More of my thoughts on the Parts Sell Off. x-post from the urqlist
08-02-2006, 06:04 AM
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More of my thoughts on the Parts Sell Off. x-post from the urqlist
The intriguing thing is that Audi plans to simply abandon the urquattro and sport quattro to the aftermarket world. These cars define what Audi is now. A performance oriented all wheel drive car.
And more importantly the SPORT QUATTRO which is the embodiement of their rallying heritage. lets talk about that for a minute or two.
The Sport Quattro essentially defines Audi as far as I'm concerned. They are worth roughly 75000 dollars if in original good condition.
A very pricey car even by todays standards. A car of that worth being only 25 years old or so DESERVES better from the manufacturer than to be abandoned to the aftermarket.
There are 1955 mercedes in excellent condition that fetch 80,000 dollars and one can still get parts for that car. So the bigger travesty here, dare I say a Monumental Travesty is the treatment of Sport quattro owners. To sell off all the Sport Quattro parts to the general public without at least offering them to actual Sport Quattro owners is RIDICULOUS to an Extreme. What if a Sport gets into a minor fender bender or a breaks a driveshaft. The owner has to scrougne for parts and many of these might actually be on copy cars, conversions and other vehicles. Is that the end to a very rare machine that represents what Audi is all about? To use these cars in advertisements such as the new Q7 commercial while at the same time dropping all factory support to keep these car on the road and in tenable condition is DESPICABLE. To see the quattro logo on all their new cars while dropping support for the original car that started the whole trend is beyond Belief. Incomprehensible.
So regardless of how new Audis are so great where one has to pay 500 dollars for maintenance, I can find plenty of other car makers who offer similar products at better value. If Audi is going to treat some of its most DIEHARD customers this way, I do not want to stick around to see how they treat their average customer. I get the impression that they think The urquatto is like Jars of Expired Mayonaise that need to be throw out.
I have a 2001 A8L that will be replaced soon, I will not be another Audi. I have persuaded my mother to pass on a Q7 in favor of a Mercedes Benz. It will not stop there. Audi will have to realize that in the long term, this move is a bad move and is being penny wise and pound foolish.
Now, I will not sell my Urquattros. Nor will I sell my Rally Car, I'm sure many of you would be willing to buy it. I am not very proud of Audi right now. I find myself personally in a rather unique position because I do own a higher profile car that can be used with considerable weight for advertising and promotion. Last year, things were great. Audi was doing the 25 years of Quattro and things were looking up. Now one year later, its a total and utter flop.
James
And more importantly the SPORT QUATTRO which is the embodiement of their rallying heritage. lets talk about that for a minute or two.
The Sport Quattro essentially defines Audi as far as I'm concerned. They are worth roughly 75000 dollars if in original good condition.
A very pricey car even by todays standards. A car of that worth being only 25 years old or so DESERVES better from the manufacturer than to be abandoned to the aftermarket.
There are 1955 mercedes in excellent condition that fetch 80,000 dollars and one can still get parts for that car. So the bigger travesty here, dare I say a Monumental Travesty is the treatment of Sport quattro owners. To sell off all the Sport Quattro parts to the general public without at least offering them to actual Sport Quattro owners is RIDICULOUS to an Extreme. What if a Sport gets into a minor fender bender or a breaks a driveshaft. The owner has to scrougne for parts and many of these might actually be on copy cars, conversions and other vehicles. Is that the end to a very rare machine that represents what Audi is all about? To use these cars in advertisements such as the new Q7 commercial while at the same time dropping all factory support to keep these car on the road and in tenable condition is DESPICABLE. To see the quattro logo on all their new cars while dropping support for the original car that started the whole trend is beyond Belief. Incomprehensible.
So regardless of how new Audis are so great where one has to pay 500 dollars for maintenance, I can find plenty of other car makers who offer similar products at better value. If Audi is going to treat some of its most DIEHARD customers this way, I do not want to stick around to see how they treat their average customer. I get the impression that they think The urquatto is like Jars of Expired Mayonaise that need to be throw out.
I have a 2001 A8L that will be replaced soon, I will not be another Audi. I have persuaded my mother to pass on a Q7 in favor of a Mercedes Benz. It will not stop there. Audi will have to realize that in the long term, this move is a bad move and is being penny wise and pound foolish.
Now, I will not sell my Urquattros. Nor will I sell my Rally Car, I'm sure many of you would be willing to buy it. I am not very proud of Audi right now. I find myself personally in a rather unique position because I do own a higher profile car that can be used with considerable weight for advertising and promotion. Last year, things were great. Audi was doing the 25 years of Quattro and things were looking up. Now one year later, its a total and utter flop.
