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International Shipping Advice

In a typical week I’ll answer 5-6 emails asking about shipping parts outside of the United States and which method to choose. To hopefully clear up a few things for people I will discuss the options we offer and other important topics.

First things first, CorkSport will not under value shipments or label them as gifts. What you are asking us to do is to not be honest in declaring a shipments value to your government. This is like asking a US citizen to report something false to our IRS. It is something you just don’t do. The other catch on this subject is the USPS and UPS will not allow us to insure a shipment over the value of the declared parts. If you ordered a $500 part and asked us to declare it at $200 the maximum we could insure it would be $200. If the shipment gets lost or damaged there is no recourse with the carrier.

CorkSport has several options available for shipping overseas which boils down to two different carriers, the United States Postal Service aka USPS and United Parcel Service known as UPS. Each carrier has its own advantages compared to the other as I will explain below.

UPS delivers to most countries on the planet with the three options below.

UPS Express

is a 1-2 day shipment to most places on the planet. The only thing that can slow down the delivery for this option is customs in the country the shipment is going to. The brokerage fees when shipping by this method are included in the shipping cost. The duties and taxes for your country are not and UPS will collect them. Tracking is available and is updated often with UPS.

UPS Expedited

is a 3-5 day service. This is the economy service for air shipping via UPS. As with UPS Express, the brokerage fees are included in the shipping cost. The duties and taxes for your country are not and UPS will collect them. If you need something decently fast but it is not critical I recommend this option for most shipments. If you want to order something large like an exhaust system or larger, this is the shipment method we quote out. Tracking is available and is updated often with UPS.

UPS Standard

is a ground shipping option for Canada only. UPS Standard shipping takes from 3-10 days depending on where you are in Canada. CorkSport is located on the west coast in the USA. If you live on Prince Edward Island you can plan on the shipment taking 10 days to reach you. With UPS Standard the brokerage fees are NOT included in the shipping cost. The duties and taxes for your country are not as well and UPS will collect them. We get a phone call a week asking us why we did not change the shipping option from UPS Standard when someone places an order when UPS delivers a shipment and collects brokerage and duties. You the customer get to choose the shipping option. If you choose UPS for delivery we will ship it out via UPS.

USPS delivers everywhere on the planet and has multiple choices for shipping.

USPS Priority Mail International

is an option that takes 8-10 days to arrive to most countries. This does not include the time in customs once it arrives to the destination country. Sometimes customs can be quick with a 1-2 day delay. The worst case in customs I have seen was 10 days for Germany. This shipping option will require you to pay for duties and taxes for your country upon delivery. There is no brokerage fees charged. Tracking is available for Priority Mail services except for small flat rate envelope or box. Small flat rate will give us a customs form number but it is not traceable in the USPS system. Insurance is limited for Priority Mail in most countries to $600. If you have a shipment that is valued over $600 we will contact you about this to change shipping options. One drawback to Priority Mail is the maximum size limit which is 200 total centimeters length and girth.

USPS Express Mail Service

is a 5-6 day shipping option to most countries. Customs in your country can delay the shipment but we normally do not see this more than 1-2 days for Express Mail. When the Express Mail shipment arrives they will collect duties and taxes but there are no brokerage fees. Insurance levels are higher with Express Mail. For most countries the highest value for insurance is $2700. There are size limits with Express Mail which are similar to Priority Mail which limits the length and girth at 200 centimeters.

What I suggest for most shipments if the value is lower and the weight is less than 10 lbs, is to use USPS Priority Mail. It offers a decent shipping price for an international order and is very reliable. If you want to get an exhaust or intercooler kit shipped I recommend UPS Expedited. The shipment arrives quickly and insurance value covers the parts if there is damage or something goes missing. You also get your new exhaust or intercooler quickly with this method. If you order something large like a bumper or a quantity of a larger part I recommend you contact us for a shipping quote.

If you have any shipping questions feel free the contact us and we will help you with any shipping questions.

– Derrick

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Portland Auto Show AKA Derrick checks out the Mazda 2

I went to the Portland Auto Show a few weekends ago to see the new cars for the upcoming year, I know we’ve talked about it already but I really wanted to talk about it. Ok, ok you got me, I really just want another opportunity to talk about / drool over the Mazda 2. Mazda brought a standard model green version to the show. They had it on a fancy display pedestal surrounded with one of those black rope separators you use to keep people in line at the bank.

My first thought after seeing the car in person is “small”. Seeing it in pictures and looking at one in person gives you a better scale of a vehicle size. If you haven’t seen a Mazda 2 in person it is bigger than a 88-92 Ford Festiva but smaller than a 90-94 323 hatchback.

On the outside the cars lines look better than pictures have shown. I walked around the car checking it out from all angles and I couldn’t find a spot that look off or I would want to change right off the bat. The wheels they used on the Mazda 2 are a good looking 8 spoke wheel.

One thing I did not see was the cool looking tail lights that can bee seen on the Japanese models. You can see the LED pattern in the tail light housing below. If they are not an option for North America we will be importing the lights.

