BT Stiffening Plate Review

A sale is considered fair and equitable at the time of purchase, otherwise one would be a fool to do the purchase?
If the prices drops tommorrow, the original deal remains a good deal.

The seller always reserves the right to change his price at any time....
It is never the "right" of the buyer to get a better price later one they have already bought before the price drops.
It is a choice of the seller, usually done for his benifit either to promote good will or stimulate interest and sales.
The seller does this for his own benifit not ours.

What is unfair, is to expect the seller to give us a refund once we buy a product just because he chose to lower the price later.

Houses, cars, computers,... all products change prices and we should never buy if its not a good deal.

Its not honest and fair to ask for a refund of the difference once we agreed and bought and a given price beforehand.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(BT Tech @ Mar 28 2006, 03:28 PM) [snapback]231554[/snapback]</div>

In my opinion the MPG issue is wrong. hear me out. Since i have the plate, i can achieve a much higher mpg than before. the drive is more enjoyable. It's easier to feather the gas pedel... so.. ok.. not a direct mpg improvement, but definetly an in-direct by giving you an awesome ride.

i can now pull in the 70mpg range while going to work. it's only 5 miles away.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(windstrings @ Mar 29 2006, 10:14 PM) [snapback]232211[/snapback]</div>

Ahhh...Mr Windstrings...how did I know that you could not resist?

To address your response.

No one has asked for a refund, just questioned the timing of the sale.

Yes, a seller does reserve the right to change prices, but as you see in the retail industry, most companies will honor a sale price within a certain timeframe backwards. So if you have purchased something from most stores, and it goes on sale the next week...most will give you a refund. If this was not "honest and fair", those companies would refuse to do so. They understand the value of repeat business and word of mouth, so they go that extra mile. Once again, I never asked for a refund...just pointed out that having a sale immediately after shipping all backorders was poor timing.

Comparing this is a house or car...that is a strech, as those are huge purchases that involve complicated legalities. A computer...yes that is more like it. Go to Best Buy and purchase a computer...see it advertised a few days later for less...bring in your receipt...and then give you a credit.

Finally, BT TECH, is part of the Priuschat community. Our Priuschat sponsors/retailers, should at least be held to the same standards as the faceless retailers that offer the policies I stated above.

Had Brian offered this sale a month later, I would never have commented. However, offering it immediately after shipping the backorders (literally within days)...rather then also offering it to those who waited...was just poor timing. Really, how many backorders are we talking about...and how much difference would that have been?

I have not and will not ask for a refund. I was just trying to let him know that I just did not feel good to see that happen and hoped my comments would help him/others with future sale timing.

Windstrings, I do value your opinions and do not mean this response as a knock on you in anyway. I enjoy reading your posts!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(mssmith95 @ Mar 30 2006, 12:16 AM) [snapback]232228[/snapback]</div>

Your right, it doesn't "feel" good to know your timing could have been better, but we do the best we can with what we know.

I won't feel good when they come out with a better prius either... but I bought mine weighing the odds at the time and decided it was worth a purchase now.

You used the term 'standards" as holding them to it...... I don't see it as standards. Other vendors never do anything for our benifit.... its alwayss for thiers. They are out to make money... as much as they can.

When they lower the price or give us a break in any fashion its always to promote more money for them in the end.

We who buy products, do it because we feel its the best buy at the time in our area.
If that changes tomorrow, we were not tricked.... we just missed a better deal.

The seller has the right to sell anything he can for what ever price he can get.
If he sells it to one man for 10 bucks... He as the seller has every right in the world to sell it to the next for 8 bucks and maybe to the next for 15.
If they all buy, its because they felt it was a bargain or they would not have purchased.

Boy, wouldn't it drive the stock market crazy if we could take back our purchase tomorrow and get the difference?

Lets not confuse these general goods with water and food and essentials to live.

Morals get involved when feeding the hungry and poor, but otherwise its pure business.
No one is out there to do us a favor or give us a break... they are all about giving themselves a break...

They offer a "service" not a ministry.

I just wanted to make a point that they don't owe us anything at all.. they are not our parents.

I appreciate your consideration and kind comments at the end.. I know I can get very cruel and to the point without much regard for feelings. I often feel no one is listening as I don't speak to gain popularity at all, but simply my mind.. as twisted as it may be......

I appreciate honest discussion of any type when all parties respect each others opinion... and everybody has the right to be wrong!

