Well in my latest endeavor of purchasing parts for the Fit, I felt it would be a good time to give MY impressions of some of the dealers I have dealt with and parts I have purchased. This is an effort to help others when deciding to purchase goodies for their Fit. Now this may get me a stern talking to from Mods, which I hope it doesn't as it is honest speak and what I HAVE dealt with. NOTE: This is in no WAY to bash a vendor, product, or anything else mentioned in this post. It is hopefully, a QC matter than can help alleviate any faults that may be present in current operations. The vendors, the few that there are, do a great deal for the community, I would just like a point in time where everyone can be happy. Some items may be minor, but I feel they are worth pointing out. I will list the company review...parts ordered, then the parts review.

Total spent in the past few months: $4000.

Invision Performance: This was the first company I purchased items through. They were the following: Tanabe Springs, strut bars, and underbrace. More recently, I purchased a Seibon CF hood from them. For being on the West Coast, shipping to Florida was only a mere 5 days! Calling them was pleasurable because they helped me decide on what to get and tried to get me the best price. Everything came greatly packed and the hood, well the hood couldn't have been shipped better if the Lord himself packed it. Tracking numbers flowed like butter and I was able to plan my time to be home for anything that needed to be signed for. I give Alex and the Invision crew an A+ for always answering their phone OR returning my phone on their dime and for careful packing and shipping. Grade: A+

Tanabe bars: For the strut bars and underbrace, all quality pieces. Where welded, the welds were great. The finish is perfect with not a blemish. The mounts, well, be careful when you tighten the bar. The black finish WILL come off. All in all, great parts. Grade: A

Seibon Hood: Yeah...Grade A may be over rated. You can see around the front edge that the resin cracked and there was a nice clearcoat concealing that. But under the hot Florida sun, you can make it out clearly. The corners near the windshield share the same blemishes. The main hood, there are minor imperfections in the fiber where it looks like it got out of control of the fiber layer. Only slight 1" piece here and there loses it's flow with the rest of the fiber. The bolt holes are nicely placed and perfect fit and for the overall look of the hood, it does it's job: appearance. The stock Fit hood isn't that heavy and I would venture to say 2-3 lbs weight savings are made at most. Grade: B

RavSpec: Work Emotion CR Kai's! Best price I have found anywhere! $850 or so got me a set of Work CR Kai's in bronze for the car. Rick, their sales lead called Work several times to see when they would ship as of course, they are coming from Japan. He constantly kept me updated and tracking numbers followed almost immediately after the order. Hub rings came early and the wheels shortly after. I needed some Work lug nuts quickly and he 2nd day aired them to me for, well, we won't get into the price but it was very very generous what they did! Great service, great people. Grade: A+

Work Wheels: Great wheels. Disappointed that the stickers didn't come on the wheels already. Which I feel the stickers set them apart from Rota Torque's and what not. Kind of a bear to put the stickers on as there are so many! Nonetheless, great wheels. Grade: A

AJ Racing: This one is a little different. Ordering from Canada to the states is difficult. However, when more people stateside start selling their parts, I am sure things will change! Called and ordered $1400 in goodies. That night, my CC company called me freaking out about a suspipcious charge. Dickson called me the next day saying the declined as well. All was sorted out and I asked if the parts could be here in a certain time. That was agreed upon. I thought WOO HOO! One thing I would like, is especially for a large order is a tracking number. It helps me plan things better. I had to call and get that. Not a big deal. The shipping, well it arrived the day it should however, I needed to pick it up from UPS as the driver wouldn't be there until late...and I needed to install and get on the road. So I show up at UPS. Lo and behold I had to pay duty. $11.45 X 3 for, well, 3 packages! While I believe on AJR's site, there is mention of this, I would have like to have known the amount to be prepared. NOTE TO US BUYERS: You have to pay this in a Money Order to UPS. They will not accept anything else. If they show up to deliver and you don't have the MO, you are S.O.L. Which is why I would have liked to know the total prior to receiving. So I ran around town to get MO's and came back and took my goodies. Everything was packed nicely. Two issues. The Spoon Spoiler didn't have the template (ALTHOUGH Dickson faxed it to me within 5 mins of calling him) and the JDM tail lights only had ONE socket for the backup lights. Kind of frustrating but AGAIN!!! Dickson offered to ship one out immediately. In a hurry, I ordered from a local Honda dealer so no biggie. My advice: double check the spoilers to see if the template is in there and double check when placing the sockets in the box for the JDM tails. Grade: A-

T1R Tow hook: I am not expecting to be towed from Tsukuba with this thing, but it looks great, installs in 5 minutes and is well made. Grade: A+

T1R Intake: First, it looks great. There were only a FEW shavings in the chamber itself which easily blew out. NO INSTRUCTIONS However straight forward. The silicone coupler came with 1 clamp which should use 2 since the factory one gets bent over that tougher silicone. The silicone coupler also needs to be trimmed about 1/2" to fit properly away from the battery and to bolt on the vibration mount. The bottom of the filter rubs the radiator hose, but hopefully the vibration mount keeps that to a minimum. The intake is quiet except in the upper RPM range then it has a throaty tone. Good ol NA sound! You do have to remove the plastic battery cover and slide the battery to the side for it to clear everything perfectly. Grade: A

JDM Tails: whoopee! Tail lights. Not much to be said here except you do need to extend the wires on the passenger side. You can pull all you want but to do it right, extend them. Again, would have liked both sockets. Lighting is great and I may have to refit the passenger side light as it seems to have a slight lip against the body....maybe 1/16th of an inch. Grade: A

