WANTED - Audi Heritage Division...

[Prophet_dlx]

audi classic is worth less then nothing for S2/RS2, I know that monstereddi (Pogea) does some work on the RS2 an that the german RS246.de complains regularly too

[s2avant]

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.

The problem is that there are too many different companies involved in the supply process both of parts and software.

The family album in both it's forms (Retailer and Trade) is supplied and supported by LEXCOM. It is they that charge the licensing fees for it even to Volkswagen UK and the Retailers. £40 a month is nothing compared to the £900+ a month our site pays for the priveledge. As you have said there aren't a lot of parts changes on older models (except listing NLA parts and the odd supersession on nuts and bolts) BUT it would still require LEXCOM to bring out a new variant for the enthusiast market. They are already making enough money from the Retailer network (not just VAG but Mitsubishi, Porsche and all the other manufacturers who uses software from LEXCOM) that the logistics of developing specific enthusiast versions just aren't worth the effort to them.

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.

The logistics of dispatch parts around the retailer network would also prohibit distributing parts to individuals or retailers on the individuals behalf. Central warehousing and parts distribution are handled by CEVA logistics who of course charge Volkswagen UK for the priveledge and they will not deliver to anywhere other than the retailer network. The retailers are all independant of Volkswagen UK in terms of accounting, buying parts etc. I don't know of any dealer that would even consider letting customers order parts online to be delivered into their stocks. There would also be the problem of customers failing to collect parts or refusing them as they are incorrect.

Prepaying online wouldn't work as it would almost impossible to introduce the infrastructure at Dordon to deal with orders from customers to be delivered to specific sites. Having been to the Dordon site I can safely say they are pushing the limits of what can be done already with the resources available to them. CEVA have made a huge investment in expanding the site and it's throughput and their performance is considerably better than Unipart who ran the site before. The supply contract with VAG is renewed every few years. Next time around CEVA may not be in charge of logistics so it would be back to square one.

Now after all that naysaying there are a couple of positive notes to my post.

Firstly, The issue of NLA parts is dealt with by VAG in a somewhat slack way by keeping back parts which are in short supply and forcing manual orders on them. This in no way sorts the problem but it does prove that somebody somewhere is responsible for it. I have no idea how to find them though. The idea of approaching Porsche seems fairly reasonable. I think the answer will be to keep the pressure on Audi, VAG, Porsche until someone cracks.

Secondly, the idea of helping enthusiasts order normal parts for their cars is a good one. The retailers can't help but the TPS network could. I have voiced this idea a few times with people who run the TPS setup and so far have had a few rumblings back about the idea. I am hoping with the current economic climate and Volkswagen UK's appetite for money that they will be more willing to look at alternative revenue streams this year. Ideally an enthusiast cash account would be setup (either for specific groups or one for all owners clubs etc) allowing enthusiasts throughout the country to purchase direct from their local TPS centre (you can do this already BUT discounts will vary etc).

This would allow Volkswagen UK to take another chunk of revenue from the competition (GSF, Euro etc) direct from source and they could pump PR money into attending the shows and events to promote the service.

Ben

[veneto rs2]

Hi everybody and happy new year!

Paul i'm one of the person that are working on this on the Italian side.

Audi Club International was the branch of Audi in charge of this.
Audi Club International it's part of Audi Tradition Branch
I reckon it's where we should knock and keep knocking, Audi Club International ACI was born with the first aim to gathered parts for old/classical/collectable Audis, second target was to gather all Clubs around the world under the House umbrella.

So far the person in charge was sent to another VAG department leaving ACI without head manager.
That was till february last year when i visited Audi Tradition.
Now there's a new person in charge Mr. Thorsten Schache i did'nt met him yet but i'm looking forward to do this in the next months.
I'm working on this together with Mr Daniel Bachmann President of ACI Switzerland who's a well known man in the AUDI world and with strong contacts inside Audi Tradition department (he's the guy who brought Walter Rohrl at 25 years of quattro)
I believe that we must work together from eveywhere to bring ACI to it's ment purpose.
On my side i'm ready to share infos and reports of my work on this....... i'm not confident but..... i'm working on it.

Stefano

[Fat Audi 80]

Secondly, the idea of helping enthusiasts order normal parts for their cars is a good one. The retailers can't help but the TPS network could. I have voiced this idea a few times with people who run the TPS setup and so far have had a few rumblings back about the idea. I am hoping with the current economic climate and Volkswagen UK's appetite for money that they will be more willing to look at alternative revenue streams this year. Ideally an enthusiast cash account would be setup (either for specific groups or one for all owners clubs etc) allowing enthusiasts throughout the country to purchase direct from their local TPS centre (you can do this already BUT discounts will vary etc).

This would allow Volkswagen UK to take another chunk of revenue from the competition (GSF, Euro etc) direct from source and they could pump PR money into attending the shows and events to promote the service.

Ben

This seems the most likely and logical way forward to me. I know it does not really solve the problem of parts that are already NLA but if it did make some money (and there are a lot of Audi / VW enthusiast out there) it could encourage the powers that be at VAG not to let other parts go NLA.

Let us know if there are any developments on this one Ben. I am sure an "Enthusiasts" Group Discount and ordering system through TPS would be well used...

Cheers,

Steve.

[s2driveruk]

I've had a call from the MD of Lexcom UK... Had an interesting and relatively productive 20 min conversation about access to their VAG software. I'll create a new thread with a poll as I need your collective assistance on providing him with some feedback.

David