924Board.org

Bockscar · Joined: 16 Nov 2010 Posts: 392 Location: Sandy, Oregon

I am quickly becoming disillusioned by the Porsche parts community. Back in November, I had a choice between getting a 81 Porsche 931 and a 87 BMW 3, both of which needed some hefty restoration, which is fine. I was expecting to pay a fortune to buy parts for either cars. What I was not expecting was the fact that (many) Porsche parts are nearly impossible to find.

Anyway, about Auto Atlanta. I had been using Pelican Parts for a while but it seemed like every other part I needed to buy (even some crush washers or a fuel filter) they needed to source from Germany which would cost me an extra $20 at least. VW, Audi, and BMW have awesome stores like Autohausaz which carries pretty much everything under the sun where as us Porsche heads have Pelican Parts which I've found to be nearly useless. I recently stumbled across Auto Atlanta which according to their website has not only parts diagrams for every system in the car but the parts too.

And this leads me to the question. I searched around on the forum for information about Auto Atlanta but everyone has the same complaint: Customer Service. What exactly does that mean? All I expect is to place an order on line and get my parts in the mail a week later. I don't care of I'm ordering from a robot, alien, human, or whatever. The question is, do they deliver on what their site offers?
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Brian
'79 924 - Restoration In Progress
'81 924 Turbo w/EFI - Scrapped

Rasta Monsta · Joined: 12 Jul 2006 Posts: 11733 Location: PacNW

Luckily for you, we have Sunset Imports right here in town, a widely used national level supplier.

I'd also recommend EBS Racing for order-by-phone situations.
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Toofah King Bad

WeiBe (1987 924S 2.5t) - 931 S3

Bockscar · Joined: 16 Nov 2010 Posts: 392 Location: Sandy, Oregon

Bockscar · Joined: 16 Nov 2010 Posts: 392 Location: Sandy, Oregon

Hey check what I found:

"You will soon be able to order Porsche and Audi parts in our online store! Until then, please send us a message with your requests or questions and we will get back to you promptly."

That is great news! Hopefully they source parts for our 931s.
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Brian
'79 924 - Restoration In Progress
'81 924 Turbo w/EFI - Scrapped

fiat22turbo · Joined: 18 Jan 2006 Posts: 4040 Location: Portland, OR

That's what the PET is for

Lets face it, the 924 and 924 turbo are orphaned cars. The parts they share with other vehicles help (Super Beetle, Rabbit, 911, 944, Audi, AMC, etc) keep them alive but the 924 specific parts will be harder to harder to find as time moves on.

Thank goodness for Ideola, EBS, Sunset, Pelican Parts and the 924 community as a whole that help keep these cars alive.

Auto Atlanta apparently would fail to ship products, would be rude on the phone with customers, would lie about shipping dates, charge exorbanent prices, etc. Basically all the things that fall under poor customer service. The poor guy that was hired on to correct these issues learned early on that he had a mountain range to climb and has made great strides to improve the issues caused by the owner. However, he's run into issues with the owner, which is where the problems stemmed from in the first place. It seems that if you can get a valid tracking number from them on the phone or pick the parts up in person then you're in good shape. Otherwise don't bother.
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Stefan
1979 924 Carrera GTS (clone-ish)
1988 944 Turbo S (Silver Rose)

Bockscar · Joined: 16 Nov 2010 Posts: 392 Location: Sandy, Oregon

Cedric · Joined: 27 Aug 2004 Posts: 2834 Location: Sweden

Actually, some years ago I bougth a clutch kit from AA (before I read on this board about AA), went pretty smooth. Got the parts in time and they werent at all rude on the phone. Price was at least half of what a turbo clutch costs over here (even though its a german part). So you may have luck

How expensive is parts from porsche over there? Maybe expensive due to the dollar being really weak. I havve bought some special parts from porsche like tubes, odd screws, gaskets, expansion tank, and some more bits. Parts from porsche are often really expensive or unexpectedly cheap. At least over here. What part is hard to find for you?
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1980 924 Turbo
www.instagram.com/garagecedric/

Bockscar · Joined: 16 Nov 2010 Posts: 392 Location: Sandy, Oregon

Grenadiers · Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2011 3:51 am Post subject:

And as far as the 'used' market is concerned, every used part I have and what Dan has, means one less 924 on the road. Which is a bit disconcerting, kinda like heart transplants. Ok, that's a bit of a reach~!

I have a turbo line to charge tube if you're still looking for one.
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'83 944 Track car.
'88 924S Track car.
'89 944 Turbo
2004 Winnebago Vectra monster RV
2012 Jeep Wrangler
2014 Kia Soul
2001 Ford F350 powerstroke

Bockscar · Joined: 16 Nov 2010 Posts: 392 Location: Sandy, Oregon

Bockscar · Joined: 16 Nov 2010 Posts: 392 Location: Sandy, Oregon

Just for the record, not only did Auto Atlanta not send me a tracking number of any kind, I sent them an email asking for some kind of status update about a week ago and they still haven't replied. Starting to look like I got shafted.
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Brian
'79 924 - Restoration In Progress
'81 924 Turbo w/EFI - Scrapped

PeterW · Joined: 17 Dec 2003 Posts: 78 Location: Auburn WA

Bockscar -

I had a line made up from an old unit by taking to a diesel hydraulic shop and having them replace the rubber. They crimped a new section of hose in place, reusing the ends. It's not original, but works. The place I use is Williams Oil Filter in Tacoma.

As far as the mating piece is concerned, if AA doesn't deliver, I have a series 1 charge tube - Not sure if the connector is the same, but I can rob the connector off of it.
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1980 931

Rasta Monsta · Joined: 12 Jul 2006 Posts: 11733 Location: PacNW

Quite the optimist to have rolled the dice after hearing nothing but bad feedback about the company.
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Toofah King Bad

WeiBe (1987 924S 2.5t) - 931 S3

bear924 · Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2011 7:59 pm Post subject:

Hello all,
I use AA to purchase 80% of my parts and then have them shipped to Australia so I'm not an easy customer. I do all transactions online, I find their parts schematics great and use the part numbers for comparisons with other suppliers eg pelican. Generally I find part cost similar to pelican however AA have a greater range of parts for the 931, I find pelicans selection rather limited.I have been using them for about five years and purchased a range of parts, in that time they have once supplied an incorrect part and provided a store credit (they may have refunded however i asked for a credit.) I did need to hassle them a little via email once the part landed back to AA however apart from poor communication they weren't too bad. I also paid postage both ways, many would consider this unfair.

I was hesitant to use AA initially due to reputation however I like the one stop shop nature and online transaction ability. I would rate them 7/10.

Bockscar · Joined: 16 Nov 2010 Posts: 392 Location: Sandy, Oregon