I may be off the target with my response Koldt and if so I apologize, regardless here goes my take on CC finally arriving on the civilian market.
For me at least it was how the whole situation was managed initially, regardless of whether it was CC, Korth or any combination of the two, they dropped the ball. By that I mean offering a newly released rifle that many have been waiting years for, stating it's release was due to the many requests from Military and LEO members over the decades asking for such a rifle (to practice with and use on their own time...). Then releasing the rifles for sale w/o a Mil./LEO discount initially, but shortly thereafter offering a Mil./LEO discount w/o offering compensation/reimbursement to all who had just purchased these rifles days/weeks earlier. Essentially screwing all those who stood by their word and purchased a CC product upon their release. It just didn't sit well with me and likely many others, not to mention all those Mil./LEO members who actually bought a CC rifle initially only to here of a discount they could not apply for later I'm sure. Perhaps the fact Korth is no longer CC's distributor says something towards who's fault that mess belonged to.
Of a much smaller concern (IMO) CC/Korth should have offered the discount not just to current Military/LEO members, but to all Military/LEO who had served Canada during the time the C7/C8 was the rifle they served with. I think it would have been a small token of appreciation for their service regardless if they were still currently active members or not. Being an ex-Army Reserve I had initially wanted one for sentimental (or is that semi-mental) reasons, but could not justify the valuation upon initial pricing/release. At the time of the CC's release it seemed to me that the CC rifles were slightly overpriced, yet an excellent product (not being eligible for the discount was a factor too, for if I had been eligible I surely would have bought one last year).
All in all in wasn't so much the original price point, but the perceived value as compared to other available rifles at the time of the CC's release (maybe that is another way of saying their were priced just a little to high to start?). Although the CC's price did drop a bit after some time; reflecting on the point that the initial price was a little to high, I personally could not justify buying a C8 for close to $2,500 (at their original $2,200 cost) when taxes/shipping were all added in when a DDM4V7 was only $1,700 (non-sale price) all in at the same time (and it wasn't because the CC product wasn't an excellent rifle, again it was due to the perceived value compared to said previous DD rifle for example or even a USA Colt rifle which were available for about half the price of the original CC rifles cost, even knowing the CC rifles quality was far superior to their USA cousins it still felt like the CC's were just valued to high personally). The price the C7/C8's are now should have been what they started with. Even though it wasn't a drastic reduction it was enough to place the CC products more in line with what would have been a realistic valuation of this rifle IMO (during the time of it's release). The price point of the CC rifles now would most likely have reduced a lot of the negative conversation regarding the CC rifles initial introduction and definitely would have spurred more sales initially too.
It's great that CC made these C7/C8 rifles available (even if only a small and one time run of #980 limited edition rifles total), but overall how everything went down is what strikes me the wrong way. Also now that there is no more interactive feedback from Colt Canada or Matt who IMO is/was awesome throughout and the fact no more products are being released until ???, really put's a damper on the whole deal. I mean how hard would it be to offer T-shirts, hats and decals etc. while we wait for the next batch of world class rifles to become available from Colt Canada.
Okay rant over.
Cheers D
For the record, I’m not saying you’re wrong, or whether anyone’s opinion here is wrong. I do want to point out a few things that aren't necessarily directed specifically at your post or anyone else's:
• There was a time when a Colt USA M4 (LE6920) went for $2,500 up here. I can’t say if that price was dictated because of market demand or exchange rate or what, but that’s how much they cost at one time. Someone told me they were even selling on EE for that much used. I could not afford one when I first got into shooting, so I was drawn to the budget Norinco 5 years ago, and at $700, it was a steal compared to a Colt M4.
• When Obama started messing around with things down in the states, it created a panic and everyone was buying up ARs and ammo, we all remember this right? Stores were laid bare with no black rifles or ammo to feed them. The effect trickled up here, especially when it came to ammo.
• Well, manufacturing finally caught up with demand sometime last year and eventually surpassed it, flooding the market with ARs. I know some retailers couldn’t get rid of them if they tried.
• Retailers up here were blowing them out, and it appeared to what I perceived as an AR price war that was in full swing by summer time. DD’s were being sold off for peanuts, NEA was going nuts with prices, and irunguns were bringing in Colt ARs for Walmart USA prices.
My thoughts: Colt Canada likely did their market research for these rifles well before the price war. I imagine that these sort of projects don’t happen overnight, and I bet their data was at least a year old by the time these things were finally rolled out. According to their research, $2,000 for a Colt Canada SA20 was probably a steal compared to a Colt USA M4 which went for about $2,500. They probably also mistakenly assumed that the general public would know that Colt Canada SA20 would be a superior product (cited from a Guns and Ammo, Book of the AR15 article about Colt Canada C7) when compared to their (then) more expensive Colt USA counterparts.
I’m not trying to make excuses for Colt Canada, but I’m guessing the whole fiasco wasn’t all for nefarious reasons. Personally, I think they were nuts to state at a press release that they were thinking of the LE/MIL folks who’ve been bugging Colt Canada for a rifle they can practice on their own with, then releasing the rifle for $2k, taking into consideration a private in the Reserves might make $2,500 in a year, but maybe they had officers and senior ncms in mind?
Anyway, just some things to think about.
