ZPrecision cup holder

Hey guys, this is Andrew from Z Precision. Firstly I just want to say THANK YOU to everyone who has purchased my product, the response has been overwhelming and I really appreciate the support for my small business. I put a LOT of effort into these and its been almost a year long process to get to this point so it feels great to finally be able to ship these out an hear all of the positive reactions from happy customers.

I have seen a lot of chatter about the price, and people saying "oh its a $0.50 piece of plastic" or "I could design that in two hours and 3D print it for 10 cents". I have been a Solidworks user for 20 years and have designed literally thousands of parts, dozens of which are injection molded, and I can tell you that the time I spent designing and prototyping this was orders of magnitude greater than what others claim they could achieve. I used 3D scanning to accurately reproduce the compound curvature of the OEM cupholder mating surface. I purchased half a dozen protoypes which cost hundreds of dollars a piece (I have a home made 3D printer, but it is not big enough nor accurate enough to use for this purpose so I had to outsource) to fine tune the fit and make the product as OEM level as possible. I use a 3D modelling software that costs $8,000 running on a $4,000 laptop. I researched resins and pored over spec sheets to try to find the same exact material that Toyota uses in the original cupholder (PP+EPDM with 20% talc fill). I spent tens of thousands of dollars of my own money on a mold to produce these parts, not knowing if I would ever be able to make my money back.

Time is our most valuable resource and I believe people should be fairly compensated for their efforts. It is not my goal to run a non-profit business. While I do enjoy designing and making car parts, I don't do it purely for fun. So yes, the price I have chosen is a reflection of all of the above and I appreciate the hundreds of people who recognize that and are willing to pay for a quality product. Thank you again to all of my customers!

 

That was a great summary of what it takes to design something of high-quality. KUDOS.
If someone wished to roll their own, they could use some PVC schedule 40, glue a bottom on it, and bolt it or velcro it to the side of the center shift console. And it would look like !@#$%^&*(...

 

ok, but to further illustrate my point...

When the temperature outside makes it to around 70 degrees, temperature inside a closed car will rise after:

• 10 minutes: 90 degrees
• 20 minutes: 98 degrees
• 30 minutes: 104 degrees
• 60 minutes: 112 degrees

Better get the high temp stuff.

 

I just ordered mine!

 

How hard is it to swap out?

 

For a well designed and properly injection molded product $65 seems on point. In my case its my girls water bottle that doesn't fit so I'm going to hold off unless she see's one of their advertisements.

 

Looks cool, I dont carry nalgenes anymore unless Im hiking. Ol trusty Yeti the last 5yrs for me.

 

this comes to mind…

 

I could not have put this any better myself! Now for the version for the manual transmission

 

Well I see value in it and put in an order for one. Are there instructions somewhere on how to install it?

 

There’s a video on the website
https://www.zprecision.com/installation-instructions

 

So basically, you’re a billionaire, right?

 

Actually, the source for the saying you posted is more accurately attributed to a story involving Charles Proteus Steinmetz.

Someone might find this interesting.
King, Gilbert. "Charles Proteus Steinmetz, the Wizard of Schenectady". Smithsonian. Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved June 9, 2017.

https://playingintheworldgame.com/2...LbHkW5tbZtN0bf46sVFKDLWWsP0TTMZsjfr7N0WKMJ5Ds

 

@Tacomacup can you make one for the cup holders behind the center console?

 

Just installed mine, really couldn't be happier with it. Install was super easy, just pop the center console, unscrew the old holder, and pop in the new one.

No more Hydroflask bouncing around the passenger floor or seat. I also love that I can still access the lower console buttons while my bottle is in it.

Overall, well worth the wait for me and I don't mind the price point, as a fellow small business owner I know you had to price these at what you had to price them at. Stuff is expensive these days, especially if you don't own all of the means of production like multi-billion dollar companies do. To expect someone to price a unique, OEM quality item at $20 to compete with a flimsy plastic insert from Amazon is insane, but ya'll do you.

 

I didn't know this existed.. Can it hold the 32 oz Gatorade bottles?

 

We strapped our tin cups in saddle bags and let the pack mules carry them.

 

Ordered

 

Very easy, took a Philips head screwdriver and less than ten minutes.

 

Thank you! Just installed mine the other day, very happy with it so far.

One of the things people are also missing about this design is that the Nalgene (or whatever your vessel of choice may be) also sits low in these cup holders, so they don't block any of the controls on the lower dash panel.