James
08-02-2006, 03:21 PM
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2nd x-post from the urqlist
I dont think Audi needs a geographic concentration of urquattros to validate making parts. They have a global market of cars. From an economics point of view it might be a loss. Certainly.
From a speculative point of view, Audi could with their equipment and knowledge reproduce limited run of parts. Modern fabrication techniques definately make this possible.
So if you have some major unknown factors about demand, certainly a part that is NLA is a key determinant that should be used to gauge the market.
I am still thinking about this from a Customer service and relations point of view. The argument has already been made by the bean counters and the easy solution is definately to sell off whatever you got and wash hands of the parts and the cars. There is absolutely no chance of a loss in that equation. However, how does Audi gauge the loss in customer trust? That is my argument. I think some limited runs of a few of the NLA parts like sun visor clips and ball joints would go along way. I think their current course of action loses me as a customer.
Also from your point of view as a SQ owner, I'm sure you are panicking about parts. Would you sell me that SQ turbo I sold you? I'll give you what you paid for it; however, I bet you;'re hanging onto that thing like gold now. The existence of your car is in jeopardy with any minor mechanical failure. I can't rationalize that. No matter how I look at it, I think a 75000 SQ should not be grounded by a lack of a 200 dollar part. I'm sorry, but I don't. And if Audi goes that route, I think its utter Bull****, but stuff like that will happen to people that drive their Sports. So again, I can't support them with my business if they make decisions like that.
Alot of these part issues could be solved by consolidation and upgrading. Audi could sell replacement parts that upgraded the car to 4000Q spec. Etc. Say the E brake cable on a 83 urquattro goes out. Well the normal thing to do is convert to a 4000 quattro rear Ebrake system from an 84. Audi can sell the parts needed for this and can continue to stock those parts. They could simply update their ETKA with solutions as things go NLA. But instead of doing that, they let the whole kit go NLA and then remove the car from ETKA completely. I can't support a company that does that with my business.
Of the urquattro specific parts that are non 4000 or CoupeGT crossover parts, I would like to see Audi continue to fabricate limited runs of the NLA parts and/or determine and sell potential upgraded parts to replace those that break often. Thats what they should do and that is what should have been done. We all know that many of the parts are replacable by non-urquattro parts or even Non OEM parts. What we are all complaining about is the lack of a few key urquattro specific parts. For a signature car that is the penultimate example of the lineage of a car company, they should support this car. Bottom line, we aren't takling about plain jane 4000s or 5000s. This is the quattro car. hand built. and redefined the entire company.
Let me pose this as an alternate reality or course of thinking. What if, Audi decided to find out what parts people needed to get their urquattros running and back to good condition? And then they built those parts. They already have specs on these parts. Many of the parts can be sent to small shops on a subcontract basis. We're still in the tens of thousands here on costs because Audi has contacts. Audi has the specs. For instance, realistically, what would it cost Audi to make 5000 sun-visor clips? Molded plastic bit of rubber. Some company in China could probably make them for practically nothing. I found bearings in China that cost 5 bucks. The same bearing here in the US was 50 dollars. Chinese guys are making new RS2 exhaust manifold castings for a hundred bucks and selling them on ebay for 400%. Still half the cost of an Audi part. Anyways, the point is, even if the cost is high, Audi could chalk that small amount up for advertising or customer relations, or claim a loss. Tangible benefit is some happy hardcore Audi customers and they get their signature cars that much closer to show worthiness. Priceless.
From a speculative point of view, Audi could with their equipment and knowledge reproduce limited run of parts. Modern fabrication techniques definately make this possible.
So if you have some major unknown factors about demand, certainly a part that is NLA is a key determinant that should be used to gauge the market.
I am still thinking about this from a Customer service and relations point of view. The argument has already been made by the bean counters and the easy solution is definately to sell off whatever you got and wash hands of the parts and the cars. There is absolutely no chance of a loss in that equation. However, how does Audi gauge the loss in customer trust? That is my argument. I think some limited runs of a few of the NLA parts like sun visor clips and ball joints would go along way. I think their current course of action loses me as a customer.
Also from your point of view as a SQ owner, I'm sure you are panicking about parts. Would you sell me that SQ turbo I sold you? I'll give you what you paid for it; however, I bet you;'re hanging onto that thing like gold now. The existence of your car is in jeopardy with any minor mechanical failure. I can't rationalize that. No matter how I look at it, I think a 75000 SQ should not be grounded by a lack of a 200 dollar part. I'm sorry, but I don't. And if Audi goes that route, I think its utter Bull****, but stuff like that will happen to people that drive their Sports. So again, I can't support them with my business if they make decisions like that.
