MedEwok wrote:
Nevertheless, what costs 1000€ in a car seems to cost 10k € in an aircraft, while still being fundamentally the same piece of technology. Very annoying, this.
So there were more than 16 million cars produced in the US last year, and about 1500 aircraft of all types. It is ludicrous to compare the markets of the two.
The G1000 is a special case. In most instances, the aircraft manufacturer owns the STC, not Garmin. The G1000 is integral to the aircraft type and except for the King Air retrofit, there is no after market. You buy the aircraft with the system, not the system. Features are sold thru the aircraft manufacturer.
That, however, would suggest that the mfg might apply pressure onto Garmin to sell some of these retrofits – especially as the “retrofit” is purely vapourware. The mfg makes a margin on it after all. Everybody makes a margin on everything in GA manufacture and maintenance. You contract your maintenance company to get your engine overhauled and you pay 10k more (20k on a DA42) than if you managed it in a rented hangar… So you have incentives all the way down the line to “shift stuff”.
But I guess even there you get caught by the desire of the airframe mfg to not support used planes – because every used plane that isn’t scrapped is one fewer new sale. Maybe that’s why new sales are in such a mess: a G1000 plane isn’t going to get scrapped (with or without LPV or SV) for many years.
NCYankee wrote:
The G1000 is a special case. In most instances, the aircraft manufacturer owns the STC, not Garmin.
You’re right, what I wrote is incorrect.
For example, the SVT unlock card is sold by Cessna through a specific SB.
But I think the price for the option is the same across all brands (Mooney, Diamond…), so I guess Garmin is somewhere related to it.
