$130 bucks Lokar, $80 bucks Ebay..What's the difference?

Anybody see any reason to buy the Lokar emergency brake cable kit versus this one listed on eBay for $50 bucks less?

Is there a difference I'm not seeing? Looks like the same stuff, only not paying for the name.

Lokar on Summit:

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/LOK-EC-81FU/?rtype=10
<img id="main-image" src="http://static.summitracing.com/global/images/prod/large/lok-ec-81fu_w.jpg" alt="lok-ec-81fu_w.jpg">

Ebay Cables:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mars-Cable-Ford-Passenger-Emergency-Brake-Cables-EC80FU-EC-80FU-EC-81FU-EC81FU-/170869363517?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item27c89b933d&vxp=mtr#ht_609wt_952

 

About the only advise would be to check the sellers rating.

 

Simple....

One is Tiawan and one is China.

 

No need to buy either. Go to a parts store that will let you look for the length you need and it will be cheaper yet

 

Funny, I was recently wondering the same thing.
I went ahead and purchased the Lokar kit off Ebay. Seller's name was "lumpkinsgarage" and price with shipping was $106.05. Cheaper than Summit or Speedway, etc.


Malcolm



Malcolm

 

Personally I wouldn't buy anything from that seller with that shitting rating ! He has 10 neutral and 13 NEG in the past 6 months ! Now that should tell you something right there . It also depends on who made it and where it was made .
One thing you also need to consider is that price of $79 is just the OPENING BID !
You should just play it safe and buy the Locar or just go to a real parts store and buy a new one there in the length you need ! It might cost more but at least you know the quality you are getting ! The price is far from what I consider is a good deal .

Retro Jim

 

Also look at what it costs to ship..sometimes on flybay..the shipping costs more than the item!

 

Not sure what you're looking at, Jim, but what I'm seeing is only one neutral and one negative in 6 months with a 98.6% rating. 6 neutral and 3 negative in the past year. I'd probably buy from someone with a rating like that. I've bought from worse! As a seller myself, I've learned that you'll never make everyone happy every time, no matter WHAT you do to correct a situation.

http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISA...=negative&interval=365&_trkparms=negative_365

EDIT; My mistake. The rating I was commenting on was "lumpkinsgarage" mentioned above. The listing for "partscityusa1", HELLS muthafuckin no would I buy from them. You're right... their feedback SUCKS!

 

No one fell off the truck and one didn't.

 

he's looking at the original auction that was posted in the first post.

 

Yeah, I got that. Hence the "EDIT" at the bottom of my post.

 

Volume, volume, volume VS greed, greed, greed! I recently had to buy a new Lokar throttle cable end after my nephew broke it. On E-Bay $18.90 with shipping included, and another E-Bay vendor was at $32.00 plus shipping. What vendor do you think I bought from? Part came skin packaged as Lokar. Butch/56sedandelivery.

 

One bonus is the service after the sale with Lokar. I bought a few Lokar items from Summit, had an issue with one of them, Lokar stood behind the item and got me the parts to fix it (for free). Worth the extra $ to me....

 

Some of those eBay sellers are the same company out a backdoor. I've bought Chassis Engineering parts on eBay from an eBay seller that came from the same city/state as they're located in.

 

These ebay parts are more than likely from The American Shifter Co. (The Hoffman Group)

 

Real CHEEP E-Brake

 

You have to read the complaints before you make a decdision. One of the neutrals says "Great". The rest seem to have been rectified. No, I am not the seller nor do I know the seller, I just know that some people are very impatient and don't want to resolve the issue amicably.

 

One isn't paying the overhead of a Summit or Jegs he is drop shipping the item. That's why you can buy it cheaper.

 

I've got you beat, mine is a piece of 2x4 with "emergency brake" written in magic marker.

 

Yup that's what I've seen

 

Agreed. And you've also got to look at the volume the seller is moving. Figure on averaging 1 unhappy miserable SOB per 100. If you only sell 100 items that year, then one negative feedback is pretty understandable. If you sell a thousand items, you might end up with 10 negative feedbacks. And while it looks bad when lumped into a red number to the right side of the column, it really is no worse than 1 per a hundred.

SOME people will NEVER be happy NO MATTER what you do to try to fix the issue. Some never even let you know there's a problem and then smack you with a negative feedback before you get the chance to fix it. I learned a hard lesson a long time ago about the importance of OVER-appropriate packaging, since nobody gives a shit about your item between here and your buyer. Once I started over-packing my things, my negative/neutral feedback stopped. Gotta treat it like a business, I guess. I do.

 

I read down about five pages on the feed back. Both negative complaints were about decals that weren't received. A couple hundred others were happy as hell to have received the same decals quickly. One neutral complaint was about a damage alternator. But they took care of him.
Welder Joe is the Ebay outlet for Hoffman stuff. Not saying that these guys aren't connected but there are several Big hot rod suppliers in the Vancouver Wa area and this may be one of those doing some back door business.

I used to buy engine kits From a supplier in Arizona who advertised in the back of Hot Rod every month. The guy was a racer and passed away a year or two ago. When the parts came they were always on a hand written ticket from a warehouse distributor. They were selling the parts at the same or next lower price than they were selling them to the parts houses but you couldn't walk in and buy a part over the counter on a bet.

 

I didn't read all the posts, so someone may have mentioned this. I find it interesting that the pictures are identical. I'm guessing that Mars stole Lokar's picture. I would not buy the e-bay one. Picture may be the same, but the product won't be.

 

In case you didn't realize it, $79.99 is not the BUY IT NOW PRICE. It is the opening bid price. No one has bid on it yet. Reserve has not been met. Shipping is $9.95. You won't know the selling price until you bid on it and meet the reserve.

Summit wants $119.95 plus $11.95 to ship. I bought the Lokar e-brake system from Summit with $420.00 in other parts, and it all arrived in three days. So shipping percentage was only about $4.00 on the e-brake LOK-EC-80FU.

 

From my experience, Lokar stuff sucks no matter who you buy it from. I ran into a lot of their quality issues when I needed a shifter, I finally just said screw it and built my own. Thats the American way anyway. (or used to be)

 

THe part numbers on the Ebay ad are Lokar numbers. It may be Lokar parts they are selling. I have purchased cheap Lokar look alike cables before and each time I usually end up changing to Lokar. The advantage you have when buying Lokar products is that they have very great service. At least every time I have used them. I use to sell their products and in my experiance the people that had problems most of the time it was installer error.

 

I just bit the bullet and bought the Lokar at the local rod shop. The guy who helps me is awesome and the price was pretty close to what I would have paid at Summit.

I started thinking that I might actually need the brake in an emergency situation, and that would be the exact moment I would have regretted going cheap.

 

I've had very poor luck with the Lokar e-brake cables. Those set screws will not keep the cables secure...then the brake won't hold the car still. Ended up going to a factory style U-shaped deal with one cable. Nothing to "slip".

 

Im a lokar dealer and its simple... Lokar doesnt have a MAP policy therefore the dealers can sell them for whatever they want to. Occasionally LOKAR gets over stocked on stuff and dealers can buy it for 50% off and sometimes more. I sell those for $105 plus shipping all day long... and have several in stock...

ps... lokar has a large mark up...

 

Metal Man, I've found that the Lokar cables stretch after setting the ebrake first couple times, and I had to readjust them. No big deal. My Lokar ebrake system holds my car in neutral while idling with no problem on my steep driveway.