Imagine ... Audi helping owners of older Audis with part sea rches

[Beatty, Robert]

Fred,

As I have a bit of an "inside" take on the service issue, I'm going to take
a stab at this one.

My dad worked for AoA as a service trainer from about 86 to 91 or so.  I
used to go with him to the training center.  What he would have for
materials to teach the cars is the newest literature, the tools required,
and the car itself.  He had a stable of about 5-6 cars to train with (and
drive :) )and they would be replaced with next years model every year.  They
didn't keep older models around.  It really wouldnt be finacially prudent
for AoA to keep training on the cars, as there are less and less of them
seeing dealer service as time goes on.  The best way to find a dealer able
to service your older car would be to ask around about the experience of the
guys.  If some mech has been there 15-20 years, chances are he went to the
original school on your car and would know about specifics.

On a side note, I was only in my teens when dad worked there.  What I
wouldn't give to have him working there now!  For any of those big problems
on my car, we could just take it there and have all new tools, a clean shop
and every manual made by Audi to reference!  I LOVED walking around there,
esp the 1st year he worked there when Porsche was still affiliated with
VW/Audi.  I could sit in any of the cars, and Dad even brought home one of
the Porsches one night.  AHHHHH the memories of youth... :)

That job is no small reason why I'm such an Audi nut today! :)

Rob

-----Original Message-----
From: Fred Munro [mailto:munrof at sympatico.ca]
Sent: Monday, November 19, 2001 9:19 PM
To: TM; duane at zk3.dec.com; 'Quattro List'
Subject: Re: Imagine ... Audi helping owners of older Audis with part
searches


Hi Taka;

Our local Audi dealer tech drives a '86 5ktq. His wife drives my old '91
200q. He knows these cars inside-out. Ironic, really - there's not that many
of them around here to service.
It's a mixed bag for service on these old cars, all right - they're not
teaching this stuff at "Audi school" any more and as we all know, even
though the cars are old, they are not simple mechanisms.


Fred Munro
'94 S4 (the only one in town)



----- Original Message -----
From: "TM" <t44tq at mindspring.com>
To: <duane at zk3.dec.com>; "'Quattro List'" <quattro at audifans.com>
Sent: Monday, November 19, 2001 5:02 PM
Subject: RE: Imagine ... Audi helping owners of older Audis with part
searches


> Dealers working on old Audis are a double-edged sword, though-
> They often lack the knowledge or expertise to really fix the
> cars properly, considering the majority of the techs at my local
> dealer are too young to have fixed a lot of I-5 Audis. They tend
> to do the "replace the part according to a procedure list and see
> if the problem goes away" kind of thing. That really pisses me
> off- they can't diagnose the problem properly, so they throw a lot
> of new parts at the problem. Not my way of doing things.
>
> They also try to sell you everything at full list and the local
> dealer is $85 or $90/ hour, not even $75. This results in cars with
> relatively minor problems (but maybe several of them) getting
> repair estimates of $3000 and up, which causes a lot of cars to go
> to the junkyard. My mechanic bought his car for $500 because the PO
> got a $9000 estimate at the dealership to fix the car.
>
> The only instances where I see mechanics refusing to work on cars
> because
> they're too old is when they honestly lack the expertise or parts
> suppliers
> to fix them- I have seen this with Porsche 356s and old Mercedes-Benzes.
> I sure as hell wouldn't have the faintest idea on how to fix a 190SL.
> Heck,
> I am not even able to start one of those- you have to push and pull
> levers
> and switches just to start it and get the carb working properly.
>
> Taka
>
>