A few months ago, we made an announcement stating that kits from Smyth Performance will be available exclusively for repeat builders once our production schedule for 2024 is full. However, we have been offering kits at regular price to anyone who wants one this entire year, and will continue to until 2025 arrives. We have decided to extend the timeline, and are now giving everyone who wants a kit until Dec. 31st to place an order for a kit. If you aren't ready yet, you'll need to work with us: put a deposit down and we will lock you in for a date later in the year.

 

If you are wondering why we are making this change, here is everything you need to know... 

 

The success of Smyth Performance has been made possible by thousands of people who’ve built a kit, enjoyed it, and helped us spread the word about these awesome projects. Our hope is that you continue another build if you wish to be part of our rag-tag team who will make these cars down the road.   

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We will continue to supply kits to Smyth “Builders” in 2025 and beyond. 

 

Who is considered a Builder in 2025?

 

Our builder network is a loose one.  This isn't a super pro group of shops with huge garages devoted to 4 builds at once. It is more of a small group of enthusiasts and pros alike that are very talented with hot rods and custom car builds. Some have done Factory Five Racing or other kits, some are full-time body shops that keep a Smyth kit on hand for the guys to work on when it is slow. We Smyth builders have fun hanging out at the big shows, talking about tips and tricks on the Smyth Ute Tech Support page on Facebook and generally doing something exciting with our talents. We casually make these wild Smyth Utes for people that love to have a car with real character.

 

Anyone who has taken delivery of 2 or more kits by December 31 will be able to order more after the end of the year and join our talented bunch of Builders.

 

Even if you’ve built or purchased one over the last 10 years and buy one more within these next few months of production, you will always have access to our kits in the future. For us it is more of an evolution, since we already sell over half of all Smyth kits to repeat builders. 

 

How did we arrive at this definition of a builder? 

 

Flexibility and simplicity, a two-part goal: Fully support production and delivery of kits in bigger batches to be there for our builders, which will allow more time for us to spend on new projects of our own. We can’t do that if we are flat-out in the factory shipping kits 24/7. There are Builders out there, amateurs as well as nationally recognized shops, that rely on our kits to make part of their living. Whether working out of their backyard garages or big pro facilities, these Smyth builders are creating and selling finished Smyth Utes by the hundreds. A builder in 2025 and beyond will plan ahead and will allow us to batch manufacture the different kits without the tough low margin and complexity of one-by-one model production which is not sustainable in the current market. 

 

Attending car shows, spending fun time in the garage with their friends/family, these are the core car goals of the talented lifestyle and pro builder. We needed to set a limit somewhere in order to free up our schedule without prices going to 6 grand. So, if you’ve purchased two or more kits by the end of the December run, you will always have access to our kits. 

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The drivers of change: Finished car demand soars, market ceiling on prices.

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We rely on advertising, word-of-mouth and organic social media to reach direct-to-consumer DIY kit car customers, and the powers that run social media now have real pricing power...and are pricing us and many companies out. The better we do at reaching people, the more money Facebook and Google demand in 2024. It may not seem fair to pull the rug out from companies that have embraced social media, but that is what FB and IG have done. Simultaneously, Facebook and Instagram are limiting the wonderful organic reach of regular posts. So even if you follow us on FB and Instagram you simply don't see our news and posts unless we pay....a lot. Fewer customers are able to see these fantastic projects that you guys and gals are building. Some still filter into the huge network of social, but 80% less of our content is shown to you even if you subscribe or like our home pages, too bad, hey that's life...adapt or get that machine making other products. 

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Higher direct-to-consumer acquisition costs were followed by huge surges in the cost for raw materials; a one-two punch that left many companies like ours us with a dilemma. We tried raising the prices of our kits, hoping to use the extra margin for advertising. The VW kits, for example, are now $3990 on sale and they sell well. The problem is that adjusted for simple inflation the $3490 kits from 2014 should be $4400 today. No one's fault, the market speaks. This factory was designed to make thousands of kits for low prices, if hundreds rather than thousands are made...the prices likely must almost double.

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Our current price for a Jetta kit is $3990, which, factored for inflation, is a deal and people are happy at this price for the VW kits. Likewise the Charger/300 kits at $4490 is also a good price in the market.  In contrast to this difficult kit pricing, the demand for finished cars is exploding. What an interesting turn. More buyers than ever for finished Utes, higher costs than ever for consumer DIY kits…we know where to move the business as the DIY buyer stalls at a $4000 price point while $25,000 turn key customer cars look like a bargain compared to boring production cars and overpriced hot rod customs at way over 100 grand. We can even keep prices low when we ship 2 or 3 at a time to a single address, a win/win.

 

Why do we want to limit production and free up our schedule in 2025? 

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We feel after a decade of providing kits to anyone who wants to build one at unreal low DIY prices, we've got to mix up the business model. We want to build more Utes that no one’s ever seen before and attend car shows with our friends in the Smyth community. We’ll spend time filming and editing our new projects and give the car world some good content. YouTube is a large part of our future and wild builds are the ticket. Selling fewer kits makes a ton of sense, and supporting repeat builders is the way to do it.

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No complaints here, this is simply the reality of the world we live in, and we are sorry to everyone who will not be able to build one of our kits because of this changing market. We will adapt to the times, have a good time doing it, and give anyone who’s thought of a Smyth Ute project a window lasting until 2025 to make it happen and bring a kit home, 3 months to go as of October.

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It is not lost on me that a big change in the market is how we got into Utes in the first place.

 

In 2015, the Volkswagen diesel scandal ruined the idea of diesels in the consumer’s mind, shredding our sales of the 50 mpg Jetta-based sports car kit that started Smyth Performance in 2012. The Smyth G3F was a kit that turned the diesel Volkswagen Jetta into a true one design mid-engine sports car. People were upset when we stopped its production and focused on the mini trucks that we all enjoy to this day. Blame VW and the diesel fiasco. "Adapt or Die" right? However, this VW corporate disaster caused us to shift our business to the wild success of the Smyth Utes, saving our young company from VW diesel ruin.

 

Though I still love diesels, they are a small part of our sales today. For almost ten years, we’ve been full-tilt in providing our Ute kits to anyone who wants one at an amazing price, often with little profit as we have innovated and tested the limits of the market (we have really good sales data over 10 years of pricing, policy, and promotions). We built the brand and the fun with all of you, through thousands of builds. So here we go a-changin' again, just as exciting as it was in 2015 and with just as much faith in the custom car community. Adapt again.

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So yes, if you want to try your hand at a single kit build now is your time to act. You don’t need to know which model you’ll take until two weeks before your kit is scheduled to ship. If you weren’t planning on building a kit this year, we understand, but you will have to work with us within the timeframe we’ve given. If this is a bit early for your build plans, most who are not ready are buying the kit with Affirm, for example, and putting it in the garage or out back until they get that donor inside and cut. As of this writing the 0% 24 month Affirm intro deal is still working at checkout so at least you longer term builders won't tie up much cash while you fit the delivery into your schedule.

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Above all, have fun with the process, whatever your timeline. These are amazing kits that have provided countless hours of unique building and driving joy. It is a true forever car once built. The Smyth community at large has taken our kits and created quite the fun brand identity, fabulous cars that will continue to be built by those who understand the joy of driving a car with character. 

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Mark Smith