Re: Catering to used-car buyers?

["Ian J Haseltine" <jim_haseltine@email.msn.com>]

-----Original Message-----
From: Phil Payne <quk@isham-research.demon.co.uk>
To: Doyt@poboxes.com <Doyt@poboxes.com>
Cc: quattro@coimbra.ans.net <quattro@coimbra.ans.net>
Date: 30 December 1997 19:46
Subject: Catering to used-car buyers?


>
>Take 3:  Audi/VAG decide to split their branding.  My local VW & Audi
>         garage is now VW-only, and the Audi component is 20 miles
>         away.  "Ah", says Len Hunt (Marketing Director, Audi UK),
>         "this is not a problem because we'll ship any part you desire
>         from the new [remote] Audi dealership to your local VW
>         dealership overnight".
>
Try this. 9:30am Saturday, walk into the parts department at Layerthorpe
Audi (York) and ask for 8 of N 011 184 9 and some other bits. Get told "They
will be delivered on Tuesday". Very cool, calm and collected I then enquired
"These are all nuts and clevis pin retainers, general everyday parts - why
the **** dont you keep them in stock?".
"Company policy" was the answer.
It seems that their idea of a parts department is a nice clean room with a
microfiche reader and a pc. The only spare parts in it are the ones that
work there. As far as I can work this out, they must book a job in some days
in advance, order every possible part that they might need and then charge
the poor sucker for them all - its the only logical answer. As if logic
comes into it :-).

Jim Haseltine
88 Ur quattro