The Cal-look Lounge

http://www.volksworldshow.com/blog/exclusive-news-vw-to-sell-classic-parts/

That is probably the single Worst piece of VW news I have heard this year....

  

VWOA and VWAG can kiss my fanny...they've shat on the vintage markets too long, damage is done.

i think it be nice to have some good quality parts on the marked

Being a guy that has to restore old vw's with old used up parts and highly $$ NOS seconds, Cant wait!! So anybody know what they are going to make? Hopefully good sheetmetal !!

Probably wooden shifter knobs, AM/FM radios and extra chrome trim guards for the front/rear fenders and doorhandles ... WOOHOO!! ;D

Funny tom !! I hear there makeing beer tap shiter nobs! Hamms and bud !!

I'm with Danny on this, you can cry all you want, but if they start making sheetmetal again, restoration will be so much easier

Who needs them... we have www.klassicfab.com

I rather support someone who actually cares about us and doesn't try to make us go away.

I will take genuine VW over funky green peices that almost fit anytime

I am kind of surprised that the people that have bitched about cheap aftermarket parts that don't fit are complaining when the Genuine VW parts are all of a sudden available again.
Yes, I have my issues with VW too, but I think this is a good thing.

Isn't this what Porsche did many years ago when good 356/912 cranks,heads and cases became hard to find?

I am with Danny on this one.  Ever tried to fix a VW with an after market body panel, fender or any other piece of metal.  Not only are the pieces about .010 thinner, they never fit or align with anything.  I would think people would be happy to hear the news. Every time I use an after market piece it is never a bolt on or one time install.  Especially engine tin or anything else that requires a good fit.  I hope they plan to make replacements for anything that is body or engine sheet metal.

Rick M

good quality seals be nice to

I'm looking forward to getting some genuine wings etc, but i don't think they will make that many parts.

-Main bearings, for type 4 AND type 1.
-Mag cases, thank you.
T

Richard, I worked for VW/Audi in Parts from 1976 to 1990 and sold as much in the way of Genuine parts as I possibly could.

I worked very hard and was in competition even back then with the like of G&S.

I could sell genuine parts on quality with no problems back then as aftermarket suppliers didn't have the depth of stock to compete with much apart from the basics.

However later on along came a supplier (in England) that could supply genuine VW Parts at prices far below what I could????

How could this be??? Who can get the stuff at such prices???  How could anyone get all the genuine parts that I as a main dealer could, and sell them at below cost.. and in such volume??

Very often my customers would be buying these items cheaper than I (a vw main dealer) could!!! I couldn't argue with customers, when they told me that they couldn't buy from me because I was too expensive..

I tried (in Vain) to find out where this company was getting it's genuine parts, but simply couldn't get any answers from anyone.
I argued with VW that I (and every other dealer) was being undermined by this sudden influx of parts, but to no avail..

My business went down by over 30%..

Then, quite by chance I happened to be passing one of my Friend's vw workshop on a Saturday morning and dropped in for a chat and a cup of tea, I knew he had been finishing up a cool '59 Cabrio.

Whilst I was there a courier called with a parcel of parts, from the Supplier in question.

I can remember the conversation so clearly, even all these years later...

I joked with my friend about why he hadn't bought the part from me and obviously it had been down to price (as always..)

I opened the parcel and too my amazement, I found that I was looking at not only a Genuine Parts Sticker, but also a VW Stock Location Picking Slip?

This is the Label given to all Genuine Parts when they are put into Warehouse locations, before distribution to Dealers.

This Location Slip, gives the Part Number, Parts Description, Bin Location and ISSUING DEALER??

The issuing Dealer was DEALER 990.

Having worked for VW or many years by then, I knew that there were not 990 Dealers in the UK so had no idea where this Dealer might be located.

I took the slip and when I got into work on Monday I began investigating Dealer 990?

At first when I spoke to VAG UK Headquarters at Milton Keynes, I got very little help whatever??

Nobody seemed to want to answer questions about 990??