 

After sleeping on it, I wanted to add that when we buy initially from someone, we have already developed a certain level of trust.
Few of us "enjoy" forking over the money but do it out of necessity realizing its part of the deal.

However, when we are talking about a product that society has trusted certain vendors long enough that they have done all thier business with them so that there are no or very few competitors and we are talking about a product that we all have grown 'dependent' upon to maintain our normal lifestyle... then I see some responsibility on the part of the vendor.

I'm talking about food, "GAS", water, electricity, tires, etc... all of which, our world could not function without unless we diverted to camping in the woods.

The gas companies should have a cap on how much profit they can make, and what is considered a reasonable profit to be made within a certain time frame should be determined by congress or such power.

Everyone needs to make a profit, but when they know you have to have thier product, and they all go in cahoots with each other to raise the price and make 30% profit in one quarter,... now we are talking about rape and pillage!

Without moderation control, we as citizens could easily become enslaved to the whims of coorporate prices..... working every extra moment away from our families just to pay for gas to get to work.... (OH, forgot, we already do! :lol: )

BUT the BT plate, we only need one per car, we could make our own and it doesn't make or break us...so Brian should be able to sell for what he wants realizing that the higher the price goes, the less he will sell and the less the fame and good news of his product will spread like wildfire, and the lower the price goes, the more people will try it and in turn spread the good news of his product to other prius owners.

But Brian has a balance of supply and demand too... he already sells all he makes almost before he makes them, so by good reason, he needs to raise his price, or be able to make more. The later would spread his company faster since there is not a limited numbers of buyers but rather almost infinite compared to how many he can make.

He could even contract with toyota.... but we know his days are numbered as sooner or later, toyota will figure this out and stop the party as they will make thier own... but until them, he may as well make hay while its day! And when that day comes.. I'm sure they still won't be near as cool as Brians! but will functionally work the same.. being hidden under the car, toyota won't put the TLC in that brain has..... this part could be part of a show car it looks so nice!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(windstrings @ Mar 31 2006, 09:54 AM) [snapback]233010[/snapback]</div>

Try as I might, I can't let this go... even here where it is wildly off-topic!

The gas companies should be able to charge whatever the market will bear, just like Brian and his plate. Because just like Brian's plate, oil is NOT something we (should) need for 99% of our transportation. Price caps are what have and will keep us enslaved to the oil industry! It is because gas is so cheap that we are using it, and are stuck with it. The oil industry is not holding us hostage with gas prices - we've done it to ourselves by not developing alternatives, and by not making prudent transportation choices. We *do* have transportation choices - we're just ignoring them since gas is so easy and cheap. This is NOT food and water to sustain life - it is energy for transportation. Gas is not the only answer - yet it is basically all we use while we sit here wondering when somebody will come and save us from our own stupidity. And in the meantime, using it does screw up our food and water... go figure.



Whoo! better get off my box!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(darelldd @ Mar 31 2006, 11:08 AM) [snapback]233018[/snapback]</div>

I theory your right.. they are just another businessman.. but in reality, for the good of the whole, because we spend years trusting them and allowing them to be a staple of our functional society... they now have the power to shut down the economy and make it where you cannot feed your family etc.. just because of greed...

they deserve an honest living, but in reality, they could charge 10.00 a gallon for gas and you and I would still "have" to pay it... are you going to Walk to work?.. how about to go get your groceries.. roll them home in a grocery cart?.. how far do you live?.. what about when you need a part or supplies?

My point is electricity, water, etc we have all "allowed " our culture to be formed around thier avaliablity at a reasonable price.... unless its truly not available, they should not be able to charge you as if its not when it really is.


"what the market will bear".... this is not a choice.. its a necessity.. true we can not go on vacations and take pleasure trips, but we need it to live... what would be societies option without it?

 

Yeah, Darrell, that's some box. Frankly, I'd love to do at home
what you do, but at least two really nice oak trees in my backyard
would have to go. And I can't speak for people who *don't* own
their own real estate.
.
But that aside, how about the idiotic way PV panels are still
being priced these days? One big clue is who actually controls
their manufacture and research. But this is WAY OT, I'll stop.
.
I like the stiffening plate. I've had mine on for a month or so now.
.
_H*

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hobbit @ Mar 31 2006, 07:42 PM) [snapback]233220[/snapback]</div>

That alone would revolutionize energy as we know it, if they would make them cheap so everyone could access them without taking 10 years to pay them back from the energy they make....
Most people don't even stay in the same house over a few years.. so it takes the incentive away to use them.
Wind is cool too and looks cool.. but moving parts are always high maintenance.....

