Cost to make a 1/18 model

Cost to make a 1:18th model

Info from www.biante.com.au

A lot of people have asked the question and some have wondered why obscure cars or some concept cars never get made, so I will give you a rough idea of the cost to make a 1:18th race car:

Engineer visit 2,000
Research 100hours 5,000
Loss of interest % 10,000 (assume 200K out for 1 yr)
Tooling hand sample 24,285
Tooling pattern 278,570
Tampo plates 2,700
Line tooling 2,000
Box artwork etc 600
Total $325,155

So now you have a tool and can start to make a car.

Based on cost per car with a run of 3000, this makes the tooling amortisation cost $108.38 per car, so obviously you cannot make ANYTHING that is a one off that will not sell at least 5000pcs.

Say the cost to produce each model is $ 55.00.
Cost of model 55.00
Freight by sea 1.00
Freight to shop 2.00
Manufacturer fee 5.00
Driver/Team fee 15.00
Plus amortisation 108.38
TOTAL $186.38

Now so far there is NO profit for anyone.

Add profit for man-
ufacturer/distributor 18.00
Total to shop= $204.38

Store margin (say 50%) 102.19
Retail $306.57

Add the GST 30.66

RETAIL price $337.23

NOW you know why cars that are "One offs" or unuseable as race cars, taxi, Police or road cars out of basically the same tool, never get made.

Or not by people who want to stay in business anyway.

The only ways to reduce this cost is by bigger total numbers (25,000 is a bare minimum) or to cut corners and make less features/quality.

For example, 3 road cars and 2 race cars for a total of 25,000 models

Engineer visit 2,000
Research 150hours 8,000
Loss of interest % 10,000 (assume 200K out for 1 yr)
Tooling hand sample 24,285
Tooling pattern 278,570
Tooling new bits 10,500
Tampo plates 2,900
Line tooling 2,000
Box artwork etc 900
Total $339,155

Based on cost per car with a run of 25,000, this makes the tooling amortisation cost $13.56 per car

Say the cost to produce each model is $ 28.00.

Cost of model 28.00
Freight by sea 0.60
Freight to shop 2.00
Manufacturer fee 5.00
Driver/Team fee 15.00
Plus amortisation 13.56
TOTAL $64.16

Add profit for man-
ufacturer/distributor 18.00
Total to shop= $82.16

Store margin (say 50%) 41.08
Retail $123.24

Add the GST 12.32

RETAIL price $135.56

So you see, it's a numbers game. To make a model that cant be used for anything else and is usually only in one colour, is not viable. There wouldn't be ONE single Australian car you could make that would sell 25,000 pieces in Australia.

Hope thats of some help to those who keep wondering why we don't make some of the cars requested.

These figures are approximate, but the point is clearly made.
What is a "Tampo Plate"?
Good question. We tend to think everyone knows these terms. Sorry.
The tampo plate is a steel plate that is engraved to about 1 micron deep with the image you want to print on the car.
The special ink is placed into the recess caused by the etching of the plate and a silicon half pear shaped pad lifts the ink from the plate and then as the model slides under it, transfers the ink "image" onto the car.
Fully automated Tampo machines can print eight colours, one on top of the other in about a third of a second, with all the previous colours being dry before it hits the next colour overlay.
The machines are about US$150,000 each. I think Autoart has 250 of them from memory.
Because of the silicon pad, it is sometimes referred to as "Pad Printing"
The ink actually eats into the body paint, thats why you cant scratch it off like a decal.

Hope that answers the question in a simplistic way.