[urq] What is everyone's opinion about Audi's parts

[Steve Eiche]

James,
FWIW, I think that I also talked a neighbor out of getting a new A6 yesterday.  He came over to ask about maintenance costs, etc., with Audis.  I told him about the fact that Audi has just stopped covering maintenance items on new '07 cars, and that with what the local dealers charge for those kinds of things, it will likely make a BIG difference during his ownership of the car.  He was under the impression that Audi still had the bumper to bumper coverage.  Another neighbor had thousands of dollars of repairs covered by Audi (lots of brake and suspension issues) that would likely no longer be covered.  He loves the car, but won't buy another for fear of having to pay for the same issues. I doubt that those sales will ever come back. 

BTW, if you want to see how parts for classic cars SHOULD be handled, look here:


http://www.mbusa.com/care/parts/classic-parts.do

Steve


James wrote:

Thats interesting and sad Info Nathan.

I think its a final blow for parts.  Completely inconsistent with what 
Audi is trying to become which is a luxury sports car maker.
If I look on Ebay, I can find classic well maintained Mercedes cars from 
about every year of the 50s and 60s.  Mercedes also has an active 
hertiage department to keep these cars running.  Sure a fuel pump for a 
1930s Mercedes might be 3000 dollars, but it is available and the owner 
doesn't have to rig up a substitute.   The point is that those Mercedes 
are worth almost a quarter of a million dollars so nobody will care 
about spending that money to maintain complete original spec.  

The Urquattro was the closest thing to a Classic that Audi had.  Values 
were actually going up!  The cars where at the point where a proper 
amount of factory support to replicate little cheap parts that break 
often would go along way with their owners.   Audi should keep in mind 
that the owners of these cars are quite active and respected in the Audi 
community and often influence new car purchases or are directly 
responsible for friends and family buying new Audis.   Dis-enfranchising 
this group because the bottom line says its not fiscally in the green to 
make bumper cover plugs for 11,000 cars is BAD business.  

I have just this past weekend spoiled the sale of a Q7.  I won't replace 
my A8L or my wife's A6 with another Audi.   I will keep my urquattro and 
my rally car although I won't show my rally car at ANY Audi shows and 
will only run it on track debadged henceforth.   If Audi doesn't want to 
deal with urquattros then I certainly don't want to be an unpaid 
salesman for them.   It pretty much means we have to scrounge and 
scavenge for every single part on our beloved quattros.    Screw Em.

James Bufkin