[Eric van Spelde]

From the 'news' section of the AR website:

"20 January 2003, Trionic prices down on all models upto 1998! There has never been a better time to upgrade your car!"

Make of that what you want...

 

[aeropilot]

Knocked £75 off previous price....
Still £100 more than Speedparts equivilent and the Speedparts kit includes the sport air filter.

Methinks Abbott will have to reduce a bit more than they have done......

 

[billj]

Originally posted by aeropilot:
[qb]Methinks Abbott will have to reduce a bit more than they have done......    

   [/qb][/b]

Dunno - they do have a respected brand. I know we know here that they're not the best place to go for power upgrades, but many people will perceive it as a safe option and be prepared to pay a bit of a premium, especially if they can get a complete package of work done at the same time.

And remember that UK owners can drive to Abbott, have the work done and drive back again with a faster car. With speedparts, that is a bit more difficult and many people will baulk at having to remove and replace an ECU, if they can even find it in the first place. Their only alternative is to pay someone to do it, and a Saab dealer may not want to touch a job like that.

An Abbott ECU upgrade isn't for me, but it might be reasonable value for money for a lot of people.

[Edit: can't spell

]

 

[billj]

And what on Earth happened to "J-Tune"? Seems as if that was an idea that never left the ground. Having looked at the range of stuff on offer, it did seem to be the same boy-racer stuff for Japanese cars that everyone and his dog sells. Abbott's strength lies in the stuff they have developed themselves. There must be plenty of companies much better and more experienced at box-shifting than they are.

 

[aeropilot]

I do agree Bill.

Incidently, what did Abbott make of your car with the Maptun stuff....any comments from them...??

 

[billj]

Originally posted by aeropilot:
[qb]Incidently, what did Abbott make of your car with the Maptun stuff....any comments from them...?? [/qb][/b]

Only when Ed rang to say the car was ready and that it was "going well"

The first time they saw it, though, with just the exhaust and no ECU, they first nit-picked about the quality, fit and finish and the fact it wasn't stainless. When I told them how much it cost, they thought it wasn't bad value. Ed and one of the mechanics each separately commented on how quiet it was and Ed said "it goes well on it", meaning, I assume, that he thought it was fairly quick.

Second time they saw it, it had the ECU and even though they drove it, there wasn't a single comment.

 

[StanleyB]

I am surprised they did not comment. When I took my car there some 14 months ago, a few of the lads had more than a passing interrest in my set-up.
Perhaps the boss has clamped down on over-enthousiasm for anything non-Abbott?

 

[billj]

Perhaps it depends who you're talking to. It was Ed who drove it with the ECU and perhaps he didn't want to make a big thing of it. When I picked the car up on Friday evening, I didn't get a chance to chat with anyone as they were all getting ready to go home. Otherwise, someone would probably have talked about it.

I know that Ed's attitude the first time I was there was "We invented all this stuff years ago and now everyone's copying it". He specifically mentioned the downpipe, but Abbott can't be the only people to have realised that a gentle bend gives less back-pressure than a right-angle. He was unimpressed with the Superflex bushes for the same reason. Perhaps I caught him on a bad day. We all have them...

 

[1989agoodvintage]

He was unimpressed with the Superflex bushes for the same reason.[/b]

Well, they could have easily put them into bulk production and distributed their own branded poly bushes through resellers. If other people beat them too it; well, they only have themselves to blame.

I'm sure there are plenty of people like myself who are on a limited budget and therefore need to look at the items which offer the most bang for our bucks. From my point of view Abbott Racing are just too darned expensive.

 

[saabman]

Trionic prices down on all models upto 1998! There has never been a better time to upgrade your car!"
 [/b]

Still no good for me MY99 and if the price did come down it would have to do so by a long way! Why pay more for a 40bhp (in my case) increase when a another manufacturer does more bhp for less money? I have no doubt Abbott may have been excellent for a lot of you,they are just not in the ball game for me.

 

[billj]

I suspect they reaslise that cars up to 1998 are getting older and cheaper by the day and the people who buy them don't necessarily have huge amounts of dosh any more.

 

[Eric van Spelde]

That, and the notion that they already recouped their investment on the older Trionic developments - kind of like record companies selling parts of their back catalogue (mostly old best sellers) as 'nice price' or 'mid price' CDs...

 

[Liam L]

 He was unimpressed with the Superflex bushes for the same reason.[/b]

Superflex don't just make bushes for Saab's though, they do them for everything under the sun, so it is hardly copying. They were probably making uprated bushes (not necessarily for Saabs I hasten to add) before Abbott did.

Price decrease no good for me anyway, I have DI/APC......

 

[mark e]

Originally posted by Liam L:
[qb]Superflex don't just make bushes for Saab's though, they do them for everything under the sun, so it is hardly copying.  They were probably making uprated bushes (not necessarily for Saabs I hasten to add) before Abbott did.
[/qb][/b]

It's my understanding that Abbott bushes are actually custom made by Powerflex, not Superflex and are a slightly different compound to the Superflex ones.

 

[markcanderson]

Price decrease no good for me anyway, I have DI/APC......  [/b]

DI+APC Upgrade (For models 1985-1993), 40 BHP Increase, £395. Part Number: BEN004

www.abbottracing.com

Looks like they've cut the price of that too

 

[Liam L]

DI+APC Upgrade (For models 1985-1993), 40 BHP Increase, £395. Part Number: BEN004[/b]

Now where's my Visa card

Are the Superflex ones any good? I presume not everyone has the Abbott/Powerflex ones.

 

[Alex_S]

I believe you can also buy the bushes from Powerflex direct.

 

[mark e]

Superflex are fine in my experience; there might be slight variances in compound between different suppliers but, just like performance springs and shocks (Oh no, don't open that can of worms again!

) they're all going to offer a significant performance improvement over standard, worn ones.