RE: Koni info (in defense of Koni)

[John Karasaki <johkar@teleport.com>]

At 12:22 AM 2/25/98 -0800, you wrote:
<snip>
>This incident sends a clear message to me ... that Koni does not make a
>shock absorber that they reasonbly expect to last as long as the
>guarantee states.  I had been hearing good things about the adjustables
>for the urq, and I will be purchasing a set of cartridges soon since I'm
>going to be doing the clutch and probably a bunch of other stuff ... but
>I have to say I'm going to look long and hard elsewhere before I buy
>from Koni.  That doesn't include the '85 4kQ and '88 5kCSQWs that I own
>that are probably running on the original struts ...
>
>... sorry about the rant ... perhaps I'd better go to bed ... oh yeah,
>I'm still at work!  :-)
>
>Steve Buchholz
>San Jose, CA (USA)
<snip>

I agree wholeheartedly.  The original/previous owner of my urq had had the
konis replaced three times before I got the car.  AND paid full price for
the replacements each time!  The bizarre part is that he was meticulous
with keeping receipts and used the same mechanic for a couple of the change
outs.  When I mentioned that I though Koni's were guaranteed for life, he
replied "Yeah, right."

My mechanic has mentioned on numerous occasions that Koni makes it
extremely difficult for him to return cartridges under warrantee claims.
Even when he has his (the mechanic's) copy of the customer's original
receipt, Koni makes him purchase new struts, install those in the
customer's car so that they can have something to drive, send the original
struts to Koni for inspection/repair, wait the several weeks it takes for
Koni to do their thing, then take the new Konis out of the customer's car,
install the repaired struts, then send the "new" set back to them as returns!

What a hassle!  By comparison, Boge replacement is done by a phone call
from him to the local rep.  The rep. credits his account for the struts so
that the customer and mechanic has zero hassle and waiting.  That's
service.  That's what Koni should do.

John Karasaki
"Dreading the day my Koni's fail."