It should tell you that the market won't sustain $1200 drop in axles. That's locked Toy axle territory.
You're one of those dipshits who still think the Toyota conversion is a viable option. It's not.
When the Toyota kits were introduced we did not have CV/axles options like we do today. The only thing available back then was the 2522 kits, and whatever it was GBR was selling at the time. These were not 4340 and 300M bits. They were basically stock axles that went through a heat treatment process to improve strength. Some had rings welded to the inside of the CV's to keep them from cracking. Sharp edges had radius put on them for additional strength.
Even with all this the axles and CV's were shit. Everyone knew this. Even folks like Bill Burke were still running stock CV's because they knew they would break anyway and a broken CV was easier to fix than a broken inner axle. Other folk would score their CV's to insure they broke on the shaft and did not shatter a cage.
So, along came the Toyota conversion. Bobby Long at Longfield was making some pretty badass axles with the help of Rockford Achromatic. RA had the ability and equipment to make some super strong axles. With the Toyota and Rover diffs being somewhat similar it was a viable option to swap out the diffs and run some of the axles Bobby was turning out. Keith Kreutzer got this ball rolling and soon after offered a kit to make this swap happen. I installed one of the very first kits Keith put together into James Gall's 1995 D1, along with a Salisbury rear. It was a good kit at the time.
But today, we don't need the Toyota conversions. Why would we? For gear options? That's about the only advantage to the Toyota conversion these days. The Longfields may still be a cunt hair stronger than what Ashcroft is offering, but it's pretty close. The non-ABS CV's may even be equal to what Longfield was offering.
So the Toyota conversation is a piss poor argument and I can't even image that people are still doing this today. If they are, they're only doing it because they can, not because it's better.
But you're right, the market will no longer support $1100 axles. The market is flooded with cheapfucks. Cheapfucks do not understand what it is that makes a quality axle. And even if they do understand they're willing to overlook these important details to save a buck today, only to spend double later.
I think for guys that want to run locked 35's up front $1200 is too much and $740 is more on par with what RoverTracks used to offer.
Of course you do. I wouldn't expect you to think any other way.