I wasn’t allowed to hop in the car but I was able to get a good look at the inside. It is roomy for a small car. The inside of the car says Mazda 3. The trim, and design of the interior will make any Mazda 3 owners feel right at home. I had a chance to ride in a 2008 model tuned by AutoExe in Tokyo several years ago. The interior looks really close to the earlier models not sold in North America. Mazda says the interiors for the North America models will be upgraded and have a better feel. I am thinking this will be quality of materials more than styling.

Last but not least Mazda was giving away cool cans of Mazda 2 energy drink! They told me it tastes like Red Bull but I and going to save this souvenir.


Can -O-Zoom

While I was at the show I checked out the Ford Fiesta to see how close it was to the 2 since they share the same platform. The fit and finish of the Ford left something to be desired. From the exterior to the interior styling you can see where Mazda had put in little touches to make the car look or perform better. Even the exhaust on the Mazda 2 looked better constructed than the Fiesta.

After my trip to the auto show I can say I still want a Mazda 2 and I can’t wait to get one.

– Derrick

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Shirt Design Contest Update!

In that last blog we forgot to mention the best part!

In addition to recognition, we’ll be providing a $100 non transferable gift certificate to be used toward the purchase of any of our CorkSport line of products for the individual whose design is chosen. Additionally, we will be providing awards to the 2nd and 3rd place designers as well and sending the winning designed T-shirt to the top 5 designers.

Get those creative juices flowing and let’s see what you’ve got!

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Credit for Content: Tips & Tricks

We love to hear some of the ideas our customers have when it comes to product development. You have some great ideas that have been shared with us in the last few months.

In keeping with our goal of providing excellent customer service and technical support to our customers, we would love to hear some of the tips and tricks that you use when doing installations, modifications or routine maintenance of your Mazda. Could be great ways to keep the oil from spilling all over the rotor housings on your RX-7 during an oil change (that upside down filter is a gem, isn’t it!), solutions to removing or reinstalling the downpipe on the MS3 (those studs don’t like to stay put in the turbo, do they!), or even something as simple as methods on how to keep your tools organized or functioning to their fullest.

In return, we’ll give a 10% discount code (not to exceed $25) for use toward any CorkSport Brand Parts to the top three tips submitted in the next three months.

Feel free to submit video, photos or diagrams to support your ideas.* The clearer you make the content, the better your chances are of getting the discount. We’ll publish the best tips here in our blog and give credit to everyone who submitted ideas. Submit your content to: wrenchtips@corksport.com.

For Example:

Here’s an tip I learned from an Aircraft & Powerplant mechanic who spent countless hours slogging through the muck repairing Aircrane Helicopters that had broken down in the field (or more appropriately out in the middle of nowhere in the woods). This trick was so helpful that he kept a can of Bon Ami sink cleaner in his toolbox. Aircraft and automobile engineers love to use phillips drive screws to hold all sorts of things together. And whether we ourselves have ham-fisted an install and thrashed the phillips drive in the top of a screw or it was the fault of the DPO (Dip-$&*%Previous Owner) , the solution is often times to get out the dremel and make it worse before it gets any better.

Alas, there is a solution that works perfectly, especially in those applications where the Phillips drive is HUGE and holds something on with substantial amounts of torque and your ‘bash it with a hammer’ impact screwdriver has eaten the top of the screw for breakfast.

So before you put all your weight into your battery powered screwdriver and turn what still looks remotely like a usable screw into a finely machined cone…take a deep breath. Go into the kitchen or (if you’re a bachelor and don’t know what this room in your house is for other than storing giant garbage bags of empty natty light cans) grocery store and pick up a can of abrasive sink cleaner like Bon Ami or another abrasive polishing powder. Mix it up into a paste and dip the end of your screwdriver into it. The paste is aggressive and will grab uneven surfaces of the drive in the screw and it will come right out. Make sure to continue to use plenty of downward pressure as well so the driver doesn’t just jump out of the contour of the screw. This trick also works well on partially rounded off hex drive fasteners like those M8 head exhaust manifold heat shield bolts on the MS3/MS6/CX-7.

Just don’t let your wife know that you’ve been stealing things out of the kitchen for use in the shop.

They don’t like that.

– Jason

*All content submitted will become the property of CorkSport.

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The Shirt Off Our Backs…or…The Back of Our Shirts

HELP!

We’re running low on T-Shirts, and while this isn’t a random plea to ask for yours, we most certainly do need your help. While years ago, design was relegated to a select group of people who had mastered the skills of layout, design and illustration, today some of the most talented designers don’t even do that for a living. So we’re calling on our customers and other enthusiasts to help us come up with a design for the new CorkSport swag.

The only requirements are that the design be a two spot color layout in EPS vector format (or easily converted to vector format), and that it be creative. The only thing we’ve got as a starting point is the CorkSport Mazda Performance logo, available from us in vector format via email.

The design will cover the back of the shirts and may also be used on other media. Credit will gladly be given via our blog, the description of the product on our website and we’ll allow you to either use your forum screen name, actual name or initials to autograph the design which will be printed on any of the products that carry this design.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact us or post comments on this blog or any of the forums where this is posted. We love working with our customers to help design the best products for your vehicles and we thought it would be fitting (pun intended) to bring our customers into the design process for our apparel as well.

Remember that we carry a full line of Mazda Parts for vehicles from the Familia 323 all the way up to the 2010 Mazda3 with all flavors of Piston, Rotary, FWD, RWD & AWD variants in between!