Alot of these part issues could be solved by consolidation and upgrading. Audi could sell replacement parts that upgraded the car to 4000Q spec. Etc. Say the E brake cable on a 83 urquattro goes out. Well the normal thing to do is convert to a 4000 quattro rear Ebrake system from an 84. Audi can sell the parts needed for this and can continue to stock those parts. They could simply update their ETKA with solutions as things go NLA. But instead of doing that, they let the whole kit go NLA and then remove the car from ETKA completely. I can't support a company that does that with my business.
Of the urquattro specific parts that are non 4000 or CoupeGT crossover parts, I would like to see Audi continue to fabricate limited runs of the NLA parts and/or determine and sell potential upgraded parts to replace those that break often. Thats what they should do and that is what should have been done. We all know that many of the parts are replacable by non-urquattro parts or even Non OEM parts. What we are all complaining about is the lack of a few key urquattro specific parts. For a signature car that is the penultimate example of the lineage of a car company, they should support this car. Bottom line, we aren't takling about plain jane 4000s or 5000s. This is the quattro car. hand built. and redefined the entire company.
Let me pose this as an alternate reality or course of thinking. What if, Audi decided to find out what parts people needed to get their urquattros running and back to good condition? And then they built those parts. They already have specs on these parts. Many of the parts can be sent to small shops on a subcontract basis. We're still in the tens of thousands here on costs because Audi has contacts. Audi has the specs. For instance, realistically, what would it cost Audi to make 5000 sun-visor clips? Molded plastic bit of rubber. Some company in China could probably make them for practically nothing. I found bearings in China that cost 5 bucks. The same bearing here in the US was 50 dollars. Chinese guys are making new RS2 exhaust manifold castings for a hundred bucks and selling them on ebay for 400%. Still half the cost of an Audi part. Anyways, the point is, even if the cost is high, Audi could chalk that small amount up for advertising or customer relations, or claim a loss. Tangible benefit is some happy hardcore Audi customers and they get their signature cars that much closer to show worthiness. Priceless.
08-02-2006, 07:38 PM
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Since Audi wants nothing to do with the quattro anymore
I have decided to debadge it and my CGT and apply Subie emblems on it, and then when anyone asks I'll say, " no it's not an Audi it's a prototype Subie that Audi stole and copied back in the beginning of WRC".
08-02-2006, 08:31 PM
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Re: Since Audi wants nothing to do with the quattro anymore
Audi seems to want everything to do with PIMPING the hell out of the UrQ rally footage on all their commercials... Man, I used to love seeing the car in advertising, now I dont think they should keep exploiting it...
08-03-2006, 05:59 AM
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OK, well then let's stop b*tching and do something about it.
Let's come up with a list of the "must have" parts that are NLA. Suspension is probably top of the list. Trim odds and ends are probably low priority, because if you look hard enough you can find it used. Then we approach the powers that be at Audi with a business case to continue to supply these parts. If they don't bite, you go to aftermarket suppliers.
IMO, this "parts shortage" is just going to have the effect of making the very nicest ur quattros more valuable, and rough cars less desirable. You would be foolish to drive an '83 daily as if you bend or break it, there is a good chance that you won't be able to get parts to fix it, much like it is to drive any old exotic car.
IMO, this "parts shortage" is just going to have the effect of making the very nicest ur quattros more valuable, and rough cars less desirable. You would be foolish to drive an '83 daily as if you bend or break it, there is a good chance that you won't be able to get parts to fix it, much like it is to drive any old exotic car.
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08-03-2006, 07:50 AM
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Motion to discuss the motion. Any 2nds.?
Okay, well Aside from doing something rash....
All I can do is boycott new Audis and not really be an unpaid salesman.
I think a must have parts list is a good idea.
Starting with Ball Joints. Everyone with 4000s, coupes and urquattros will be happy about sunvisor clips. Door handles are prone to breaking.
Bumper plugs if possible. We need something there.
All I can do is boycott new Audis and not really be an unpaid salesman.
I think a must have parts list is a good idea.
Starting with Ball Joints. Everyone with 4000s, coupes and urquattros will be happy about sunvisor clips. Door handles are prone to breaking.
Bumper plugs if possible. We need something there.
08-03-2006, 08:18 AM
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James - are you going to Carlisle '07?
I have been talking to Dan Jackson about getting a group together to lobby Audi on behalf of the "Enthusiasts" (a moniker which many of the posters here would qualify for). A couple of years ago reps from ACNA attended an ACI meeting....and then nothing. ACI was created (at least, according to the press releases that heralded it) to give a voice to all the clubs to speak with Audi. I plan on speaking with Dan next year on setting up some kind of representation - not that I expect that they'll start reproducing DKW parts, but they should seriously consider that for the urq/Sq's for the very reasons you have laid out here.
Cheers!
Cheers!