[NOS2Go4Me]

(06-09-2011, 12:41 AM)Oscar The Grouch Wrote: I agree. But I can understand that MBRP's main bread and butter is Diesel and ATV/Snowmobile. Plus to me it sounds like they are going after people who have big bucks to spend with performance cars.

If we had RS's available in Canada or an OEM turbocharged application like the ST's, maybe MBRP would have stayed in the game.

Myself personally, I love my MBRP and still get kudos on it all the time. Too bad I'll be going FSW for my next one if I go Focus again.

No, the reason that MBRP didn't stay in the game is because they simply weren't getting the margins from the Focus guys that they were squeezing out of the muscle car and diesel guys. It took nothing to keep the programming to cut and make the Focus exhausts - and there's no reason they couldn't build them special order. They just didn't care about their thousands of loyal, sometimes multi-system customers and they drove them away. I should know, I had 3 systems on 2 cars - 2 on my 07 ZX5 and one on my 01 sedan.

Case in point: last year I told Martin about the multi-million Ford Escape / Mercury Mariner / Mazda Tribute market and how there was only a wimpy-sounding Magnaflow there as an option, really. He told me he wasn't interested in designing an "Escape" exhaust, even after I mentioned I was able to access the largest N.A. Escape/Tribute forum and that there was definitely a need for a "real" catback. I'd wager the real reason was because they'd have to price their catback at or below Magnaflow's pricing, which seemed generous to me, and that didn't appeal for some reason. I even offered up the 08 Escape as a prototpe that would satisfy 11 model years' worth of trucks.

Also, he seems to get distracted by shiny toys a lot (like his Porsche 911 Turbo. Porsche exhausts from MBRP - really?!?!), but even keeping the Focus exhaust as a special-order item wasn't appealing to him.

Also, I was the guy that had his 07 ZX5 in for prototyping so that they could have a proper Duratec exhaust instead of advising people how to mod the Zetec exhausts constantly. I was also told that my car was going to be featured on the site years ago - we took pics with MBRP license plate fillers and all - just to have it never materialize.

I never tire of telling this story because stories like this need to be told. There are lots of great manufacturers out there - but sometimes they turn on you for no reason. Buyer beware.