Spoon Spoiler: I expected more. Why can't a CF duckbill mount to factory holes?! (BTW, I knew this before hand.) I now have factory holes, and the Spoon holes in my hatch. Looks good but I don't like the weave. There are minor nicks on the edges which for a Spoon product should be QC's a little better. Lack of mounting tape too. I used my own but that can only better the chances of reinforcement and prevent water from going to your stock holes. Looks good though so I will stay on track. Grade: A-

Scosche/Scosch kit: I don't know where to start. First, you have people on here who know the member here and stick up for him, but facts are facts. If scoscheguy got in some sort of trouble for offering a GB in the first place, thread should have been closed. The constant delay for a "perfect fit" obviously wasn't delayed long enough. While I tried to contact scoscheguy to get in on the GB, no luck. So I called Scosche myself and ordered it. $122 for the kit, the harness, and the antenna adapter. The saleperson argued with me that the antenna adapter was not needed and I assured him that it was was. HAAB was the part number. Well, I got everything EXCEPT HAAB. When Steve Grantham came on the forums, I e-mailed him directly asking about cuteboi's modification if it will fit then. He said yes. Out of courtesy, after the install, I mentioned that it went fairly well, except when I ordered HAAB, I never received it. It wasn't on the receipt either. So I guess the salesperson thought he was right. No more contact from Mr. Grantham. Not even a "Whoops...Sorry...deal with it." Anything would have been nice. When looking at the wiring harness, I called Tech Support for guidance on a few wires. I received vague answers and nothing really satisfied me so I kept digging and used my technical prowess! JUST SO EVERYONE KNOWS: You have an Orange/white striped wire. That is your dimmer. You have an orange/black striped. That is your dimmer ground. Ground it! You have a green/white stripe...that appears from looking at the service manual, the VSS wire. There is alose a black/white stripe wire which I have no clue what that is. The clips. Well the Scosche clips are deceivingly similar, although you have to reuse some Honda clips. If you don't the top right corner will protrude. The A/C stickers...Way off color but who cares really at this point. There are gaps and a small lip where the kit meets the rest of the dash, but it is old now and I rather put it behind me. SHIPPING TIME WAS QUICK THOUGH! Grade: C (sorry scosche)

I hope that this review helps some people out when deciding a shop to purchase from. Maybe help you decide the parts. Maybe even give you some sort of clue of what to expect. I feel that there are either really young people or 30-39 year old people who both groups, may have never modded their cars. Maybe this can calm some nervers or point them in the right direction.

Kris

 

Thanks Kris! This is good info for me since I had no idea about this. I have ordered parts from Japan and not had to pay any money upon delivery.

I would love to see more people rate the products they have bought and the vendors they have used. Perhaps this could become a feature on this forum.

CORRECTION: Apparently the 'Products' section of FitFreak.net is supposed to be utilized to review/rate products for the Fit/Jazz.

 

It does say that sometimes they charge and sometimes they dont. I havent had to pay that the 2 times ive ordered from them.

 

Something similar to this topic here: https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/fit-...at-doesnt.html

 

When dealing with UPS it's almost guaranteed that if you are shipping across the Canadian / American border you will encounter not only Duty charges (if the item exceeds the $20-$50 USD alloted daily amount to qualify for Duty Free) as well as a UPS Brokerage Fee. However, if the items ordered are made with in North America you will not have to pay duty due to the Free Trade Agreement. The UPS Brokerage Fee on the other hand, is usually a very ridiculous amount (sometimes half of the total value of the items purchased) that UPS charges you in order to file the paper work, etc. to clear your items through Canada/US Customs. The UPS Brokerage Fee can be waived if you yourself take the time to file the paper work, and clear the items yourself.

 

How do you tell them that you want to do that? I got dinged 33% of the price of my Mugen SS for the stupid brokerage fee...I still hate UPS...

 

LOL! Hey all. I posted that I knew somewhere on AJR's site that there COULD be a duty charge. i Didn't mind that. I would have been super happy if I got an e-mail saying "This is what you will need to pay when they get there"...But that may even be out of their hands. No biggie really.

The thing that kind of irked me was the fact that UPS ONLY accepts money orders for this type of thing. If Santiago, my delivery driver came to my door now, I can guarantee you I would be fresh out of money orders for the exact amount, which would entail me to go to the store, get a MO, then go to UPS and pick up my goods.

Again, I wasn't bashing AJR in anyway. Everything on their end went mostly very smooth. I was peeved about UPS a little but it happens. I just wanted to post my experiences.

And I didn't realize the products section could be used to review and whatnot. Mods, feel free to move it.

Again, all my vendors I used got an A+/-. So that is the real deal here. Well, with the exception of Scosche. Thanks for the comments guys but let's not turn it into bashing UPS! I just wanted to post what I thought was appropriate for the stuff I purchased!

Kris

 

On the radio harness you said there was a black/white wire on the plug..well fyi that color wire usually is an amp ground...it is probally used on the 6 speaker fit...(but that harness is used with the 06 and up civic as well...prolly more than that to) so who knows look on the other side of that plug theres probally not a pin there so its all good(if theres anyone that has any questions about any electronics on the fit give me a pm ill be glad to help...just so you know iam a lead tech installer at a bestbuy in texas so iam not a retard but anything questions iam happy to answer...iam going to put a viper 350hv wich is a keyless with alarm because i dont like factory alarms...i like motion sensors and super awsome shock sensors haha hit me up

 

Wow Kris, that's awesome!!! Thanks so much for the review. Here's mine (kinda):
https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/aj-r...reciation.html