[s-cars] Audi's online manual offerings...

[CyberPoet]

They are trying to get new revenue streams going through use of
pay-as-you-go PDF manual access (to manuals they already invested their
time and money into creating for their dealer network). Think Acrobat
Server (an adobe product) tied to a credit-card authorization method.
You ask for the pages for a 1995 S6 Fuel Tank Sender diagnostic and
install/replacement, it churns out the pages with the diagnostic chart,
the schematic of the item, the procedure for remove & replace (R&R),
all into a single multi-page PDF (sent to your email) and bills your
credit card. This is really sensible for mom-n-pop shops who don't do
much Audi work and thus can't justify buying the full set of Bentley
manuals for each model (but can't rely on the AllData CD to be accurate
about diddley-squat). Can also be reasonable for home wrenches if you
only need the occasional page for something complex & new. Upside: you
get constantly updated info (including replacement part numbers, if
they've changed, from the master database). Downside: you pay by the
page, with probable quantity discounts.

All the digging in the world didn't give me the page cost, but I
suspect it's going to be around $1 per. Send 'em an email and ask :)

One spare thought: this could be a god-send for those of you who travel
regularly (or on long road-trips), because it means anywhere you can
get access, you can get the information needed to turn an unskilled
local wrench ("gee, is that thar one of them foreign carz?") into at
least a semi-competent mechanic on a specific procedure -- very useful
when the closest dealer or reliable Audi-specialized wrench is hundreds
of miles away...

Maybe we should see if we can court them to sell us a discount
membership for the entirety of the list as a single unit :)

Cheers!
=-= Marc Glasgow

On Wednesday, March 12, 2003, at 12:20 AM,
s-car-list-request at audifans.com wrote:

> What's up with this?
> <A
> HREF="https://erwin.audi.de/docs/
> docshopFlowControl.jsp?doAction=start">https://erwin.audi.de/docs/
> docshopFlowControl.jsp?doAction=start</A>
>
> An ~Audi ~ on line repair manual?  Couldn't find out just how much it
> costs
> or if our cars are in there.
> So, who wants to go first?
> Cheers'
> Bill m