OH, but about the plate... if someone said they would give me 500 bucks for mine but I could never go buy another ever again... I would say no way hosea...

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(windstrings @ Mar 31 2006, 06:12 PM) [snapback]233207[/snapback]</div>

You say it is just because of greed. I say it is just because we as a society are too stupid to do anything different than use gas - as long as gas is cheap. Look ahead? What's that? We're FAR better at being reactionary and expecting somebody else (the government?) to bail us out.

I'm going to ride my bike and drive my electric vehicle just as I've been doing for many years. More than half of our food is grown within walking distance of my home. Yes, expensive gas will effect me in the price of goods that I purchase, and vacation plans, etc. But it is a price I'm more than willing to pay to finally get everybody else thinking about alternatives.

It is all in the perspective I guess. You say that the energy and resources have allowed US to do things, and I say that we have allowed the cheap energy and resulting resources to blind us to future needs. We've brought it on ourselves. And now we have to deal with it.

Renewables.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hobbit @ Mar 31 2006, 06:42 PM) [snapback]233220[/snapback]</div>

Yeah... sorry about the apple box thing. I just can't help myself. My point isn't that everybody needs to make their own power like I do - it is that some people CAN do it. We could be building new homes with solar and wind power in mind, and built-in for a minimal upcharge. The public utilities can do more with renewables. But we don't do these things... because we don't have to. Because our current fossil fuels are so cheap.... because the costs of using those fuels are hidden and not "paid at the pump." Because nobody really cares - until gas gets expensive. Then suddenly we sure care! But then it is too late, isn't it?

Well, I'm actually in the PV business these days, and that the oil companies own many of these processes isn't the biggest obstacle for low prices. The biggest problem is that demand is currently outstripping supply. Europe is a huge market, Asian is going gang-busters, and the US is finally trying to gain footing in the PV area as well. There just are not enough raw materials to go around right now. Why? Well... because we didn't plan for it... because we didn't have to... blah, blah, blah. Instead of capping the price of gas, let's subsidize PV for the masses.

Yeah. I'll promise to at least TRY to stop. I blame Windstrings for starting me on this jag.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(windstrings @ Mar 31 2006, 08:02 PM) [snapback]233266[/snapback]</div>

You can have mine for just $495. I've sorta been wanting to make my own anyway.

 

Hey Brian @ BT Tech: Does this plate attach to the suspension, or does it connect body-to-body? How many plates would I need, two? Sorry about the ignorance, but I'm new to the Prius (hell, I'm still trying to solve the uncomfortable seat problems). Many thanks ...

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(darelldd @ Mar 31 2006, 09:52 PM) [snapback]233291[/snapback]</div>

OK, you got me there.... I'm not taking into account all the cool stuff you have already done.....
I plan on working my way back off the grid myself "as I used to be".... I miss that feeling of independence and its a cool hobby none the less.

I've even thought of going into business setting other people up.

Almost everthing we use started that way.. the telephone, cable, internet etc..... until the public finally gets eductated enough to do it thierself.

 

Please take your waaaaaay off-topic debate to private messages, or posts in FHOP.

You two have just about ruined this thread. Folks who actually want to know about the stiffening plate will hit this page and quit reading.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(jbarnhart @ Apr 1 2006, 01:10 PM) [snapback]233470[/snapback]</div>

You are correct, of course. The good news is that a new "stiffening plate review" thread starts about every other day, so there must be at least 32 similar threads that we haven't sullied.

I do appologize for messing with this one, and of course this will be the end of it.

 

Since I started us off of the thread...I'm sorry too!

But Bottom-line, the plate if a fun add-on, easy to install, and it does what it is supposed to do.

Brian - how about some more braces for other places?

 

Quick noob question...

How do i measure 24lbs of torque for the install?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Kev1000000 @ Apr 2 2006, 07:20 PM) [snapback]233900[/snapback]</div>

I got my dealer to check my torque for free with my first oil change.
Now if it falls off its there fault.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Kev1000000 @ Apr 2 2006, 04:20 PM) [snapback]233900[/snapback]</div>

Well you can guess and just give it a good tight turn and hope for the best...

Of you could go to a shop and get them to pop it up on a rack and check it for you.... Might as well have them install it if you do that?

Or you can buy a cheap wrench for about 15 - 20 bucks... "check bimart, sears, wally world, or home depot, or almost anywhere.. you don't need a nice one.....then you will have a wrench!