Why are the Invidia catback exhausts so much cheaper than others?
 

Hey everyone!

I've got a question that has been bugging me for the past week. I'm purchasing an aftermarket catback exhaust for my BR-Z after the holidays are over, and I've been completely overwhelmed by the number of choices that are available. On my previous WRX, I had one of the Nameless performance systems, and I'll likely purchase a similar system from them for my BR-Z.

One of the names that always comes up, however, is Invidia. People seem to really like their exhaust systems, and the generally seem well designed. Why is it, then, that their exhaust systems are so much less expensive than the offerings from other companies? Is it different quality material? Are they that much larger of a company? Is it made in a smog-filled Chinese factory?

I'm curious to see what everybody thinks, as I don't know enough about the company to postulate any reasonable answer.

Thanks guys!

I think other systems available to us are over priced at the moment. I think INVIDIA is CORRECTLY priced. I have own several exhausts both prebuilt and custom on several different Cars. And acutally built one myself. INVIDIA is a quality exhaust.

I have the Q300 and it has everything i was looking for, The quietest, The most affordable, Awesome fitiment, And i did feel a power increase. Also one thing about INVIDIA They polish the entire exhaust system, THE WHOLE thing most systems are only polished on the tips and maybeeee the muffler(s). THats the Truth.


oh ya ft86speedfactory.com tell him 1strwdcar sent you.

made in china. Personally I'd rather pay a premium for parts that I know are made in the US.

Curiously, does making it in the US make it any faster/better?

+10 HP :lol:

No it doesn't but given the choice between offshore and domestic most Americans and Canadians will *try* to support their neighbours.
Walmart proves that you can't do that a lot of times.

Also there is always the perception that quality and accountability wont be there from China.

THere are several options in the under $700 US range and some are probably domestic. Magnaflow is one that comes to mind I think. But to some people those brands aren't exotic enough I guess.

Oz must have some suppliers too. Sadly Canada doesn't have much on the mass market level since it's hard to compete with 300 million people just below us.

I'm interested in this as well. I'm seeing exhausts ranging from $500 to $1500 and I would like to know which ones are "Made in China" and what the statistical significance is behind them.

You guys would be surprised of how much aftermarket gear is made in china/japan. And works just fine. My buddy had a invidia n1 on a s2000 for 3 years. Zero issues

Because robot welded in China.

china factories are all about mass production

pretty sure not all exhaust parts go through intensive quality check.

manufactured ---> packed ---> shipped ---> sold ---> installed

My Invidia didn't have the fitment problems my "Made in America" Accelerated Performance catback did. Just because it may be "made in china" doesn't mean it's super awesome. You'd be surprised how many things are MiC these days.

Cheaper mfg process, which isnt necessarily a bad thing. I'm not familiar if the entire system is Stainless. Cant speak to it being, or not being- but i know some of the premium exhaust are hand made with stainless hangers etc which should help longevity.

I feel like this thread is going to spawn into a "What exhaust do you have?" thread eventually, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, as I'm trying to make up my mind on the 6.23 x 10^23 options that are available at the moment

Actually yes.

Most US made designed and built exhausts/parts do perform better. Especially all the high end designers.

Also sorry I take pride in supporting locally owned production. To me that makes it better, knowing who's hands crafted it and that my money gave an american a job.

A mole?

The invidia catback I had on my GT-R was brilliant. Sounded great, no drone, really good worksmanship. I have no idea where it came from and it wasn't important to me.

Lol yes, I was hoping somebody would catch that

Naw man, that's 6.022 * 10^23.

Dang, I was close. Was pulling that from memory. Tried not to use the interwebs. Oh well :D

Its a foreign car, so the exhaust is supposed to be foreign!

As far as drone, cabin noise, and raspyness are concerned, that has a lot to do with which style of exhaust you get, i.e. is it resonated, whats the muffler size/structure. Straight through/catless exhausts tend to be raspier and drone more. When picking out an exhaust, first look at quality, then decide what level and type of noise you want.

On my STI I had HKS and Invidia, both were great quality, both had very different styling and sound, at the end of the day its personal preference! Just my .02 :thumbup:

Ok maybe a pimple?

On topic: As long as you do your homework and buy from a reputable company, it doesn't matter much it is made in China. There are really bad quality things coming from China but there are also very good high quality products coming from there. To answer your question asking why? it is because it is massed produced in the capital of the cheap world market.


