Audi Tradition Feedback

[bartolomeus]

So here I go again.

I have created this thread so I can forward it to Audi Tradition Staff so they can see our concerns and demands.
Maybe in this way somebody will finally start to help us.
Please write only pertinent feedback about this subject.

I am not happy about Audi Tradition because:

1) I cannot find complete Audi B2 optical parts on their website (lateral trims, front bumper grills, front bumper fog lights, only one headlight available, no chrome lines from the bumpers,etc).
2) Audi Tradition website is very poor. It loads slowly and it delivers constantly error messages and finding a specific part is very difficult.
3) Some parts from the website have strange high prices. For example, the prices of the grills from the RS2 front bumper, the prices of the RS2 fog lights, the prices for the RS2 complete timing belt kit, etc.

Waiting for you guys now to write your specific concerns.

[hunker7]

The slow speed of the website is definitely one of the most annoying parts, and the error message that pops up randomly that makes you start all over again. I can't ever get through all pages of the specific sub section, therefore I take my money else where.

[Monkeymagic]

Agreed, I was pulling my hair out trying to buy some door seals. I ended up emailing Sebastian Funk and letting Audi Know how poor their site it. The general perception of the Germans is quiet effciency, not what i expected.

[c4S6]

Better pictures of parts would be nice, but to be honest, I'm just happy there is any sort of support for these old cars at all.

A far cry from what Mercedes or BMW offers, but I'm glad something is out there.
My comments don't relate so much to the website as much as the general availability of replacement parts. I would like to see them turn on the presses and remake more and more of these old parts! urS4 sunroof panels, floor mats, glass, gaskets, trim and stuff like that that we can't get anywhere anymore (aka, NLA).

As people are looking to start restoring these ur-Quattros, urS4's and S2's, then there is a market (albeit relatively small) for new replacement parts. And, it's important for Audi to do what they can to help and make parts available to us, because we are in essence, keeping Audi's heritage alive, which is no small task.

We have to remember that Audi isn't making money producing these old limited production parts, stocking these parts, and selling them to us. Really, this isn't going to be an area that will be first in line for investment. But, doing this is a relatively small overall investment given the size and success of the company, and I view investment in old car parts and support as a way of "giving back" to the community that love their cars and want to keep their heritage alive. I can only hope they will continue to support the people that love and care for these pieces of Audi history.

If we don't do it, who will, right?

[hmg]

Compared to Mercedes, Jaguar, BMW etc it is very poor.

Let's face it Audi was known for making fairly overpriced ( at the time) and mundane cars. Although it has roots that go back a long way ,it all got exciting when the Ur and spin offs where launched.

Unfortunately Audi has realised that marketing on the back of a period of incredible Quattro innovation 30 years ago only has to be digital and not physical.

A digital but not physical nod to the past to promote the present.


The programme on recreating the 6 missing lightweight Jaguar e types shows at least some marques are prepared to embrace and cherish their history even with a 1.5 million price tag.

[geneandbolly]

it would drive you crazy - you get on to the section that you want to browse through and there's no sub-sections - instead you have to browse through hundreds of items getting nowhere and then the site hangs up on you!!

audi tradition - please represent the audi brand more appropriately - you're giving it a bad name with this dreadful-to-navigate website!!

[kinaputt]

Good: Good price for shipping

Bad:
SLOW websites.
Very high prices on some parts
Not enough parts that people need. Alot of stuff that never needs to be replaced.

[ralleyquattro]

I never have a problem... do your research on ETKA, then armed with part numbers search the site... add items to the cart and you are done.
Better than not having any options IMHO.

[fourringsofhappiness]

I never have a problem... do your research on ETKA, then armed with part numbers search the site... add items to the cart and you are done.
Better than not having any options IMHO.

I agree the only way to truly find your part is to do the research ahead either hound your local dealer for the correct part number to "search" or find correct catalogs (ETKA) to find your score! To go through traditions menus is painful...

[s2driveruk]

Ah but in order to drive your decisions based on etka, you need a copy which is not a factory approved end user product, nor supplied by them to the like of this place to help staff who have no idea theses cars even exist let alone provide assistance on supersession and alternatives. The whole process is flawed... It would make sense to establish some 'hero' staff who focus on these models and can add value...and they reach out to clubs to raise profile, understand key parts to accelerate reproduction of and generally act as a funnel for them being insight driven.

Unfortunately, the only way is the pain of trying to gain affiliation with the ACI which is near impossible in the UK due to the volume and diversity of clubs having to organise and unite behind a single UK figurehead...

[Nuvo]

Why not do what Porsche do and offer online access to PDFs specific to your car and also offer the full parts database on a disc for a nominal fee. Then again, Porsche are able to provide many of their parts for their classic cars and for reasonable prices too, that's something classic Audi owners can only dream of.

Even if Audi were to provide open and legal access to their parts database, it would be of limited help as you'll soon discover that the majority of the parts you need are no longer available anyway.

edit: I have a vague recollection that Audi do offer ETKA for sale but it requires either a monthly or annual subscription fee. I don't know the terms and conditions of the license agreement.

[Error404]

The bottom line is that they could make the parts available, if they cared. As said BMW, Mercedes, Porsche, Jaguar all manage it. There is no excuse. Greed and laziness are the obstacles here.

[s2driveruk]

What would be helpful is to get a list of key minimum parts needed for our cars...if nothing is forthcoming then we should push out instead...either that or if the cannot be bothered maybe they can provide the data to enable must to go and get them made instead.

[Jack4688]

The way I see it a company like Audi should embrace their heritage and considering how much money they probably make each year they should take a bit of a financial hit to enable the people doing the hard work on these cars to actually do it. Seeing a lovely looking MB Quattro at an Audi organised event isn't going to convince me to buy an A3 diesel but still, I imagine there are some less tangible benefits to giving other people the ability to restore/maintain their classic models.

I suppose to the man on the street Audi's heritage means the Audi Quattro and maybe Audi RS2 to those with a bit more automotive knowledge. But surely anything other than the mundane 90s stuff (I doubt something like a 1998 A4 quattro will ever be held in high regard, even if in another 20 years all S2s have run out of replacement parts!) deserves to be kept on the road in working order.

So either they don't give a s*** - hence the dreadful website - or someone at the top is being fed bulls*** about the performance of their Tradition dept. - hence the continued s*** performance of their s*** website.

But to put it less rantingly, these are my qualms with Audi Tradition:

1) Slow website loading speed.

2) Inabilty to have more than one tab open in my browser to search for say, something in their engine list and something in their steering and suspension list. The reason I tried this is was to allow one page to load up while I search for something else in order to account for point 1). However this just confuses the website and eventually each tab you have open is then looking at the same sub-section of the site and you have to go back to the start. Unacceptable in 2015, this isn't 2002!

3) The second time I ever tried to log in to the site it claimed I had no account but I had previously bought some quattro script cloth from there. I tried the usual 'forgot your password?' section on the log in screen and although I have no right to complain about the email sent being in German it wasn't any help. Like most aspects of using the website I was going round in circles without any joy.

4) Poor categorisation of parts available. It looks promising when you see that it's split between generation of vehicle then the type of item but you are most often trawling through a list of over a thousand parts, given the number of items per page and the number of pages to go. A much better structure for finding what you want would help so much.

[Wiell]

1: slow speed
2: search function does not woork so good, unless you have right part number.
3: i cant order anymore, need to be audi approved or something. anyone else that have this problem?
4: should translate all of the site.
5: and fix the problem that site crashes after some time browsing.

But it is great that this site exist.