WANTED - Audi Heritage Division...

[S2central.net]

This idea has kicked around for a long time now, but it looks clear that Audi will do nothing tangible for owners of older cars unless we take some sort of positive action.

'We' being all of the various on-line communities dedicated to older model Audis to co-ordinate some thinking and agree some ideas and actions to pursue with anyone at Audi who will listen to us - assuming we can get to someone suitably empowered.

Too many parts are becoming NLA (No Longer Available) as our cars get older.

The entire attitude / training of the vast majority of Audi aftersales staff are normally completely ignorant of anything but current models.

Brands like BMW (spit) and Mercedes (yawn) have great Heritage divisions which look after the older cars with much better supplies of parts that are still manufactured in small volumes. Other premium brands like Ferrari & Aston Martin also do this of course.

Maintenance information should be easier to obtain - idiots like me are mug enough to have spent large sums of money on the current official channels for manuals and schematics, but I can only do that for one model.

My hope is that if enough Audi clubs / forums group together in some sort of consolidated way with petitions or letters making consistently good points - and identifying new revenue sources for Audi even - we have the best chance of success.


Paul

[Acidburn]

Paul - would be worth speaking to amanda as she's done some work on this and maybe able to help out with ideas/contacts.

There was also another forum member who was doing a online petition to get alot of the rs2 bits re-done.

[jogi730]

I am in total agreement that so little seems to have been done about Audi's shameful attitude to it's older model's. It is largely thanks to these cars that Audi has gained the reputation it has today. The Audi 80 was car of the year in 1974. The quattro is a legend around the world. Other models including the cars we love so much the S2, which even in standard form today, is still a match for many a modern car. Yet try and buy parts and more often than not, NLA is all we hear. Some 'specialist' part dealers like Pete at quattro Corner do what they can to source alternatives to help, but they can only do so much.
As mentioned, BMW, Mercedes and even Ford cater for all their older models. More importantly though, a company that has been perhaps overlooked is Porsche. They still produce parts for their older models. As such a major shareholder in Audi, perhaps we are all barking up the wrong tree voicing off to Audi. Our arguements there have been heard and completely ignored. Maybe writing to Porsche would be the way forward. THe rumours are they want to work on another 'project' with Audi. Maybe the first thing they should do is make sure parts for their original collaboration with Four Rings - the RS2, has parts available to keepn them on the road along with all the other older models?
Just my 2p worth - rant over
Cheers
Chris

[Skull]

anybody speaks german?

http://www.audi-classicparts.de/

[S2central.net]

Nice potential it seems - looks like a private venture though with Audi-esque page styling... We would need some of the German speaking guys to find out more info. I have the notion that if done properly an Audi Heritage Division could generate lots of cash - not by ripping us off either - just that having an offical outlet of parts, tools, documents at a fair price would be the 1st port of call for people like us - its not like we have much other choice if they stop making parts. All it will do is force cars off the road, and put others to an early grave as sacrificial lambs to feed the survivors.

[Smiley]

They state that they're a part (affiliate?) of VW
"Die Weser-Ems Vertriebsgesellschaft mbh ist eine Konzerngesellschaft der Volkswagen AG."

[s2driveruk]

as has been said hundreds of times before the attitude of Audi AG is a total disgrace. They are happy to drag al the models out for the various events like Festival of Speed and to support any recent product launches, however they are about the only people capable of keeping historic Audi's on the road!!!

I'd fully support any coordinated approach about this. I still don't understand why they don't sell an official family album, it would speed up the order process and actually generate some good incremental revenue for the service business which is lets face it where they make their money.

I'm pretty sure that many people on here and almost every other VAG forum have the classic car and potentially at least one other, modern variant. They are currently cutting their nose off to spite their face, their approach to older cars must influence peoples approach to buying something newer.

[PeteRR]

I know the quattro OC and other clubs and organisations have been trying to lobby Audi for years about the supply of parts for the older cars (with an obvious quattro bias though in most cases). And Amanda has indeed done her own line of investigation and correspondence with Audi management too.

As far as I can gather, the official line is that they will supply parts for up to ten years after a particular model has been discontinued (Yeah, just when most enthusiasts enter the scene). After that a 'VW Tradition' department handles the parts supply. As far as I can tell this seems just to be a fob-off from Audi, they don't seem to care about their heritage at all. And I certainly don't see many parts being re-produced or supplied from this seemingly non-exsistent so-called heritage division.

I love the idea of getting another quattro, S2 etc, but all this really puts me right off getting another older Audi, or any Audi come to that.

At least I only see it as a good thing that Porsche now has majority control of VW. Hopefully they will do something to improve things in time. We can but hope.

[madwolf_Uk]

Maybe if Audi are so uninterested then the best line of approach is someway of remanufacturing the NLA parts under official licence and origanal tooling somehow

As has been said though, the biggest no brainer is that its actually a good revenue earner for Audi, yet they dont wanna know, hows that make any sense?

Perosonally id support any kind of movement to sort the growing list of parts that are becoming like the Dodo.......

[fish]

Count me in too. I´m bloody pissed off going to VAG to get parts and they only sell 1 peice when 2 are needed.

[Audi Parts Guru]

I'd fully support any coordinated approach about this. I still don't understand why they don't sell an official family album, it would speed up the order process and actually generate some good incremental revenue for the service business which is lets face it where they make their money.

The family album in question is now available to any trade outlet, not just Audi/VW dealers. Having said that though, it will cost you £40 per month for a license, but you do get all of the updates etc

[hibby]

On a recent visit to a dealers by a few of us the parts man mentioned a letter had appeared next to some of the parts on ETKA and also mentioned a heritage style section of the Audi website. He was not sure but thought that these could possibly be related.

[HPmuirt]

Maybe if Audi are so uninterested then the best line of approach is someway of remanufacturing the NLA parts under official licence and origanal tooling somehow

I would bet money that most of the tools are beyond economic use/repair or have already been scrapped

Tears n fears

Si

[macspring]

Me too,

but not sure what can be done, but I'd like to add my name or voice to any communication / petition to Audi for them to stop allowing parts to become NLA.

In the Audi bean counter's minds our requests may be only an small irritant in Audi's overall revenues?

Thanks Paul.

Kind regards.

[s2driveruk]

The family album in question is now available to any trade outlet, not just Audi/VW dealers. Having said that though, it will cost you £40 per month for a license, but you do get all of the updates etc

Thanks for that......

Struggle to see why public access to something like this is so difficult to digest though. I mean i'm sure most people on here would purchase a legitimate copy for a one off fee, there are enthusiasts for pretty much every model they make so business would be pretty brisk for the sake of pressing a few hundred thousand cd/dvd copies, slap a £20-£50 price tag on it and there you go. Could even make the licence key the number used to register you on their systems and that drives your discount upon ordering.

Hardly a logistical or technical headache:

New customer channel ID for likes of us
Production and distribution of the official dvd
A one time registration process online to activate your profile
parts order and dispatch to you or local dealer for collection as appropriate
Usual business rules about special parts ordering being non returnable etc still stand
Maybe some simple marketing to online communities to tell us its ready to roll...my god they could even chuck some PR money at it and make them look all caring and customer centric!!!!!!


I'm sure nobody would expect any technical support or even updates because lets face it, there probably won't be many part changes on a car living on post production stock availability as we do.