Offroad Trailblazers and Envoys

Group Buy Offer - Canceled 9/21

Products offered by our vendor: Bushwacker Inc.

by bushwacker_inc » Wed Sep 21, 2011 1:51 pm

Good Morning -

Due to a disappointing turnout, we have decided to discontinue the Group Buy offer for Trailblazer Fender Flares. We'd like to thank everyone that took the time to fill out our survey and offer us feedback on offroadtb.com, trailvoy.com and on our Facebook page. Without the vocal minority that demanded Fender Flares in the first place, we would of never come this far. Unfortunately the high costs of design, tooling and manufacturing were too high of barriers to overcome - compared to the low amount of interest we received, around 16% of what we needed to complete the Group Buy requirements.

So again, thank you for your interest in Bushwacker Fender Flares and we hope that we can earn your business in the future for another vehicle.


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by Me007gold » Wed Sep 21, 2011 2:06 pm

Big shock there :rollseyes:
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by Kuchar09 » Wed Sep 21, 2011 2:18 pm

Hey now 40 out of 250 isn't too bad :wallbash:
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by Karo » Wed Sep 21, 2011 2:19 pm

Haha could someone please remove that Banner?
I'll drive my TB till its dead...
And after it's dead it will be recovered :excited:
So there would never be a chance for another Bushwacker Product or a other car..
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by Gordinho80 » Wed Sep 21, 2011 2:24 pm

I must say, I'm not at all surprised by this. The fact that you actually got 40 people to pre-order is more surprising.

I admit to being one of the pushers to get the flares done, but not submitting an order. While they would look amazing, I don't see the need to run them for my application. My tires do not stick out very much past the fenders and I do not plan on altering my tire size for some time. I actually think that the majority of your orders probably came from those seeking aesthetics over function.

I wonder how much business you'd actually get in the long haul had you gone through with this and made the product. I'm under the impression that a very large number of potential customers are not members of ORTB, the OS, or Facebook... but that could just be me...
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by MrSmithsTB » Wed Sep 21, 2011 2:42 pm

Business is business. I can say that it does not surprise me. I still believe that, given the right deal, someone will have the balls to prove the the GC flares will work with slight modification. Now, will Bushwacker extend a discount for currently available products?? If it is revenue you are looking to generate(as most businesses are), it wouldn't hurt anything to throw out a decent 10-15% discount code to allow someone to "misuse" a set....
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by bgwolfpack » Wed Sep 21, 2011 3:00 pm

This whole business model was backwards IMO. I'd say it's ridiculous to ask the consumer to lay the money out for production and development of a potential product. Sure the cost is steep to design and produce but that is not where the fault lies. It's a Sales department and Managements lead that determines what to sell and how to get the public to buy it no matter what it might be.
I hate to sound cold but if this is how Bushwacker operates then I doubt they will be here much longer and they are local to me. I feel sad this has happened here to this company and it being recorded this way.
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by navigator » Wed Sep 21, 2011 3:26 pm

bgwolfpack wrote:This whole business model was backwards IMO. I'd say it's ridiculous to ask the consumer to lay the money out for production and development of a potential product. Sure the cost is steep to design and produce but that is not where the fault lies. It's a Sales department and Managements lead that determines what to sell and how to get the public to buy it no matter what it might be.
I hate to sound cold but if this is how Bushwacker operates then I doubt they will be here much longer and they are local to me. I feel sad this has happened here to this company and it being recorded this way.


I expect BW usually follows the model you proposed above.
I expect what happened is their market analysis determined there isn't enough market to invest in the TB.
They kept hearing requests from a vocal minority so they decided to find out who was really interested.
Everyone is interested until it is time to open the check book.
I'm bad for wanting stuff that never gets a high enough priority to buy myself.

If they hadn't required the deposit, 300 people would have said they wanted the flares and it sounds like they would have sold about 50 sets.

I think it shows that BW went above and beyond by going this far. Everything told them that there wasn't a large enough market but they went a little further than the next company to make sure there wasn't enough market before deciding to go in another direction.
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by NC_IslandRunner » Wed Sep 21, 2011 4:01 pm

Like I said before they did this just the shut the "Vocal Minority" up. They can say "we tried". For those who wanted them it sucks but cannot be shocking.
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by Rob93 » Wed Sep 21, 2011 4:02 pm

navigator wrote:
If they hadn't required the deposit, 300 people would have said they wanted the flares and it sounds like they would have sold about 50 sets.



I too am surprised they put in as much effort as they did, I mean lets be honest, how many other lifted GMT360s have you come across outside of meets/online?

But something BW should have done IMO was a better picture of a what the flares would actually look like once installed. There are a lot more lifted tbs on the OS, and most of them would have been purchasing the flares for looks. A color, realistic, full view computer generated image showing what the flares would really look like probably would have turned a lot more heads and checkbooks than the zoomed in black and white sketch
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by NC_IslandRunner » Wed Sep 21, 2011 4:15 pm

I wouldn't give them a gold star for effort, 14 posts 1 Stock sketch of the style and 5 weeks to get 250 people to fork over $250 each for a product unseen. And still owe at least another $100 to get them.
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by Me007gold » Wed Sep 21, 2011 4:18 pm

NC_IslandRunner wrote:I wouldn't give them a gold star for effort, 14 posts 1 Stock sketch of the style and 5 weeks to get 250 people to fork over $250 each for a product unseen. And still owe at least another $100 to get them.



I would agree with this. We asked multipal times for updates and they would not give us any. A photoshoped picture would have gone a long way. Like they said before, They didnt want to make this, they knew it wouldnt happen, but were tired of a few people asking for them. They did it just to shut people up
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by navigator » Wed Sep 21, 2011 4:33 pm

very interesting, I just checked their site and they don't have a flare for a newer Grand Cherokee, only up through 1998.
This means you couldn't take a flare for a newer GC and try to adapt it to our platform.
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by MrSmithsTB » Wed Sep 21, 2011 4:40 pm

navigator wrote:very interesting, I just checked their site and they don't have a flare for a newer Grand Cherokee, only up through 1998.
This means you couldn't take a flare for a newer GC and try to adapt it to our platform.

The flare for the 94-98 is what I saw to be a close match...
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by fishsticks » Wed Sep 21, 2011 5:33 pm

Rob93 wrote:
navigator wrote:
If they hadn't required the deposit, 300 people would have said they wanted the flares and it sounds like they would have sold about 50 sets.



I too am surprised they put in as much effort as they did, I mean lets be honest, how many other lifted GMT360s have you come across outside of meets/online?

But something BW should have done IMO was a better picture of a what the flares would actually look like once installed. There are a lot more lifted tbs on the OS, and most of them would have been purchasing the flares for looks. A color, realistic, full view computer generated image showing what the flares would really look like probably would have turned a lot more heads and checkbooks than the zoomed in black and white sketch



I asked for this 9 days ago as I'm sure you saw. Both my driver side fenders have rock damage and after a lot of deliberation I wanted to use these flares as "body repair". Had they posted up SOMETHING or at least replied saying "We'll work on it", I'd have put money down.

That would have only made 41 though....so whatever. 250 was NEVER going to happen for something we can't even see.

At least I'm lucky and cops don't hassle me.
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by chevycrew » Wed Sep 21, 2011 9:33 pm

I think they knew from the beginning that this wasnt going to happen. But the only way to grease the squeeky wheels was to offer something like this.

Im trying to justify ordering a set of the ZJ flares to see what needs modified. But I dont plan on running the flares, so... I dont know.
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