouge our fellow Healey enthusiasts as has been done by other providers of gears. This has been an affordable, high quality improvement to our cars and we would like to keep it that way.
You can expect to see advertising appear in the major club magazines, as well as some of the small local publications that have offered to place notices for us. Either Dan or I will update this community with information. For now, please ask any questions and I will do my best to answer, but then soon must start deferring all communication to Dan.
Regards,
Mike Lempert
Hey there Guest!
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