FW: [urq] ACNA support for urq owners--PLEASE READ

[Schaible, David]

Whatever happened to this ?  I never saw the compiled unavailable parts
list and never heard about karen's trip to ingolstadt.  

-----Original Message-----
From: William Bremer [mailto:wbremer at maine.rr.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, June 25, 2003 10:46 AM
To: Urquattro List
Subject: [urq] ACNA support for urq owners--PLEASE READ

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Last week, before I went away on a business trip, I said I had some info
that might be of help to us.

While some of us are members of the ACNA (formerly the Quattro Club),
many others are not, on the grounds that the ACNA isn't doing anything
for us.  It doesn't seem like many folks asked for their help either.
For a number of reasons, I value my ACNA membership, and I thought I'd
ask Executive Director Karen Chadwick about getting we urq owners some
help from Audi and Audi Tradition.  Both Karen and Craig Liechty (ACNA
president, and members of the board) reacted strongly and positively to
my proposal, which pertained to the cost of urq parts, the
unavailability of some urq parts, and the inability to get some service
literature (such as the "Introductory Service Training Manuals" without
paying $90 on eBay or finding boot-leg photocopies).   Well, the latter
problem has been solved, but the first two remain and continue to be
vocalized on the list.   And while some parts are expensive, the current
"Administration's" pursuit of a cheap dollar policy (now at about $1.10
US = 1 Euro, from $0.85 US = 1 Euro--a 30% increase in the past two
years) hasn't helped either.

Political considerations aside, the ACNA is planning to make the plight
of the urq owners in the US (in getting "fairly priced" parts, and
making available NLA parts) a topic of discussion with Audi AG in an
upcoming meeting.  This commitment is genuine and serious.  For the ACNA
to help us, however, I need to forward to them, the parts numbers of the
parts that we are finding NLA or that cost several times what more or
less equivalent parts cost for later Audis.  When I asked for this
information once before, I received only one reply, from Mike H., which
was very helpful, but I need to hear from more folks, or the only item
on the negotiating table might be the right side tire rod....  Another
item I can think of is the brake servo, which is around $700+ for the
urqs (if you can find one) relative to around $300 (aftermarket) for the
5000 CSTQs (for example).

Of course many parts can be obtained from aftermarket sources for far
more reasonable prices: who among us would really pay $480 for a brake
master cylinder, or $270 for a rear brake proportioning valve.  But some
parts seem no longer to be available from aftermarket sources and these
"dealer-only" items can be killers.  So, if you have "good" evidence of
NLA or very costly Audi parts and are willing to also provide the prices
of the equivalent part from aftermarket sources (probably between 1/4 to
1/2 the dealer price), please email the info to me.  I'll consolidate
the info and forward the it to the ACNA folks.  For the ACNA just to
complain about parts prices in general to Audi AG might make us all feel
better, but it will not help solve the problem.  I know from personal
experience that BMW Mobile Tradition, which makes available new
BMW-backed parts at very reasonable prices, is a big help to owners of
old BMWs, and with BMW's previous chairman now in charge of VW AG, Audi
AG may have an ear to help owners of Audi first modern performance car.
So please let me hear from you.  I don't have time to do the research on
all the parts prices, so if you want the ACNA to try to help us all (and
let the club show it is willing to go to bat for us, if we ask), please
send me prices of some Audi dealer prices for selected parts,
aftermarket supplier prices, and part names and number for parts that
are either NLA (and desperately needed) or dealer-only and outrageously
expensive.   Without this info, the club can't help us.  As a group on
this list, we have been able to arrange two fantastic UPC-2003/UPG
events, with more in the pipeline, and I hope that folks let me know
about the parts "crisis" as well.

I have also proposed that we be allowed to obtain the latest ETKA/EPC
CDs (for urquattros) and maybe all the technical service bulletins
(TSBs) for urquattros on CD, at a minimal fee, and a big show of
interest would help convince the ACNA to go to bat for us.

Bill (Bremer)
Urquattro Registry

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