Why Is Rough Country So Cheap And Is It Worth It?

If you know about car lifts, you know about Rough Country (RC). Their products are super affordable and always cheaper than their competitors. But why are they so cheap?

There are multiple reasons. Partial overseas sourcing, base location, and generic quality are the major reasons why their prices are so low.

Everyone wants to save some bucks when it comes to car parts. But when the price tags are too low compared to the competitors, the suspicion starts rising.

Here is how Rough Country keeps their prices so affordable.

Reasons Why Rough Country Is So Affordable

First things first, if you have only checked their online prices and took that as the original price, there’s news for you. The prices jump up a little once you add in shipping and installation costs.

But even then Rough Country is usually cheaper than other brand lifts and shocks. Why, and most importantly, how?

There are multiple reasons and layers to this. Overseas sourcing, base operating location, and generic quality products are the influencing factors. These aren’t all the reasons, but these are the major ones.

Let’s see how these things help Rough Country keep its price lower.

• Partial Overseas Sourcing

When you see something cheap, your first thought is probably outsourcing from Asian countries. While that is true in most cases, sometimes local sourcing can keep the cost lower.

Rough Country does both so they get the best of both worlds in terms of prices. That’s why their products are priced lower.

Outsourcing from third parties is a very common business model. If the raw materials for your product are cheaper outside of your operating country, the wisest decision is to outsource them from there.

Since the material is cheaper, production cost drops, and manufacturers can keep a lower price.

The opposite is true too.

Sometimes raw materials or technology are more affordable in western parts of the world like the USA.

No extra shipping and labor cost means the production cost stays low, so the overall price point usually stays lower.

Rough Country does both of these for their production. Most of the big parts of their products are made in their own warehouses in the USA.

The technology is better so they don’t have to pay extra for manpower across the sea. The overall process also costs less here so they get some advantage here.

For the smaller parts they can’t make in their own warehouse, Rough Country bulk buys them from countries like China (hence the rumors of their products being China-made).

The smaller parts are cheaper and they only have to pay the shipping cost for it, no labor cost. This gives them another boost in production costs.

Overall, Rough Country takes the most affordable options when it comes to its raw material sourcing. Since the product price drops because of this, their overall pricing can stay lower than their competitors.

• Base Operation Location

Like material sourcing, base location can also influence production price. In-house assembly and other manufacturing steps can cut down the production cost depending on materials.

Since Rough Country does everything in its base location, its production costs stay lower and the overall price stays low too.

Rough Country is a USA-based manufacturer.

Their raw material sourcing, processing, and assembly- most of these things are done in the USA.

While this can drive production costs higher sometimes, that’s not the case here.

Doing everything in their base location means they won’t have to pay for extra labor costs overseas.

Most manufacturers turn to overseas options because the USA manufacturing facilities aren’t very big scale compared to Chinese ones.

But Rough Country mostly makes smaller parts so they can get everything done in the USA. This means they can also cut back on expertise fees and everything related to the manufacturing process.

The whole production cost ends up being much lower because there are no extra fees to pay. With the production cost being lower, the market price stays low too.

• Generic Quality

Let’s face it, “you get what you pay for” is true in almost every case. As hard as it is, you have to admit the quality of Rough Country lifts (and other tools) is pretty generic.

Since there is no specialty involved, the production cost is lower and so is the market price.

Rough Country has been improving and expanding since the beginning. The products you see are the culminated result of that effort.

But the thing is, they aren’t quite at a high-quality level. Are they affordable? Yes. Are they premium quality? Not exactly. There are plenty of other options that have better quality.

Premium quality tools have to use premium quality materials too. That makes the production cost higher.

Since Rough Country is more on the generic quality side, the production cost is much lower than its competitors. This helps them keep their market cost lower.

Also Read: RockAuto And 1A Auto For Auto Parts.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Here are a bunch of questions people ask about lifts and Rough Country in general.

Final Verdict

If you’ve been wondering why the hell Rough Country is so cheap, you probably have your answer by now. There are multiple reasons why their prices are lower.

But the major ones would be lower source material cost and more generic quality.