www.Audi-NLA.com - New Forum!!!

[Rusty]

https://www.audi-nla.com

Hi, I’d like to introduce a new forum that Sonic (Andy) of the S2Forum and myself (Andy) have devised to address the issue of parts from Audi that are No Longer Available, NLA. This is a very frustrating situation for all on the S2forum and I can only imagine that the issues faced by owners of earlier cars are in a worse situation. This is not just a classic Audi problem, if the attitude of Audi is not changed then owners of B5 chassis cars will start to feel the effects in a few years’ time too.

Please use the site to log the parts that you find are NLA so that we can gather evidence to support our case when contacting Audi and the motoring press to try and get Audi to support us, the owners of its heritage! As individuals they can ignore us but as a collective voice we hope that the situation will be taken seriously but Audi UK and AG. Please also use the site to request and trade parts and perhaps to sort out group buys for parts that are NLA. In addition, I hope that we can share sources of parts from breakers, specialists and individuals and give any feedback on the service received by these people.

If any of you feel strongly enough about this subject then please write to who ever you think can help, preferably the motoring press or Audi Customer Services, and put a copy up on the forum so we have a record of who, what and when, plus any responses. I have written to 5 popular magazines (Evo, performance Car, Audi Driver, Pistonheads, Top Gear) with a piece that I originally wrote for the EVO Soapbox feature, that highlights the problem, I have added this to www.audi-nla.com. If you do decide to write then please remember to keep to the facts and try not to get personal or emotional, emphasise the disappointment with Audi, the love for the brand and that you have been put off buying a newer model, despite a desire for Ingolstadt’s latest and greatest.

The site is a work in progress at the mo, it was only registered on 18/04/09 and Sonic is working ultra hard to get it really nice, I can’t think of a better man for the job either! Please join and be patient with us for a week or so, your support is what will make this work.

I hope that the site will receive the support from the Audi community that it already has from the S2forum, this is a problem that affects us all.

Please remember to conduct yourself on the forum in accordance with the forum rules and thus help the Audi community to safeguard out future in a calm and friendly manner.

Many thanks,

Rusty & Sonic

[Rusty]

Can someone on Club-Audi please introduce the forum on there with the above script, I'm struggling to sign up. Ta

[Key Walshe]

Sounds a great idea and just added it to my favourites now! I haven't yet been told that a part I needed wasn't available, but, I'm sure that time will come soon and I'll be sure to let you know when it does...

[Rusty]

Unfortunately it's only a matter of time before you run into a problem

[S2central.net]

How / Who is going to make a start on compiling the lists of NLA parts - per platform ?

[Rusty]

If you check out the NLA section Sonic and I have come up with a rough structure. As for more detailed lists, not sure how that will work, Sonic is the man there as he does the computers rather well indeed

[Sonic]

There is an NLA section now which we've tried to divide into platforms. It would be good if someone like yourself with superior knowledge could go over this though.

I figure it should really be a database of somekind, but im not sure of content yet so the forum structure is the best bet.

As for who, i guess it comes down to people with the time and knowledge.

[S2central.net]

I think we need some inside knowledge... like a certain parts dept chap called Ben that drives a purple Avant equipped with brakes large enough to stop the millenium falcon.

Surely he can stroke the fatherland computers for the NLA info... if that can extract data in any useful way then it could be parsed into a database. I can help with PHP scripts to parse it, but Sonic is the database king.

The problem with doing this yourself on the family album, that when you see an NLA part - it very often doesn't even provide the part number - just a missing entry on the list. Its crazy... I have an old version here so occasionally I will get numbers to order things then be told its NLA when I go to the dealer as his system is up to date.

[Sonic]

Thats a very good point about Ben - if he can get me something i can parse ill have it formatted and into a database pronto

[S2central.net]

I can call him directly about it if you wish... I'll wait till after lunchtime though.

[Rusty]

Great

[s2avant]

As I mentioned to Andy (Sonic) earlier a database as such will be difficult to come by. VAG really don't like that sort of info being readily available and I've never seen a parts file that actually contains NLA parts data. All the files I've seen only contain part numbers and prices not availablility,. It's not till you attempt to order parts that most of them go NLA nowadays. The family album can provide a certain amount of detail as to NLA date but as Paul mentioned it takes some work to find and if the part number has gone then it is impossible.

I will make some calls to VAG and see what I can find out but I'm not holding my breath. Since they moved the call centre to Leeds from MK I lost a lot of contacts who would bend over backwards to help.

Ben

[Sonic]

No worries ben - i figured it was a bit of a long-shot.

Anything you can do to help is very much appreciated though

[Acidburn]

Some of the part numbers you might be able to get hold of if they don't show on the programs by speaking to people on here who might actually

a)have the part brand new in bags (some of us collect stuff like that)
b)actually have parts fitted to the cars with the part numbers stamped on some items i.e. headlight trims

Shame everything went wrong with vagparts as martyn would have been good to help out with this and his knowledge.

Would pete reeve have any sort of database different to what most of us can get hold of?

[S2central.net]

Well now - if the factory systems cannot produce such data - we'll have to create our own database !!!

This raises a challenge then... what could a whizzkid like Sonic lash up by means of a system that people can add/browse/change/delete such info ?

I know there are some opensource database tools from a past life, but the name escapes me.

We'd need to have a means such that info can only be changed or deleted by administrators... But it should be possible for everyone to add info - then browse/search it...
We'd need a structured or scripted way to add new info and make sure we don't get conflicting duplicate info.

For the B3/B4 platforms we are at the early stages of NLA nonsense so I think its quite achievable to do this, but the older cars could be quite a struggle - unless someone else has data that can be ingested.

Security of the data would be a thing - archiving and such on a daily basis in case the dbase got attacked or corrupted.