We have been asked this hundreds of times in the past couple of months: What is going on with AST here in the USA? The supply issues, lengthy production delays, supply issues, the repairs, the supply issues, the redesign of the 4100 (now the 4150), and the supply issues? The honest answer is – we don’t know all of the details, and might never know. We have unearthed a few new tidbits of information from multiple sources, after we did some digging.
This announcement forum post (linked here) lays out what we know, and backs up to go over some of the recent history with AST, even the much delayed 4150 redesign, and briefly touches on the fact that there is an all new AST importer for the USA. This new distributor seems to be scrambling to set-up a new AST dealer network, set new prices, figure out what to import, and more.
Is the AST 4150 model stillborn? What happened to the 4250? Will we ever see AST dampers in the USA again? Well, it is unknown what will be imported by the new AST distributor, or what changes they and AST Holland have in store. We all have to wait and see what happens over the coming months. We do know a few things, which are talked about in our forum post above.
We also touch on the other brands of monotube dampers we have partnered with that have covered the market that AST was missing for the past two years, while they faced delivery and production delays. Stay tuned for more updates – as we learn more we will share.