Fanatec Price Hike

[vee10]

Just as I am beginning to think about the Lazarou cockpit MK2. Fanatec have announced some hefty price increase supposedly because of currency fluctuations. That is some increase, may as well go for a servo wheel at them prices.

Statement from Fanatec.

This is a post which is rather less fun for me but we cannot avoid it.

Due to the questionable strategy of the European Zentral Bank, the excheange rate Euro / USD has massively dropped in the past months. The target of the EZB is to increase Inflation and it seems that they are succesful with that attempt as all good made in the far east usually have to be paid in USD and therefore those products are now seeing a massive price increase.

We absorbed this price increase in the past months but we cannot do that anymore and therefore we had to increase all our European prices between 20 to 30%. We just hope that the Euro will not continue to drop and we can keep at least this Level.

And before everybody starts to complain why our Prices are more expensive in the Euro webshop than the prices you see in the US Webshop I would like to remind you that EU prices will always be about 30% more expensive in comparison to the US.

The reason is that the prices in the EU shop include VAT and this makes about 20% alone. The US Webshop prices do not include VAT or sales tax.

The other 10% are becuase of various reasons like higher logistic costs, localisation, more strict environmental rules and a 2 year warranty instead of 1 year in the US. All those little extras don’t come for free and this is the reason why almost every product in any category is more expensive in Europe than in the US.

I hope you will still stay with us and understand the situation. Thank you.

UPDATE

Here are some more facts:

May 2014: Euro/USD 1,3862
March 2015: Eur/USD 1,0664

If a product costs 100 USD to manufacture it was 72,46 € in May 2014 and now we have to pay 93,77 €

This is a cost increase of 29,41 %

 

[Yapci]

How on earth do you get a accuforce with wheel for under 20000 euro. Remember you must pay tax and shipping

It will actually be around 22000 Euro. I calculate 200$ in shipping costs with 25 % VAT and then customfees at about 15 euro.

Still less than 20.000€!!

 

[Pär Öqvist]

Lol fixed

 

[Marcel Kleene]

We Swiss seem to be lucky.

Exchange rate April 2014: EUR/CHF 1.22
Exchange rate April 2015 EUR/CHF 1.04

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

This is a cost increase of 29,41 %

Jup, cost-increase. How this translates to a 30% sales price increase is just beyond me really.

 

[Marcel Offermans]

I strongly suspect that more is going on here, as I agree with @Bram that a 30% increase in sales price cannot just be justified by the exchange rate. There have been discussions about the financial health of Fanatec and the money they need to pay following an out of court settlement and I would not be surprised if that was also a factor in this decision.

 

[Blkout]

I strongly suspect that more is going on here, as I agree with @Bram that a 30% increase in sales price cannot just be justified by the exchange rate. There have been discussions about the financial health of Fanatec and the money they need to pay following an out of court settlement and I would not be surprised if that was also a factor in this decision.

If that was the case, wouldn't they raise prices across all countries, not just Europe? Seems like it would be easier for everyone to swallow if they made a 10% increase across all countries rather than a 30% increase in Europe.

 

[Marcel Offermans]

Stating you have to raise prices because of the exchange rate sounds better than just raising them because you need more money, don't you think? But I admit I am speculating about their reasons, nobody except Fanatec knows for sure.

 

[Blkout]

Stating you have to raise prices because of the exchange rate sounds better than just raising them because you need more money, don't you think? But I admit I am speculating about their reasons, nobody except Fanatec knows for sure.

I understand that claiming Fanatec had to raise prices due to exchange rates sounds better but why penalize Europe by raising prices 30% when prices likely could have been raised across all regions by 10% instead so the price increase is spread out? Don't get me wrong, I'm in the U.S. and don't want to see a price increase but it certainly could have been easier for everyone to tolerate a mild price increase across all countries as opposed to a 30% increase in Europe only.

 

[Blkout]

How on earth do you get a accuforce with wheel for under 2000 euro. Remember you must pay tax and shipping

It will actually be around 2200 Euro. I calculate 200$ in shipping costs with 25 % VAT and then customfees at about 15 euro.

In fairness, its well under $2k here in the U.S.

