FM Westfield Price Reductions

[scannon]

Flyin' Miata has lowered their prices for the Miata based Westfield SEi,

 

FM Price Configurator

 

No affiliation, etc. just a very satisfied customer of a company that provides the best customer and technical support on the planet.

[Hyper]

If my job were a little more secure right now I'd be all over this, but the price seemed too good to be true at first glance. The price dropped a lot since the last time I looked. The original base price was $17,590, now its $12,990. However, once you add in the Trans-Atlantic shipping $3,875 (which is new) its only a $725 discount. Several of the options are also cheaper. Nylon Bushings went from $200 to $162.

 

It's still an amazing deal and I don't mean to threadcrap, just wanted to get over the "what's the catch?" initial reaction.

[David C]

Was highly anticipating the price drop as the dollar pound exchange rate has swung in our favor to the tune of about a 33% drop from it's high. It is even below when the kit was first introduced at around the $14K mark. So was kind of let down by the price drop. The kit price of $17,590 plus the quick steering ration (that was an option that is now included) was around $17,710 (guessing at $120 for quick steering) so a drop to $16,865, including the quick steering) is only about a 5% drop. At current exchange rates, the Westfield price for a single donor Miata kit (about 6,745 pounds) is about $9,200 US including VAT (for left RHD model). The LHD is probably a bit more and there might be a few bits different from their kit to the FM kit version but that probably isn't too far from the mark. Just the cost of the kit alone in dollars due to the exchange rate swing (not adjusting the transatlantic shipping) should have dropped over $4,000 so a $800ish price drop didn't leave me giddy. As someone else pointed out it is like the cost of gas - the price decrease never seems to equal the price increase when oil drops back to the same level.

 

For me, especially since I'd probably have to pay the equivalent of sales tax in Washington state, with a few options and shipping to my door it just doesn't quite pencil out (especially in light of my investment accounts, IRAs, & 401(K) I should be able to retire when I die). I've got the Miata donor parts in my garage and am scratching my head a bit about what to do.

 

I had shifted gears to learning to weld and have been researching the locost route but knowing me and with a 5 YO wanting me to play, a completed (well running) car would be years down the road.

 

Flyin' Miata is a great company & provide lots of cool parts & are very responsive & walk the talk and the Westfield kit is probably one of the better kits available short of a Caterham (which is not in my budget) so it is still tempting. But no matter what I do, I'd still like to roll my own someday so I'll continue in that vein for a while.

 

[ScotO]

I just recently made the leap toward Seven ownership. I placed an order for a Westfield through Flyin' Miata a couple weeks ago. The price drop made it easy to upgrade to the light flywheel with their clutch happy meal! Sure I'd like to have seen the price drop more. I understand it isn't Flyin' Miata keeping the price up, as Bill at FM said they make very little off the kit itself.

[David C]

Congrats on your order. Nice also that there's no sales tax in Oregon . I was lucky with the truck I bought in Oregon and I lived there just long enough to not pay "sales" tax when I moved to Washington.

I agree that the Westfield kit probably is not a big money maker for them. Got your donor parts lined up?

 

I get down to Oregon sometimes, if you don't mind, shoot me a message with your contact info - I'd like to see how your build goes.

 

Dave

[ScotO]

Thanks David. Living in Oregon it just seems wrong to pay sales tax (or registration tax) on something like a car.

 

I'm going with a pallet donor to make things easy. I'll send you a message with my info. I'm planning to post pictures of the build to the FM Westfield Forum site.

[David C]

1.8?

 

And more importantly - what color? With the help of my 5 YO son I was able to do some pretty ugly combos on their configurator. :ack:

 

The "sales" tax (they call it something else) would have added yet an additional $1,500 or so to the cost.

[ScotO]

1.8, Torsen, 5-speed, FW bonnet and Red. I also came up with some pretty wild combos, some of which were very tempting. In the end I couldn't take a chance and went with something I knew I'd like. I may paint the cycle fenders black or make some carbon ones for fun.

 

I forgot the "sales" tax was so high. I lived in Washington for 10 years but only had to register a motorcycle there, which was nothing by comparison.