Hi Matthew,

Just to let you have some insight. In general, the manufacturer's position is simple, they want to sell their headlights, not its' parts. Why? Because they spend million on the molds, they want to recover it by selling more headlights. And selling its parts which every headlight has about 50 ~ 150 parts, it will be very difficult to manage its inventory when they start to sell the assembly parts. Mercedes W220 S Class headlight has roughly 1,000 parts by the way, so if people start to inquire about little part in the headlight and they start selling it, guess the inventory level and part number level will skyrocket.
I am sure people don't realize that and just think, how could it be so hard, sell me the part that are already exists. The manufacturer think of different point of view. They don't care of making a few extra bucks (literally), when they already spent 70K+ on a single headlight's molding. If there is a manufacturer out there that is willing to make just the diffuser part, I am sure there is, they will ask thousands unit or more to be made. And since molding again is required, it won't be cheap or at least it gets spread out into the unit price itself. Remember, there is a cost for making a new product, so no matter how you arrange it, cost must go to someone, either pay upfront for the molding fee or pay on each individual units.

I am in the R & D department of the company I am working at, I have many experiences in developing the lighting and other car accessories. I know how much and how many and how long it takes to get something developed. And I am not going to BS you just so we can make a few bucks. I personally own a TL as well, and I love Acura. We developed Acura aluminum pedals, TSX headlight, now TL headlight, and TL smoke side marker and later on will have the smoke LED mirror side marker. Plus the Clear Tail light is coming. Current other projects includes Glow Gauges (Type-S look) for previous generation of TL and Non-Type S models. And I heard people are looking for illuminated door sills which we can develop (just need some samples) and we can make it true LED powered, not the old Electro Lumnicent.

Both you and I know that the diffuser won't cost that much to make, but just for example:
if a unit costs $10 to make, while the molding itself is $12K So, let's say I make 200 units, meaning the cost for each unit would be $10 (actual cost) + $60 ($12K / 200 units) = $70 And that would be the ACTUAL cost of this thing, not $10.

I am still working with the manufacturer for a solution, which I can't promise anything yet, but I know if the price for the diffuser that people can accept it is too low, there is no point that we invest time and money into it. That is an honest truth.

I know that there are some people custom work on the headlight, tinted, painted, open it up for angel eyes....etc How much they charge? I am sure this is way cheaper compared to that. What I wrote to you, I trust that you will keep it to yourself and express it in your own way. I am here to create a win-win situation. To create a part that people want and offer it at a reasonable price that people are willing to pay and we are willing to supply. If for some reason, people think that we are out there to making huge profit. Then, it's alright, we will NOT even bother to make the part that does not exist at the first place and so we won't be blamed on being a profit maximizer. We have a good reputation in Acura's world and we intent to keep it that way. Thank you.

Regards,

Simon