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competition?
[quote=We can only hope Lycoming will acquire and keep some of these positive aspects along with the rest of the assets they are taking over.
Having owned both new Lycoming and Superior engines the difference was obvious to me. [/QUOTE] The news item made it clear that Lyc bought "only the assets". If you want to help keep prices low, service high, we need to keep some competition. This means seriously considering ECI if all other things are considered equal. My .02 worth:cool: Bevan |
Actually only some TCM cylinders
If I read this correctly Lyc just doesn't want anything to do with some specific cylinders - the ones that have some liability risks for them. Cut and pasted in from ANN
"Excluded Cylinder Assembly Assets. all Regulatory Approvals relating to Seller?s cylinder assemblies for TCM IO-520, TSIO-520, and IO-550 reciprocating engines covered by a proposed FAA Airworthiness Directive (?AD?), Docket No. FAA-2007-0051" It is a sad day indeed. I have a Superior engine and I think they were a great supplier and they kept OEM's honest. Too bad my warranty ended early... I really feel for the guys there at Superior, they are first rate and I hope they end up on their feet. Quote:
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Not only am I sad for myself (I love my Superior engine), I am very sad for all the folk at Superior who I met at their facility when I built my engine. They are all great people and they will be missed. I'm hoping we will see them again in the industry. Best wishes.
Also, to the VAF members who speak legalese, I notice that #7 in the list of Lycoming's acquisition included warranty. I'm assuming that means warranty from 3rd party suppliers to them, not that they bought up our warranties? |
No wonder it was taking an extremely long time to get reimbursed for the cold-air sump change. $600 I'll never see.
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I never did understand their desire to get into the "certified engine" business to begin with, and secondly the weird tie to the crooks at Theilert. Someone made some money off of that $10Mil+ transaction, but it appears to have been the death knoll. The company survived for almost 40 years through various rocky aviation markets, and in the span of two years manages to completely go to heck. I might be wrong, but I'd bet that financially the Thielert fraud thing didn't help.
Anyway, it's sad. I agree that the people, parts and competition were great, and the fact that Textron is removing that from the market might not help keep costs down. Hopefully ECI continues down their relatively conservative path...someone has to keep the market in check! My engine is a mishmash of Superior, Lyco and ECI parts. So much for one of those outlets. Stein |
ECI's real and only competitor was Superior, not Lycoming. On most engine engine parts Lycoming's prices are 2,3X what the other two were in the marketplace. So I expect ECI's parts to go up in price.
One other negative aspect of this...ECI's parts catalog is considerably smaller than Superiors. In a recent overhaul I did there were quite a few parts I ordered that only Superior or Lycoming made. So in a lot of instances, quite a few parts will only be available from Lycoming and now they can charge whatever they want for them. Or ECI can now start producing them, and charge close to what Lycoming's charging. One example of this was when ECI came out with an angled oil filter adapter. When they introduced the part it was $187.00. A few months went by and the price went up to $287 once someone in their marketing dept. figured out they were charging significantly less than the competition. |
Wow. And I ordered my Superior cold-air sump kit from A.E.R.O yesterday.
I wasn't really paying attention, but I did not see this coming. |
Superior Air Parts - Chapter 11
I received a package today from attorneys representing Superior Air Parts regarding motions for selling their assets.
I knew they had been bought out but didn't know they were at this stage. Not sure how it impacts me as I am out of warranty on my engine. Superior treated me very well over the last few years relating to the new sump & crank seal replacement. Even though I was out of warranty at the time, they were quick to send me parts at no charge & paid me labor for the repairs. |
Sad to hear, sounded like a great company to have in the engine business
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Lycoming to own Superior?
I also have been very happy with my O360 from Superior and like you I received the fat envelope tonight. In 2006 Superior was bought by Thielert and are now caught up in the Thielert engine mess. The way I read the legaleeze, "Avco Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Textron Inc" is proposing to buy Superior for $11.5 million. Textron own Avco which owns Lycoming. So now Lycoming could end up owning Superior. This may not be good news for those that want competition in the engine market.
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