Might be helpful to give the price.
Here is the part that shocks a few people... I sell them to U.S. customers for $465.00 USD... this equates to about 314.22 GBP. :icon_eek:
Here is the problem... with so few CRDs in North America, I had to choose CNC machining as my method of manufacturing. These things cost me about $350.00 each to manufacture the parts alone, and that is not including assembly time.
If I could get a contract for, say, 20,000 units I could justify the expense of creating a mold for die casting. I have been quoted between 100,000.00 and 150,000.00 CDN for molds of a thermostat housing with a removable cap.
Sand casting is also not an option as there is too much of a chance of porosity in thin-wall castings. Even if you could guarantee an air-tight housing, there would be so much machining required that you might as well carve your housings from a solid block of 6061 aluminum to begin with.
The upside to CNC machining is the absolute top-notch quality of the product you produce. Check out the postings on my thread on LOSTJEEPS.com...
http://www.lostjeeps.com/forum/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=75791&start=220
This link starts you on page 12, as this is the page customers start to post their impressions of my product. I have had excellent feedback from people who have received my product and installed them in their rides. Feel free to read over the entire thread, if you are inclined to do so.
With CNC machining, there is also the added benefit of being able to easily change up the design to accommodate changing parameters or to add options. For example, I am changing the design for the next production run to add two extra threaded ports for aftermarket temperature sending units so that customers can conveniently add aftermarket temperature gauges or make a conversion to an electric cooling system fan.