Slightly off topic:



Everyone that says "you'd be surprised at the amount of things that are made in China", I am not surprised at all. I already know virtually everything is made in China this days. The bad thing is not whether its made in China or not. The main problem is that there are a LOT of low quality products coming off China. To give an example. Anyone can argue Macs are made in China and are amazing quality and I agree. The caveat is, they are made in China under strict regulations and processes from Apple, an American company. On the flip side, you get hundreds of iPad imitations made in China, and they are POS, because they are not held to any type of quality standard.

Although I wouldn't have gone to the most expensive exhaust system just because it was made in USA, I was willing to pay a bit more to get a system handcrafted here in the states, supporting jobs here at home and doing my homework to make sure it was a top of the line quality system and this is exactly what I got, an exhaust that screams quality, sounds amazing and from which I feel I got every penny worth.

This is my personal opinion and I don't judge whomever goes out and buys whatever comes from China and doesn't care one bit of quality, just looks for the lowest price possible.

well said.....for me its basically what gives me power is where ill go but of course i will be counting my HP/$....as far as i believe exhaust doesnt really give much output in terms of power, for me ill probably go the lightest ones >> Buddyclub Spec ii (probably made in taiwan)

As for the Invidia, i had a single exit one on my EVO X, all good nothing to complain and the quality was excellent.

On another note, i believe Ultimate Racing is from Canada? Had the Dump pipe + front pipe + high flow cat. Awesome quality and price, hoping for them to complete their R&D on the 86. Shows you dont have to charge triple the price just because you are made local.

Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but out side of America, 'made in US' is usually a keep clear sign ;p
Esp with cars.. pretty much any US car sold in Aust has flopped apart from the Jeep Wrangler, and even then it's usually people who are prepared to pay the money to constantly fix it.
here are a few cars that flopped.. and broke
Taurus, PT Cruiser, Chrysler anything for that matter apart from the 300c

actually, put everything apart from the 300c :p

But yes, i would buy China over US most times, as long as the China stuff has been built properly.


but back on topic. it seems most after market companies are trying to wring every last dollar out of us.
I have been investigating getting some parts made over here, and what i have been quoted so far, for low volume, hand made products compared to the slightly more mass produced products is amazing. the markup is huge on some of this stuff in comparison.

*also, i bought my exhaust from the US, but was made in Japan..
so i am kinda supporting your industry. and none of mine :(

Thanks for the pointer. Looks like they are just a few miles from my office. I will be checking them out. Funny how I get the tip from an Aussie on a local Canadian shop!

That's why you don't buy Accelerated Performance stuff lol:bonk:

they are made in taiwan. and imported by jetworld/jetstar auto sports.

they are priced competitively. this does not mean they have cheaper parts. invidia stuff is very nice, i have been using them for a while and wouldn't buy anything else. they always fit perfect, look awesome, and sound great. it's a US company, but production is overseas for cost benefit. US born and grown products are going to cost more, because it costs them 10x more to make the stuff. look at killerbmotorsport, he makes his own products for the subaru wrx/sti, and barely makes a profit on each item sold. it took 2 years for him to finally break even after making his great header for the car, said my himself.

it's great to support the US with their products, sometimes they aren't the best. most of the time, some companies go the cheap route on parts in order to keep cost down while still building the part in the US. this is where you run into issues. i'd rather buy the quality stuff they build overseas, so it doesn't fall apart on me.

Cost of labour in china $200/mth versus cost of labour in North America $2500/mth. That's why. Cost of raw materials and components in China are less than the Cost of raw materials in North America due to buying power and volume discounts that come with economies of scale.

I think you are confused with Agency Power...

He is correct. Invidia is made in Taiwan.

Invidia use to make the exhausts for RS-R and then they had a falling out. Upon that falling out, Invidia went out and using what R&D RS-R had provided them, they started manufacturing their own line of exhausts. I'm not going to get into the America VS China/Taiwan battle, but a lot of people want to keep their car "really Japanese" and insist on only buying GReddy or HKS.

You guys trust GReddy and HKS Exhausts, don't you? They are top notch quality. Well Invidia matches it. Lots of people think that "made in Japan" stamp on those exhausts mean they were 100% made in Japan. In reality, the majority of the exhaust are made in Taiwan, shipped to Japan and then packaged up there. If they do that, legally, they can stamp made in Japan on it.

Even a lot of our premier tuning companies, Apex'i, Tomei or Toda do the same. Most of these exhausts are made in Taiwan.

