If you would have asked a few years ago if I would be driving a Hyundai, I would have laughed in your face. In fact, I am sure most recent Hyundai customers would have as well. I would like to preface this blog by saying I am by no means a car expert at all. I’d like to share my experience of purchasing a new car. About a year and a half ago I was starting to become sick of getting in and out of my little Acura RSX. I drive a lot, and the car was simply just not comfortable. So I set out to find a new car to call my own. After your house, a car purchase is typically the biggest purchase you can make. So like most people, I weighed all my options. I’m not going to lie; I really wanted a Benz or even a Beamer. I was prepared to part with my hard earned money for one of these cars but I just couldn’t do it…so what was holding me back…TWO words…MAINTENANCE COSTS…for a guy that drives at minimum 40k per year…I could see a small fortune being spent on up keep on my EGO boost option.
So where did I turn…well a good friend of mine from university had mentioned to me that I should take a look at the Hyundai Sonata. His family owns a couple dealerships. I really didn’t think I would be that impressed but I have got to tell you…I was. From its exterior styling to luxurious interior the car does not lack one bit. So you know what, I got over the fact that there was not a Benz logo or a BMW logo on the front of the car. I get very good fuel economy, I am averaging 7 Litres per 100 km. I’ll take that right now with gas selling around 1.30 per litre. That’s a few extra dollars in my pocket every month, it adds up!
In a time where it seems like costs are constantly on the rise (food, house expenses, entertainment, gas and the list goes on and on) do yourself a favour and go check out a Hyundai. The smaller version of the car I purchased the Elantra won 2012 car of the year. I am not the only one figuring out that these guys are putting out a quality product. Honda and Toyota it seems like are on their heels and if they don’t come out with something new soon, Hyundai will continue to eat at their market share.
And NO my friend or Hyundai did not pay me to write this! Haha! 1.5 years into this newly formed relationship and no complaints for my South Korean Cadillac nicknamed Rhonda. For a point of reference, Streetsville Hyundai was where I purchased my vehicle. Happy driving!
For the average Joe, the world of ‘photocopiers’ can be dreadfully monotonous. That is to say, they are commonly viewed as ‘all the same,’ with little or no difference between them. I know this because I too once felt this way, sadly. That was before I joined the team at Advanced Office Solutions and discovered a world of paper and unlimited possibilities! The sky is the limit in terms what you can produce when a crisp sheet of paper is fed through a document feeder; you can copy, fax, hole punch, staple, use different types of paper… collate…fold…did I mention staple? Okay fine, I’ll admit that it may not be the most exciting thing to read about on the web. Nevertheless, a well performing multi-function printer is an extremely valuable commodity crucial for businesses large and small. So if you’re still reading and want to find out a few reasons why Xerox is the market leader, and why we’ve chosen them as our partner. I’ve listed a few key differences below that separate AOS and Xerox from the competition:
Why Pay More for a Premium Brand?
Sometimes we as consumers, pay less up front by selecting an inferior brand. Even though we are taking less of a financial risk up front, long term we may pay more in terms of the performance, soft costs and social risk associated to our decision.
Sometimes when we take more of a financial risk up front for a premium brand, we pay less in terms of peace of mind knowing it will give us the best performance.
By default, I’ll illustrate an example related directly to the office equipment industry that I work in.
Let’s say a customer is trying to decide between a low cost competitor and the premium vendor in the market. Compared to the premium vendor, the low cost vendor is $100 less in terms of the overall total cost of operations on a monthly basis. One of the primary ways in which the premium vendor can erode the price gap between the low cost vendor is by the real world performance of the machine.
Manufacturers rate their devices based upon how many prints of a single document on the platen glass can be output in 60 seconds. What happens when a mix of common office documents are printed from multiple network locations – including jobs that involve everyday office requirements like finishing? To find out Buyers Laboratory Inc. (BLI) conducts independent, third party productivity testing on the various copier/printer/scanner models in the marketplace. Efficiency, calculated by dividing the tested speed by the rated speed, is a factor in determining the price/value relationship of a system.
In our example, the low cost vendor has rated their device at a speed of 55 pages per minute (ppm) even though BLI has tested their device speed at 25 ppm. The premium vendor has rated their device at a speed of 55 ppm even though BLI has tested their device speed at 50 ppm. The customer considering both vendors prints 15,000 pages per month in their office.
If you take the tested real world speed from BLI of the low cost vendor of 25 ppm divided by 15,000 prints you get 600 minutes of printing. Divide that by 60 and the low cost vendor’s machine will take 10 hours a month to print.
The real world speed from BLI of the premium vendor’s device 50 ppm divided by 15,000 prints works out to 300 minutes of printing. Dividing that by 60 gives you a total printing time of 5 hours a month.
Conservatively assuming that an office worker earns $20/hour, by saving 5 hours of printing time in a month, a company saves $100/month in wages.
In this example, one performance feature has eroded the perceived price gap between the lost cost vendor and the premium vendor.
As with anything in this life, you get what you pay for and this is the same in the world of office equipment. If you buy a cheaper device from an unknown brand you can’t be annoyed when it breaks down or does not perform as efficient as it’s rated speed – surely you knew this when you purchased it. Everything has a life span, so make sure when choosing your new copier you buy from a brand you can trust where quality is second to none.