 

[Pär Öqvist]

In fairness, its well under $2k here in the U.S.

You don´t pay with the Euro in the US the poster obviously expect to import the wheel

 

[Blkout]

You don´t pay with the Euro in the US the poster obviously expect to import the wheel

I was simply saying that the Accuforce is well under $2k in the US. Nothing more.

 

[Ghoults]

Nearly 2k for a non dd wheel and pedals, without shifter.

Accuforce are going to increase the ir sales. No doubt.

I think the sales will move more towards thrustmaster gear. The fanatec wheel+base combo is just too expensive atm. And the eur-usd price hike is also effecting the accuforce sales too no doubt!

The csw v2 is no doubt a great wheel but if I need to pay 700€ for the base, 300€ for the wheel hub and some 50-100€ for a steering wheel bought elsewhere + shipping. 1100€ at least for the wheel. I don't play that much. I'd guess I could get the formula rim for 230€ but it is still over 1k€. And the wait times are probably insane too.

 

[James Cook]

I'm not sure their reputation for reliability and build quality can withstand such a price hike, not at the lower end of the market anyway. It will be a no-brainer to go Thrustmaster.

 

[Blkout]

I'm not sure their reputation for reliability and build quality can withstand such a price hike, not at the lower end of the market anyway. It will be a no-brainer to go Thrustmaster.

You know, I've been saying that for years about Fanatec, and Thrustmaster has been making some good wheels since the T500RS which is probably 4 years old now, yet Fanatec hasn't skipped a beat and is still selling a lot of product. They clearly have fans of their products which are willing to pay their inflated prices. I've certainly been very critical of Fanatec products but here I am using a CSW v2 and CSR Elite pedals. I had problems with the CSW v2 11 days after I received it and it went back for repair which left a bitter taste in my mouth but its been working great since I got it back from repair which has been about 4 months now. The CSR Elites are very good and reliable. I still don't think most of their other products have a very good reputation for reliability though, the CSS SQ shifter has been revised and seems to be more reliable though, but its still early and there's not a lot of users giving feedback because Fanatec seems to stay backordered on most all of their popular products. I guess what I'm trying to say is that this price increase won't put them out of business.

 

[James Cook]

I'm sure they won't, but I know where my money will be going when my CSR needs replacing.

 

[Blkout]

I'm sure they won't, but I know where my money will be going when my CSR needs replacing.

I can understand that decision.

 

[Ghoults]

The bigger issue in my opinion is that the market is now missing the competition in the 500€ range. CSW v2 is almost in the frex category and there are no wheels in the 500-1000 range. I'd imagine a good quality plastic wheel in that price range would be the big selling point between tr500 and the csw v2.

For previous csw v1 owners some of the costs are masked because they most likely already have the wheels and for them it is just a question of selling their csw v1 and getting the v2. But for a new user the choise is either to get the gt2 or gt3 or pay 800€ more and get the v2. Is that even a choise? Person who is looking at getting something better than the gt2 or gt3 has no choise but to go elsewhere.

For example I own a fanatec 911 turbo s. If I wanted to upgrade my wheel with fanatec my only option is 1000€ v2 since the gt2 and gt3 are the same wheel I already have. If my options are to either get the v2 and pay 1000€ or pay less than half and get the t500 or t300 then I'm sure most will go with the thrustmaster. 1000€ is just too much. I'm not saying the price increase is unfair or whatever. What I'm saying is that there is a huge hole in the fanatec wheel selection atm.

If I had an opportunity to tell fanatec what to do here is my suggestion. Make a 500€ wheel. That is something better than the thrustmaster t500 but still sits nicely between the v2 and gt2/gt3.

 

[Blkout]

I believe Thomas stated after the price increase that they were going to combat the pricing by developing a cheaper wheel. I think its in his blog on the Fanatec website about the price increase.

 

[James Cook]

Totally agree with @Ghoults. Fanatec's focus has been on their high-end products for the last few years. There has been little talk of a GT2/GT3/CSR replacement or something that bridges the gap between these wheels and the CSW. The lower-mid range section of the market is where most of the sales are and they've left it wide open for Thrustmaster with their T300 & T500.

Perhaps the margins are higher on the CSW and the various replacement rims.