RE: Don't Buy New Audis

[Aleksander Mierzwa <alex@matrix.com.pl>]

Excellent point, Dwight. One of the reasons why I stopped going to the
dealers and began to wrench on my car myself was that many times I was
treated like it was:

* my fault that the car is old
* my fault that it breaks
* my fault that the parts are hard to get and insanely expensive

Audi has to finally realize that not only buyers of new cars create the
opinion. The existence of many old cars in excellent condition driven by
satisfied owners is great, free advertising. If you talk to a Mercedes
official, he will be proud of the fact that many 20 years old MBs are
still hitting the road. Audi seems to be ashamed by the existence of old
Audis. What's the point of discouraging people from buying used Audis by
charging so much money for parts and letting the dealers suggest the
owner of 10 years old car that it isn't worth their attention anymore? I
love my Audi and will buy another one in the future, unfortunately, I
have no hard feelings towards it's manufacturer.

Aleksander Mierzwa
Warsaw, Poland
mailto:alex@matrix.com.pl
87 Audi 5000CS turbo (mine)
88 Renault Medallion wagon (mom's)
91 mountain bike (just in case both cars broke at the same time :-)

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Dwight Varnes [SMTP:xmxbreed@lancnews.infi.net]
> Sent:	Wednesday, December 24, 1997 8:22 AM
> To:	quattro@coimbra.ans.net
> Subject:	re: Don't Buy New Audis
> 
	[...]
> I can get away with my CGT only because it's 4000 based, so parts
> aren't
> too bad, unless it ONLY fits the GT. I could not dream of owning a 5KT
> with the price of things like steering racks, window motors and so on.
> I
> am VERY eager to buy an A4 but will wait to see what the future holds
> in
> about 5 years. Incidentally, I was ready to buy a 20v QC until I
> priced
> a few items (muffler, fog light, and I don't know what else). Scared
> me
> to death. If I'm paying that kind of dough for parts, I'm going to be
> driving a far more exotic and powerful car.
> Audi needs to take a look at what BMW is doing. I'm finding the common
> failure or replacement parts are surprisingly reasonable, and they are
> going to great lengths to keep supplying parts for out of production
> models. They have realized that by supporting owners of older cars
> they
> are getting great advertising via word-of-mouth by enthusiastic owners
> and potential "moving up" customers down the road. 
	[...]
> -- 
> Dwight Varnes                              "Life is too short to drive
> a
> 70 Fiat 124 Spider (restored)			   minivan." 
> 86 Audi Coupe GT (waiting for more HP)
> 
> 89 VW Jetta GLI 16v (The wife's car)			   
> 67 Fiat Dino Coupe (trading for 65 Skylark convertible)
> 98 Ford Contour (company car, got to pick the color)
> 
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