Full length 59 -61 boot mats

[bill773mini]

We are testing the water over the full length boot mats.

We have been working on reproduction mats for a while and have costing etc from a manufacturer in the UK.

The question is how much interest would there be if we pressed ahead with the very large personal capital investment from the registrars?

The retail price including fixing clips for the top of the boot lid would be around £190 per mat.

Original mats are pictured below to give you an idea of what we are looking at.

[guru_1071]

bill

i dont think 190 quid is out the way for something thats always damaged or missing.

[mk1]

Yup, I have only ever seen a couple of really good uncracked good ones. As people seem to be more & more obsessed with getting every last detail correct I am sure there will be a reasonable market for them.

£190 does not seem that far out of the way as long as the replacement is correct.

The only word of warning I would make though is that asking a question like the one above will induce many positive responses, it's rare for more than about 10% of people who say that would pay for something like this to actually do so when push comes to shove.

If I was you I'd be looking to recoup any up front costs with confirmed first orders & then take it from there.

M

[bill773mini]

Thanks for the advice guys. We are looking at a 5 figure investment in tooling etc as I'm sure you're both aware. Just trying to gauge opinion before we take the plunge.

[Frogeye61]

Just think, It's only 24,195 Yen plus shipping

[guru_1071]

Thanks for the advice guys. We are looking at a 5 figure investment in tooling etc as I'm sure you're both aware. Just trying to gauge opinion before we take the plunge.

bill, but how long will it take you to shift a minimum of 60 of these?

years i guess

[Pete]

The other risk Bill is someone else may at some point start knockin 'em out for half the price as happened with Rosepetal wheels so it is a risk that needs serious consideration.

[bill773mini]

The other risk Bill is someone else may at some point start knockin 'em out for half the price as happened with Rosepetal wheels so it is a risk that needs serious consideration

Always a risk Pete with anything I guess.

If someone wants to take the plunge and invest well over £10K in tooling for then please go ahead so I can buy one off you.

Seriously though I have to wonder if the market is big enough to justify our expenditure in the first place so I'm doubtful someone else would come along and set up in competition??? Hope I'm not wrong.

We might be interested in sharing the whole run with some other suppliers if there is enough interest world wide. It's all just ideas at the moment. We have the costing and plans drawn up we are just doing market research

bill, but how long will it take you to shift a minimum of 60 of these?

years i guess.

I'm optimistic we could shift 50-60 quite easily (in 12 months) but I'm just guessing/naive (delete as appropriate.)

[mk1]

I may be wrong, but I suspect that you have probably gauged it about right. I'm sure you will quite easily make your initially required 60 odd sales, but after that things will I expect become very steady indeed.

It's very easy for us to over estimate the demand for stuff we are interested in.

While I am sure that you will recover your initial investment I suspect that if you went on Dragons Den with this as a business proposition your would get 5 I'm out's in pretty short order.

If you can afford to make the investment & are prepared for it to come back without too much of a return I'd say you were onto a dead cert. You will certainly have some very grateful Mini owners around the world.

M

[Tedwong]

Hi Bill, apologize to hijack/sidetrack your post subject!

While you think about rubber boot mat, any idea about doing those rubber front mats as produced by Cannon in 60s?
Will they be possible to reproduce easier or with less cost?
Rover used to sell them in the 90s, but not anymore.
As I know they have been produced once in Japan and sold quite well in no.(cost £80-90 a pair).
They seems to cater for both older and newer Minis owners.

Ted

[Lilihip]

Why don't ask mini spares and other companies if they would be interested in buying a bigger amount of carpets.

By the way. when did they stop with long carpets and start fitting short ones?

[Old English White]

Our 1962 car certainly had the "long" rubber mat as pictured. I recall it being a bit of a blxxdy nuisance actually especially when it started falling to bits . And that was in the 1960s, so I'm not surprised they're rare now!

[814CWE]

seems the short carpets came in when the double skinned boot appeared in late 66

[Lilihip]

really? not before? This is very interesting

[814CWE]

ive never seen a mk1 with a single skinned boot with a short mat on an original car,,

.the long mat was never fitted to the mk2 type boot fitted from late 66

but,,,on change over points,we all know there is gonna be a few oddball cars with open skin boots and short mats

typical bmc