Just yesterday we posted our response to growing concerns about the coming inflation, and we pledged to do whatever it takes to keep our costs low. Why? Because we love you guys, and we figured you could use a break.

But wouldn’t you know it? Moments after hitting the submit button on the post, we received a mailer from a pretty major re-seller that featured one of our lifts. Even after all these years, it’s still exciting to see BendPak equipment in print.

In this case however, we were mostly confused. Check out this limited-time ad from early 2010:

If you compare the three lifts, you can see that they all are in the same weight capacity category and they all do essentially the same thing. But somehow the BendPak car lift was merely dubbed “Good.” We can only assume this because we fight like hell to keep our costs down.

What. The. Heck.

So this is where we’re supposed to say, “We’re just as good as the other guys,” right? NO WAY. We’re better than just good and we can prove it.

See, we like to actually back up our claims of good / better / best. You know, instead of relying on some marketing hack (who knows more about fonts than say…engineering) to make assumptions based solely on price. It’s a little thing we like to call truth in advertising.

A little while back we did a toe-to-toe comparison of our lift up against Rotary’s flagship—the SPOA10, just like the one in the ad. We tore that sucker apart and photographed it side-by-side with our own XPR-series two-post car lift.

Spoiler-alert! It wasn’t even a close contest. The photographs speak for themselves, and we invite you to go over our evidence with a magnifying glass: Study in Lift Design Two Post Lift Comparison.

Make no mistake, Rotary Lift makes a quality product. But if Rotary is let’s say a Cadillac, this study proves that BendPak is an M1 Abrams Tank.

Now where does Forward Lift (Rotary’s bargain brand) fall into the mix? We can’t really comment, but Forward, like Rotary does fall beneath the Dover Corporation’s Vehicle Service Group, and for all we know, could be identical to the Rotary with just a different badge.

Incidentally, BendPak doesn’t have a bargain brand. We only serve up our best at the lowest price we can offer. End of story.

So how come a Rotary lift is so much more expensive?

Honestly, we have NO IDEA and can only speculate.

Maybe they caved to the rise in steel prices last summer. Maybe they simply have too many on their payroll. Maybe they are confident that higher prices will give customers the perception that they are a better value so they can keep higher margins. Perhaps they charge more to cover their warranty costs. But that shouldn’t be because their warranty covers only a fraction of BendPak’s warranty. Or just maybe, because they are a public company, they have to elevate profits to keep stockholders happy. Who can say for sure?

Just to be clear, we’ve got nothing bad to say about Rotary and we've got nothing against them. They are a fellow member of the Automotive Lift Institute so they obviously care about car lift safety, and they have plenty of satisfied customers.

Our point is this: to indicate that he who has the highest price must have the best product is frankly a little insulting to us, and more importantly, YOU.

Yeah, you guys who are working hard to stretch your dollars. It's like this ad is saying, "How dare you expect a quality product at a good price."

Don’t fall for it. Do your research and get the right lift for you, even if you don’t go with us. That’s what we’ve been saying all along.

But hey, if anyone is uncomfortable saving money while still getting the best, you’re welcome to give our dealers an extra $1,000. We’re sure they’d be very happy to offer the extra peace of mind.