Who was bought cheap? .....................be specific. Now onto debunking some of the knee jerk reactions and plain misinformed statements.
. Is the Rupes machine made in the Midwest USA?, thought it was Italy
. Rupes liquids are made by someone else not in house(Which is perfectly fine to do btw)
. The pricepoint imo is high for the Griots machines and I said as much in conjunction with my evaluations of all the products tested sent to me
. Flex is NOW owned by a CHINESE company................ so how much longer do you think the Flex products will be made in Germany
. Did you know almost all the coatings guys utilize are made in Asia sans two of the popular offerings (OCP/Gloss coat USA - C.A.R Bulletproof USA)
. 95 % of all microfiber towels are made in China with the balance of towels in Korea/Japan
In the US I was the first guy to get a Rupes 21(Which is much ado over nothing as guys in Europe had them and were using them already) the washer mod was a invention of Kevin Brown period, in fact there was a backlash against the washer initially from the maker Rupes and a certain person in the Midwest who after watching how well this made the machine perform changed course 180 degrees and was one of the factors I blew this guy up over on a FB detailers page.
I chuckle as there was so many guys who said similar things about the Rupes machines when they were introduced, one detailer in Long Island comes to mind .................xxxxxing about the pricepoint, stating as fact the machine could NOT be better than a Flex blah blah blah. The blatant me 2 culture on the forums is so comical to watch, instead of waiting to see how certain products will perform they opine ignorant stuff.
I have also watched with mouth open, how guys can be swayed by silliness......................... certain famous detailer who uses Rupes and touts it's amazing properties and when the relationship goes south goes BACK to a rotary as it is better(Unfriended & blocked this guy on FB the minute I saw this as I almost blew him up over this) and MANY guys supported this!!! and said yeah Rupes sucks rotary is MUCH BETTER which is a laugh because many of those guys who said that cannot cut and finish a car with a rotary(I did for many years before DA machines came along).
Will I be getting rid of my four Rupes machines??? no, and I was a tester for this product line(Griots) as I tested for Meguiars and 3D/HD collectively when they introduced their new product lines and Meg's also had detractors from the peanut gallery with the D300 microfiber system.......................... do not remember 3d/HD catching any flack over Adapt/polish etc.........
How about letting any product line flourish or flop based upon performance, I like the BOSS machines as they feel good in your hands and the trigger allows feathering when correcting and or polishing. Another feature I like is the indent on the top of the machine as when you are done with a pass and set the machine down as the pad is still spinning it will stay upright and not flop around violently as the Rupes machine does.
To answer Dave Fermani, all large throw machine wear out pads sooner especially foam pads and in my observation the Griots machines did not wear out the pads any faster. I had pre-production testing machines and I felt the Griots machines needed a little more power and said so in my eval sheets plus I voiced this opinion, so when I use the final production model I will see how they perform. The backing plates are very good as are the pads.
My favorite liquid is the fast correcting cream, the first version sent to me worked very well as it cuts defects and dusts very little and the citrus smell was a nice by product but not a deal breaker as performance is my concern................. it wipes off the panel you are working on easily and those are the weak points of M101 dust and grabby wipe off performance on certain paints(M101 is still the cutting defects champ by far and is outstanding) the later version of the fast correcting cream is even better imo.
As for the machine looking exactly like the Rupes yes it is true, and had I had the funds to make a machine the design would have been a sharp departure from the intended competition in every sense. There I have clarified some things as I HAVE USED this system and can give a informed opinion but it is still a opinion at the end of the day.