Tony Harding wrote:
> Tegger wrote:
>> Tony Harding > wrote in
>> :
>>> jim beam wrote:
>>>> Tony Harding wrote:
>>> <snip>
>>>
>>>>>> a lot of this "complication" is not that expensive. well, it is at
>>>>>> the consumer end, but not for the manufacturers. at their kind of
>>>>>> volume levels, a complete fuel injection package, with catalyst and
>>>>>> all sensors, is probably less than $500. that's not exactly a
>>>>>> significant burden on a vehicle retailing for over $15k.
>>>>> Guess again, Detroit's cost to produce an entire V8 engine was $150
>>>>> in the late 60's/early 70's (I'm remembering this from an old Car &
>>>>> Driver article), so $500 just for the FI system is decidedly non
>>>>> trivial.
>>>> that might be a useful comparison if you used this century's money
>>>> values, not last.
>>> <ignoring the snark factor> Not too hard to adjust the dollars -
>>> suppose the $150 in 1970 dollars is $500 in 2008 dollars, it's still a
>>> very significant cost factor.
>>
>>
>> $150 1970 dollars is about $1,500 in today's money.
>
> Even at $1,500, the incremental cost of $500 is a big deal. (Thanks for
> looking it up, BTW)

on a $15k+ car??? that's 3%. and that cost, for the manufacturer, is
more than recouped by fewer returns under warranty. for the consumer,
it's significantly greater as it allows almost total avoidance of all
that b.s. tune-up rip-off we used to endure.