Clair Parts

[Brett Dikeman]

At 2:58 PM -0400 10/25/01, David Head wrote:
>Even though Linda @ Carlsen has retired, Didi is great - when I punched out my
>oil pan last week she told me what depot they were in and then said to get it
>faster order it via the V8 program through the local dealer as long as it was
>before 2:00pm. Even though that didn't work out and I eventually ordered it
>through Mac @ Clair, the fact that she would spend close to 10 min 
>on the phone
>with me then urge me to not get the part through her impressed me deeply!!!
>One thing Carlsen will do that Clair will not is source through other vendors
>than VAG - which is why they can discount even more...

Excellent point.  Linda once couldn't find something, and said "hang 
on a minute!" and furiously typed away.  "Nope, none in <some 
city>...none in <some other city>, none in..." etc through about 6-8 
different vendors.  Both places really go the extra mile.  I prefer 
clair because ups ground to most of the surrounding region in the NE 
is one day, and they're within a 40 minute drive :-)

Speaking of other "sources"...some of the chinese parts that Blau is 
selling look kind of interesting.  My replacement expansion tank bore 
metal sleeves inside both the bottom and side nipples. I haven't 
looked at the stock one, but I don't remember the  same feature on 
the stock audi parts.  I suspect the chinese have been tinkering and 
improving.

 From a restoration perspective, probably not the way to go; they've 
got totally different markings etc.

 From just keeping the car running perspective, I'd bet that a lot of 
the redesigned parts don't share the typical failure modes.

B
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