By about lunchtime I got a call from my boss asking me to come directly to his office?

I can still see his face as he opened the door. He looked REALLY WORRIED?

Basically my probing about Dealer 990 had promted a phone call to him from  VAG Milton Keynes.

 He told me that in 20 years of working as a Main VW Agent, he'd never been treated like that before.

A similar thing had happened several years earlier regarding some nos vw parts that I was selling at a vw show?

I got a call from VAG Milton Keynes asking how/why i was selling the parts??

He told me to drop it PERIOD??

I had a  think about he situation and decided it would be best to let the dust settle a bit on Dealer 990, but it was interesting to note that all the calls we made to VAG Milton Keynes from then on, went through the main switchboard and not directly to the requested departments???

A few weeks later I was due to attend a meeting at VAG Milton Keynes, but was told at the last minute that the meeting was cancelled?

My friend (from another dealership) called me the next day and asked me why I hadn't turned up for the meeting?.........

I decided that I had to get to the bottom of all this and got in touch with an old pal at Milton Keynes that I knew I could trust.

He didn't want to talk about it at all and told me to let it go... leave it alone he told me, you don't need to know?

Eventually he gave in and told me that my enquiry about Dealer 990 had caused the biggest 'flap' ever at VAG Milton Keynes...

He said people were running around having whispered meetings and doors that were always open..were firmly closed??

He told me the reason for this is that Dealer 990 was an INTERNAL DEALERSHIP AT VAG MILTON KEYNES!!!!


Nobody was ever supposed to find out about it and the Picking Slip was the mistake that somebody had made, that let out the secret...

Once I knew this I went straight to my Boss and told him the full story. He wasn't to happy about it??

What happened next was that whilst walking around at VW Action a few weeks later I was approached by this chap who started having a go at me for trying 'Fuck up his Business'... and 'What the Fuck' did I think I was doing.......

I explained (very politely for me..) that what I was actually doing was trying to protect  my own and the business of every VW Dealership in the UK and that in my opinion the prices that he was receiving from VAG Milton Keynes should be available to everyone..

I said to him that as he was not even a VW Agent, he had NO right to being giving me any kind of shit about this ..

So what this guy wanted was to be able to undermine every franchised VW Dealer in the UK and have all the Air'Cooled parts business to himself??

So instead of VW enthusiast being able to walk into his local vw dealership and get parts over the counter, he wanted a monopoly of the market and couldn't see anything wrong with that idea..

What I was arguing or is that i think that you should have 'choice' about where you buy your parts and that monopolies are never a good thing for the customer..

So when I hear that VW is deciding to start selling 'Classic Parts' again and that one particular supplier has been chosen for this task, you'll understand why perhaps I'm not too happy about it.......

Why VW have decided that dealers cannot sell parts any longer is a mystery to me...

Maybe it is a joke for the 1st of April ?

PLasticBlack,

Your detailed story gives a very clear message about your sentiment.  Sounds like this Milton Keyes individual was running his own little back door business at the expense of alienating all VW enthusiasts for a very self serving purpose.  Interesting story.

RM

Curious, I Googled "Milton Keynes"...Rick it is a city and not an individual.
So, it means that there was some as of yet unnamed individuals inside UK VAG who were in charge of selling parts "out the back door".
Mixed feelings understood. All the legal hounding and haunting VW has done to anyone using their colors or logo, etc.
Then good people come along and reproduce the items we need to continue being able to restore our beloved aircooled VW's. VW then sees the market and $ that is going elsewhere, so they think they should flex their might and jump in the game.
Of course, I am interested to see what they will begin producing.

I like Danny have done restoration professionally for decades, and I have fixed more than my share of used body parts which needed more work than their value. But you do what it takes to use real parts, for the aftermarket has not always been supplier to parts which are worth a damn.

I doubt that all others who are already making needed parts and have those items perfected will see a loss of business. VW will become another of those players in the game who will provide us choices.
And that's the real heading, that we Have Choices!

