How many years do Audi stock parts?

[M7 ATW]

Hi everyone,

I'm hoping to buy an Audi coupe later on in the year and was wondering after how many years do dealers stop selling parts e.g 20 years?

Additionally, whilst i think this is a great and informative forum, is there any similar that are dedicated to the standard coupe.

Thanks

Matt

[Error404]

Hi Matt Not enough is the answer.

This is the best B3/B4 forum out there, don't worry that you don't have an S2 you will be very welcome none the less. The general attitude & knowledge on the forum is far superior to any other English speaking Audi forums IMHO.

[Big Lee M]

If its anything like VW? They have to make them for 15 years after production has stopped, so I would have thought the same for Audi?

[220bhp]

They keep them for five minutes, then they pass them to there heritage department,and charge you three times as much for them,barstewards.

[80Quattro]

It can't be 15 years as I have found some parts are NLA for my cabriolet which is not even 13 years old yet. I had a feeling it was 10 years by European law but I can't confirm that. It really is despicable that they can treat the owners of these cars in such a way and then use their heritage in advertising campaigns to sell new cars. They really have very little interest in making parts for these cars or selling them at an affordable price to help keep these cars on the road.

[pixsaudisex2]

I always thought it was 15 yeArs also.

[Jas11n]

European law states 10 years and is what we have to abide by at work.
It's a bit of a PITA for us, you have no idea how much room 750+ transfer and progression dies take up (200/300/400/1200/3000 tonne presses).
Sorry to say, as soon as the 10 year date comes round, they are gone pretty sharpish.

I moaned the same when I was told NLA when I had the S2. But on the other hand, you have no idea how uneconomical it is to keep on manufacturing parts beyond 10 years. In our case, a die has to be found, moved inside, cleaned down and then trialed first, before you run off a couple hundred parts that then need to go off to another department to be assembled (spot welded, weld nuts/bolts etc etc). You make a loss on every single part. That's no good for any business.

Make enough and store them? where do you store them? who pays? and how many of each? All of these parts are made by MANY suppliers, Audi themselves will have made very little of the over all car. Logistical and financial nightmare.

You might also think, pass the gear onto another company who will manufacture them?
Not only have you got the setup costs, the tooling/machinery to install/maintain, but have the added headache of the buyer not wanting non "OEM" parts and the manufacturer supplying a dwindling number of parts for cars that are slowly disappearing.
Sorry to sound negative, but it's just the way it is for most parts.
Yes, there are those that support the older models, BMW and Mercedes to name two, Ford is also pretty good, but they are the very small minority who choose to take the hit financially.
I used to get as ****** off as the next guy and I guess I've got this soon with my 2001 RS4.

As does everything else. It all comes down to.... £-money-£

[Error404]

Very well put Jase, and when you look at it from a purely financial standpoint, any manufacturer would stop making all parts on the firt day of the 11th year. I guess people would not be so angry with Audi if they did not wheel out their heritage when it suited them, customers you can't have it both ways and there is a double standards kind of scenario. Personally I feel that if BMW & Merc can do it..... but I bet 95% of Audi customers either do not know or do not care that Audi are so woeful at maintaining their heritage.
I am that cynical now that I believe Audi Tradition is just a way for them to clear old stock that is getting in their way rather than try to help owners of "historical" cars

[Jas11n]

Very well put Jase, and when you look at it from a purely financial standpoint, any manufacturer would stop making all parts on the firt day of the 11th year. I guess people would not be so angry with Audi if they did not wheel out their heritage when it suited them, customers you can't have it both ways and there is a double standards kind of scenario. Personally I feel that if BMW & Merc can do it..... but I bet 95% of Audi customers either do not know or do not care that Audi are so woeful at maintaining their heritage.

Quite agree Alex.
Audi are wrong to roll out their heritage models to promote new car sales. Those cars made Audi what it is today, yet try and maintain one and you get "computer says no" when trying to buy parts.
But again, it's the money speaking. Audi's marketing people know these ads will bring in customers.

We are just one of many suppliers to Nissan (I know I'm sorry, I'd work for Audi if they were in the UK) who make a small amount of the parts that go to make a whole car. Add all the other suppliers in the same boat. Nissan themselves make nigh on nothing..
Copy and paste these coordinates ( 54.917613, -1.485896 ) into google maps to see what I mean. All those rusty things out the back are service dies. All 790 odd of them. They are all being held for old Nissan models for the 10 years we have to. All are stacked three dies high. The larger ones you see weigh in the region of 20 tonnes "each". Where else do we keep them? We've got roughly the same again inside in current production.
It's very rarely most of them are used and when they are, it's a ballache in the extreme. They are precision bits of tooling that don't take kindly to being outside in all weathers for ten years. It's take an age to get good spec parts off them, that are in tolerance for use by a customer. And all the time one of those dies is in a press being a PITA, current production stops.
Losing money left right and centre.

[M7 ATW]

Thanks for all the replies.

I what you guys mean about this forum being the most informative - i've been a member on a number of forums, but rarely do you get such detailed responses.

Based on the '10 years' how easy or difficult is it to source parts?

I've had a couple of mk2 Golfs over the years but never owned one long enough to encounter mechanical issues, therefore this is one of my biggest concerns regarding parts/reliability?

Thanks again, Matt

[Greg_S]

for the most part it is still possible to source parts, there are the odd ones which are more difficult and you have to rely on second hand parts or custom made items.

[Deepsea]

Having contemplated the purchase of an S2 for a while is their any problem with the obtaining of spare parts for the S2 ?

Are their parts which are now no longer available ?
Is the supply of parts likely to be good for the next 5 or 10 years (I know thats a long time).
Anyone have any experiences that have to share ?

I have heard it said from Ur quattro owners that their cars are spending much time off the road waiting for parts.

[Greg_S]

Parts are becoming more of an issue for some parts, or others are on back order for a while. It really depends on what parts you require, with the active community we have here it is normally straight forward to source parts from other members or work arounds on some parts that are NLA