Does Audi have something like CCA discount for parts? That's helped me a lot on the BMW side. Took a chunk of sting out of the LSD and the tires I ordered from the dealer. They basically matched TireRack's price on the Michelin all seasons I ordered after the discount was applied...

At a top line, I don't really disagree with you. A 33% dealer mark up on their cost for parts? It's a lot, but about what I'd expect from lugnuts to long blocks for the most inexpensive appliance cars to near-exotic cars from major nameplates. When the part price goes up, the mark up goes up in dollars. Yeah?

Even so, comparing what a dealer pays for a part to what a random internet dude pays may be a fair comparison. Or it may not. I don't have the information to know in this case. But, I do know that suppliers charge different customers different pricing for a variety of reasons.

Random internet dude says Delphi is the only source for those shocks. If true, do we know Delphi is charging random internet dude the same as Audi? Do we know the only difference between the shocks Delphi sells to Audi and random internet dude are that these went into this shipping box and those went in that one? Do we know that Audi doesn't have testing requirements on each shock and only those that pass get sold to Audi while ones that fail, but are still good enough to use get sold to random internet dudes at discounted prices? Do we know Delphi replaces defective units at no cost for both Audi and random internet dude?

And then Audi resells the parts to their dealers, presumably with some level of markup added.

It's a expensive part with a short lifespan on a super expensive car that generally don't get and aren't expected to rack up many miles. Sure, it's a racket, but this is what's been going on with these types of cars since long before any of us were buying our own cars. When you buy a car like that and then insist on having all work performed by the dealer and using only genuine Audi parts (even when there are better and cheaper alternatives), you've bought into playing your role in that racket.

Sure, it kind of blows, but meh.

So, I guess you need to factor in that the dealer is also guaranteeing the part for a certain amount of time after the install...so there's some risk coverage on their part for that.

That, too, I think.

When I took my parents 2001 E38 after they passed away... The CEL was on. In talking to the BMW mechanic in Monterey we used when I lived down there, he mentioned a few things to do.

One of them was to replace the mass air sensor.
The interesting thing is that the same engine is used in both BMW's and Range Rovers. Both use the same Bosch stuff. I bought the cheapest LR 'branded' mass air sensor for about only 60% of what that identical part was from the cheapest BMW branded source had it for.
Opening up the green box revealed the same identical part that was installed in the car from the factory - right down to the PN cast into the housing.

Parts are a commodity... VW / Audi / Porsche have (for a long time) shared many of the same parts amongst their cars. I have a friend who has Porsche's (older ones - water and air cooled) who make it a mission in life to see if he can get the 'cheaper' VW version of the same item his Porsche needs - for a substantial discount.

Though that is the price originally quoted I would think they would come down if I get stuck paying for it ...



Agreed ... like I said before you want to play you gotta pay.

I got great news ... the warranty company is covering all 4 struts the only thing I have to pay for is the alignment at a total cost of out of pocket of $200. :banana:

Argh ... Major R8 issue
 

Excellent! Should be good to go for another 10k miles! 😊

Fantastic!

Sweet!