I'll qualify my previous statement with this: it would be a good thing if VW supplied OEM quality parts, but I'm just not optimistic considering how long they've turned their back on the vintage cars/enthusiasts.  As for buying quality parts, I'm not sure it will pencil out for them in terms of economics... take a look at how many people go to buy the cheap crap first.  Sad but true, there are those of us that WILL pay a premium for high quality parts, but the VW world for too long has been filled with cheapskates who shop by price first, IMO.

I hope I'm proven wrong, I'll sum up with that! ;D

Be careful what you wish for.... Lawsuits are now going out hot and heavy to the VW aftermarket, perhaps the strongest our industry has seen yet. VW is now going after web sites that use certain words in their source code, or meta text... like Volkswagaen, VW and now V-Dub! Reps from VW Classic Parts have made the rounds here on the West Coast, many visits have been received with not exactly open arms.... These guys play for keeps.

Sounds like VW has been taken over by Communists ;)

I'd say what I really feel, but don't need the Black Touaregs pulling up in front of the house in the middle of the night. :o ::)

And does Volkwagen have to actually make all the parts to establish a return to suppling the older VW's in a legal situation? Or could they just manufacture a few and have other items "entering the market" at a later date? It could be interesting in a court battle with the current manufacturers of "no longer offered by VW" parts. I too would love to have available good sheet metal panels for the rust that rules here in the midwest. But, if that means the elimination of everyone other than Volkswagen as a choice for parts, I might keep on with hammering out my own patches to avoid lining the pockets of a certain "People's car".

Maybe VW will test the market with hot items such as mudflaps, roof racks, luggage and the ever popular "patina-in-a-can"

Joking aside, I've seen VWoA in action back in the 70's when they sent Guido the Legbreaker in the shop to convince us we had to remove "VW Specialist" from our signs, business cards and stationary. VW is a big machine... we complied.

 

Been there too, Dave, just as many others ...

The ORIGINAL name of our shop was BeetleMania ... still have the sign!
In the lawsuit, we had to pay some and change EVERYTHING.

Funny thing to me is there's NO WAY they're ever going to work on the cars again! Hell, I'd be amased if their techs are even capable of it without going back to school, not to mention the equipment ... outside of the occasional & rare enthusiast. The techs I know rarely see a vehicle older than 7-8 years. Lots of information to recover.
Strange that it took them THIS LONG to realize there's still money in the proposition.
The question to me is, will the parts be any good? Will they still measure to spec after all this time? I'd like to hope so, but at the same time will be surprised.
TxT

FVWOA

Some of the tooling went to mexico, And the nos mexican sheetmetal I have used in the past fit real nice! So where is the tooling now? God if they just made good fenders would be a great start!! And had good tec's fitting stuff before they put anything on the market!!

I always had to laugh when someone brought an old bus or bug into the service drive at Commonwealth VW while I was still there... the "mechanics" scattered like cockroaches exposed to bright light. :o

...I went to VW once to order a few parts for my '77 Golf...

First I had to teach the guy behind the counter how to search for old Golf parts in ETKA because he didn't know what was a Golf Mk1, and he didn't believe that I was still driving one and VW still had parts for it.

Then when I get out of the parts service I was caught by a salesman who wanted to offer me a few €€€s on a brand new Golf MkV if sent my car to the crusher  ::) :D

I've known the GM at the local VW dealership for 15 years, so 3 years ago he called me up and says a long time customer brought in his Beetle and wanted the engine rebuilt by the dealership. Since they didn't have anyone who knew the first thing about aircooled VWs, they asked me to rebuild it. Needless to say they charged a significant amount over what I got paid for the job.

Following on from 'Plasticblack's' post, I think I know the independent he is referring to and they were indeed interesting times. I was involved with the company one way or the other for some time. I recall the news that contact had been made directly from VAG offering parts such as crankcases, heads etc, all at prices far below normal dealer trade price. What happened next was absurd – the independent company sold the same parts to the local VAG agent because they could supply them cheaper than VAG head office would to its own dealerships! All the local VAG dealer asked was that deliveries be made in an un-written van, so their customers would not see. VAG appeared to have no sxruples at that time.

