Imagine ... Audi helping owners of older Audis with part searches

[Fred Munro]

Yes, all marques have dealers like that - Audi isn't special in that regard.

Fred

----- Original Message -----
From: "Larry C Leung" <l.leung at juno.com>
To: <munrof at sympatico.ca>
Cc: <t44tq at mindspring.com>; <duane at zk3.dec.com>; <quattro at audifans.com>
Sent: Monday, November 19, 2001 10:53 PM
Subject: Re: Imagine ... Audi helping owners of older Audis with part
searches


> My friend's experience with his new Subie  is evidence that the car's
> don't have to be old for Dealers to screw up. His car was inboard wearing
> the front tires, so he brought his car in (it was a dealer demo car) to
> be aligned. They told him that it "couldn't be aligned" and that the rear
> shock was bent (thus claiming abuse) causing the problem. My friend, who
> now drives like the family man that he is cried foul, "how could they
> sell him a car that wasn't right in the first place!?!?" Finally, he took
> his car to his trusted Audi wrench (mAC), whom not only aligned it, (it's
> front camber was off, one side was positive, one negative (no wonder it
> pulled to the side!) and nothing was wrong with the rear shock. In fact,
> his wrench told him that the rear suspension was a full upper/lower link
> type, so there is NO WAY a bent strut COULD affect alignment (it wasn't
> bent anyway). He is busily trying to have the dealer pay for the
> alignment.
>
> BTW (mAC pt. 2), his '93 100CSQA is still running perfectly.....
>
> LL - NY
>
> On Mon, 19 Nov 2001 21:19:13 -0500 "Fred Munro" <munrof at sympatico.ca>
> writes:
> >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
> >>
> >>
> >