The reason the Invidia's are cheaper, is that they priced them competitively. You can pay a lot more for an HKS or GReddy, but the quality is the same. They are all made in Taiwan. That's why I went Invidia. In the end, I was paying for what we perceived as "Japanese quality" (since even the top end companies were manufacturing theirs in Taiwan) but not breaking the bank because Invidia doesn't pretend their exhausts are made in Japan and hike up the price.
If you guys don't believe me, just do a quick google search. People have visited Taiwan and seen HKS and GReddy exhausts being pumped out of there.

I just wanted to clear some misconceptions about the quality of Taiwan made exhausts.

dude, the HKS exhaust for the sti was crap. it sounded horrible, it rusted fast, and the carbon fiber was hardly carbon at all and faded. like you said, do we really trust their names because of that...the name?

This is a great posting, and answered basically all of my questions.

I'm still looking for a catback for my BR-Z, and have yet to decide on which company / product combination, but it does help me understand why the Invidia stuff is priced so well, in comparison to a majority of other products.

I do agree that while I would rather support national businesses, just because a product is coming from the US *doesn't* guarantee it is going to be quality. I also don't care if it is coming from some ancient Incan tribe, so long as the parts are quality. Still doesn't make picking an exhaust any easier :/

Yes. That's what I mean.

Bottom line, you can't judge "quality" of an exhaust based on NAME & WHERE ITS MADE.
Sometimes a brand could have previously made all their stuff in Japan, and their later stuff is outsourced to Taiwan.
Sometimes an exhaust in made in Taiwan, you think its made in Japan and the quality is top notch.
Sometimes a brand makes their stuff in America, but the quality isn't as good as their other exhausts.

Don't judge an exhaust based on where it's made or what brand is stamped on it. Treat each system individually, and compare it just as it is. Quality of exhausts vary across companies, and vary within companies. If you have your eye on one, do your research on that one specific one.

In the end, if I want a handmade, quality, reputable company from America, then I pay the price for that. If I'm going to be buying a Taiwanese made exhaust, I want to pay THAT price. And that's why I went Invidia. I didn't wanna pay HKS/GReddy prices for a Taiwanese exhaust. To me, I can't pay double for something that's made in America. I can't pay triple for something that's ACTUALLY made in Japan. I pay for QUALITY and I feel that an American made exhaust is not DOUBLE the quality of an Invidia, and a Japan made is not TRIPLE.

If you are paying extra to support local companies or homeland companies. I'm 100% for that. But I won't blurt out that they are higher quality and trick myself into thinking I am paying twice as much for that quality by trashing a Taiwanese made exhaust. I'd simply be paying twice as much to support my local companies and if that put's a smile on my face, then it's 100% worth it.

there are tons to choose from, it's hard. i have been eyeing them all up constantly.
i like perrin's. i like invidia's...i honestly want to do a full invidia setup. i won't pay a buttload for an exhaust, it's just piping. as long as it has the sound i want, the look i want, and the quality i expect, i'll buy it.

Lachute performance out of Quebec.

There are good companies and bad companies everywhere. It all depends on the companies quality standards. While yes I would love to buy everything made in america, if another company outside of america makes a better product then I will buy that.

For instance I bought a Perrin exhaust, which is Made in America vs. a the Greddy SP Elite I was originally considering. I paid more because the Perrin I believe is higher quality and built in the USA. However when it comes to the car itself...I bought a BRZ...which is made is Japan vs. say a Ford Focus ST, because the quality is better and it was more of what I wanted. It all depends on the company...honestly, not where its made. While I would love to purchase everything from an American Manufacturer... I'm not gonna pay for a shit product just because its made in the USA. I'm also not gonna pay less for a shit product because its made in china.

And this is why you bought an American made ca.....oh, wait, never mind. (:

Cars and goods are two different things.

Invidia makes a quality exhaust. We put both the N1 and Q300 on our cars, tested them, did photos and videos because they are so popular and priced well. STI/WRX are popular platforms that they have been on as well as countless others. For an exhaust they are great.

Just look at all the data out there and decided which sound you like, and your budget and go from there. :)

I think American cars are awesome...

Camaro, made in Oshawa Ontario Canada
Dodge Challenger, Chrysler 300C made in Brampton Ontario Canada
Ford Flex, Ford Edge, Lincoln MKX, made in Oakville ONtario Canada

Canada produces more cars per capita than good 'ole USA.

We also produce Honda cars and SUVs, Toyota cars and SUVs, Suzuki cars and SUVs.

Buick originated on Canada.

One reason I always favoured Honda and Toyota is that they have contunued to invest in our country for many years.

Mazda? Pfffft. Nissan? likewise.