Kit Price Increases

Heres a question for folks that have been around Vans a while from a complete Nube!

Does Vans increase the kit prices regularly? (yearly or more often?). I'm looking at RV10. Does anyone track that stuff here on VAF or could I find the info easily elsewhere?

I'm wondering if it's worth securing a complete kit at one time to lock in price or if there are more advantages to waiting out a slower build and buying the kits as required to build the complete plane. I'm in Canada so the one time order (although a lot of cost and material) means dealing with boarder crossing import fees etc etc may be a one time thing rather than several trips. The other advantage I see to a one time kit purchase is for subsequent ADs or Service Letters I'd be going back to one date rather than worrying about what year a particular sub kit was built.

If Vans price increases are not that regular or large percentage jumps I'd likely order as needed and deal with the import stuff each time.

Cheers, Rod.

Prices typically go up in the first three or four months of the year sometime.

I'm building an RV-3B and have saved the price lists for that plane. The increases were all between 0 and 3 percent from 2011 through 2017. The 2018 increase was 34% but that might have been associated with the pending removal of the kit from the market. Or not.

The kits I paid attention to are all the slow-build variety. There might be some difference in the quick-build kits, and the other models might have had different increases.

Dave

Thanks Dave that’s grate info. I appreciate your input. 34% jump. Wow! Lends weight to the buy at one time and know your projected costs thinking. Cheers, Rod...

RV Kit now $49,710... In 5 years at 3 points compounded $57.166.50
RV QB Kit now $63,250... In 5 years at 3 points compounded $70,840.00

Hopefully they don’t go the 34% jump on RV10s!

That 34% may be for the rv3 as it's become a semi unsupported model, manufactured on an as required basis as far as I understand.
In my 10 years of keeping track of these things, price increases have been modest at worst. Think 2-3percent annually. Maybe.
If you can afford all the main kits you will probably come out in front on freight, but don't expect to save vast amounts.
Dont forget, almost half the cost of the aircraft is in front of you. Engine and avionics.
I found the biggest hidden cost is the freight on the small orders that inevitably crop up during the build. But living in Australia doesn't help on that one.
Cheers, DaveH
120485

my data

I've kept track of this just for fun. I was kind of worried about that early on also. But as you can see, the price increases are not what I would call significant.

It removed the anxiety I had about whether or not to order kits before I really needed them. Now when I get a few months away from being ready, I pull the trigger. No pucker factor required.

There's a big whole in my data, sorry its not complete:

The price adjustments we make, when necessary, generally take place in the late spring. Last year we were delayed a month or two. We do everything we can to keep the prices affordable, in pursuit of why we're here: to make uncommonly awesome airplanes available and accessible to (relatively) common people.

Most adjustments are substantially related to changing cost of materials. The more significant increase that David referred to was on the RV-3 and RV-4 a few years ago and was related to cost of manufacturing and support given the lower volume of kit orders. We had to make an adjustment to not be underwater, so to speak.

The RV-10 is currently the second most popular kit. No volume-related issues currently with that one. We're just working hard to keep pushing them out the door!

I attributed the price hike in 2018 to the tariffs on steel and aluminum. I know that even though the galvalume I buy is Made in America, when the tariffs hit the prices of imported material went up and the local factories instead of keeping their prices at their current values to compete, decided to raise their prices too so the only ones affected were the American consumers. I was building 4 hangars and 6 storage units at the time and it bit me in the a$$ big time.

OTOH, during my build, inflation of new engine pricing was pretty significant. Not to mention unknown delivery times. You may come out ahead by ordering your engine early (properly ?pickeled? for storage).

unitink72 said:

I've kept track of this just for fun. I was kind of worried about that early on also. But as you can see, the price increases are not what I would call significant.

It removed the anxiety I had about whether or not to order kits before I really needed them. Now when I get a few months away from being ready, I pull the trigger. No pucker factor required.

There's a big whole in my data, sorry its not complete:

Click to expand...

This is awesome thanks for the info.

daveyator said:

That 34% may be for the rv3 as it's become a semi unsupported model, manufactured on an as required basis as far as I understand.
In my 10 years of keeping track of these things, price increases have been modest at worst. Think 2-3percent annually. Maybe.
If you can afford all the main kits you will probably come out in front on freight, but don't expect to save vast amounts.
Dont forget, almost half the cost of the aircraft is in front of you. Engine and avionics.
I found the biggest hidden cost is the freight on the small orders that inevitably crop up during the build. But living in Australia doesn't help on that one.
Cheers, DaveH
120485

Click to expand...

Thanks Dave. Good advice

greghughespdx said:

The price adjustments we make, when necessary, generally take place in the late spring. Last year we were delayed a month or two. We do everything we can to keep the prices affordable, in pursuit of why we're here: to make uncommonly awesome airplanes available and accessible to (relatively) common people.

Most adjustments are substantially related to changing cost of materials. The more significant increase that David referred to was on the RV-3 and RV-4 a few years ago and was related to cost of manufacturing and support given the lower volume of kit orders. We had to make an adjustment to not be underwater, so to speak.

The RV-10 is currently the second most popular kit. No volume-related issues currently with that one. We're just working hard to keep pushing them out the door!

Click to expand...

Thanks that all makes sense to me. I figure if I can save during the build effectively then I will have more budget for that avionics and engine another poster mentioned. Being cross border I?m also looking to protect myself from increases that ultimately increase the import fees and taxes also. It?s a double hit unfortunately.

Thanks for all the info guys.