From what i have seen of the VW Classic operation thus far, most interest has been in stuff like hubcaps, late bumpers, heads and a selection of trim parts for late models. This comprised primarily of excess stock from South America. I'd like to be proved wrong, but I cannot see VW tooling up to produce new body panels – maybe repackaging Brazilian parts, but not much else. We shall see – I'll be at Techno Classica Essen in a few days, so will see my friends from VW Wolfsburg and ask them...

I agree... when Porsche started up their Classic parts deal in the '80's, it was oddball stuff... not the body panels and usefull parts everyone was wishing for.

Stuff that they probably still haven't sold! I think they'll just be selling service parts at a vastly inflated rate and try to stop the likes of GSF from selling them, so you won't be able to buy genuine stuff from anyone except for VW themselves, and I can even see VW Heritage getting squeezed a bit, even though they're selling the stuff on behalf of Volkswagen!

I don't think it's a bad thing that VW will start offering parts. What I fear is that most of them will be garbage. We deal with this stuff all the time in my work, especially the reproduction parts for muscle cars that have the official GM stamp of approval. They are junk just like anything else that is out there.

However, we have dealt with Mercedes Benz classic parts, and they are very, very nice. You pay for them though! I hope that VW (being German) will follow Mercedes' lead, and make quality parts, even if they are more expensive. Who knows if the market will support it though...

I recently restored a distributor for a 68 190SL and the customer got his tuneup parts from Mercedes Classic Parts. He paid $155 for cap, rotor, points and condenser. I could of supplied the same BOSCH parts for $60 and still made a profit.

Lets hope VW doesn't markup the same.

Dealers nowadays ALL us a price matrix to escalate prices for parts and service into the stratosphere.  No more price books... just what the computer says!! >:(

Have they also been doing this elsewhere ?
It seems like it has only been in the U.S..
 ???

Found this on another forum:
"]
So who know what parts they'll be prducing - it might just be selling on stuff that they already reproduce themselves.

I don't get why it is so new for you and for Volksworld magazine that VW has a classic shop?!

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

They are independet of VW as far as I know and they are selling parts they bought from other dealers.
But in the last years they started to reproduce stuff, too.

I dont know if I would say that it is OEM quality because they are trying to keep the costs down,too. But they are really motivated and helpful and always try to help.

check out their website and order  :P

I think they will just sell through a local dealer what they are already selling here. Maybe they will add a few new products sometimes, but I don't see them producing all the different replacement parts for all vintage air and water VWs.

CIP1, who are local to me, have been stocking quite a large amount of factory AC VW parts in the last couple of years. I'm always glad to see these parts in my shipments. I've used BJ beams, trans mounts, trans cradles, transaxles, axles, tubes, snubber perches, fulcrums, daisys,  backing plates, beautiful DP engine tin, door trim frames, running boards etc etc. All but the running boards were much nicer than previous versions. Are these parts what are being referred to as VW Classic? They sure have made my job easier. Let's hope for sheetmetal..67 rear aprons, early hoods, fenders:)

You can order directly at VW classic parts and dont need to ask your local dealer who probably is not too interested in selling old stuff.
And afaik they are reproducing but all independent. So its not too easy for them to get the tooling and parts. But of course you may be lucky and get a brand new US-Spec FI Type1 crankcase or stuff like that.

I guess, if you hang around this industry long enough, you see just about anything.... Including VW selling air-cooled VW parts? Who would have thought...

Just onmy way back from Techno Classica Essen where I had a long meeting with the VW Classic parts guys. I have a list of the A/C parts they are currently selling. Don't get excited yet. As for new parts, they told me decisions will be based on number of vehicle registrations, so if more late-models on the road, they get the attention - was made clear it's a purely commercial venture and if suitable parts already avaable from South America then they will be offered. No plans (yet) to remake panels like early heater channels as tooling costs too high.