Anybody with TPS account
 

Could anybody with TPS trade account ring up TPS and ask the trade price for windscreen part number 4Z7 845 099 AA. I rang them up but they would not even give me trade price without account, only retail price which is the same as from dealers. I am currently trying to negotiate OEM windscreen for A6 with Autoglass as insurance does not want to pay for OEM. Thanks.

I have an account, but they don't sell to me at trade prices.
Their trade discounts are volume based AFAIK.
If you still want me to check I will ring them.

Please do check, at least I will have some data. Thanks.

My local one gives 10% off as a rule -

£304 including VAT

Thanks for checking, that's not much discount at all, about 10%.

How much Audi wants for the same part?

Current full RRP is £330.74 incl VAT

Thanks for your assistance.

So after a couple of hours on the phone with Autoglass, insurance and Audi we have a result. After hearing numerous times that they only pay for OEM windscreens on vehicles up to 3 years old and that there is no difference in quality between OEM and OE and going through several levels of authority insurance finally agreed to pay for OEM windscreen. What's even better is they told to get it replaced at Audi dealership and dealer can either bill them directly or I can pay in full and then claim back from insurance later. Only catch is that I will need to pay £100 excess instead of £75. £25 extra for OEM windscreen fitted by dealer instead of aftermarket fitted by Autoglass, not a bad result. By the way full cost for our 2000 C5 A6 from Northampton Audi for the glass and job including VAT is £450ish (don't remember exact figure, was just too happy to get solution at the end).

That's not a bad result - I entirely agree that OEM is very much more preferable! We had a 'Guardian' screen fitted to our A6 and I wasn't impressed with the quality compared to the original. It scratched very easily just from using a scraper in winter, which I'd never experienced before!

My company has a proper 'trade' account with TPS

However

Jim (Laird) appears to get a better discount than we do (Motor factors):ROFL:

Our Mini is on its 3rd windscreen in just 2 years (they are quite susceptible as they are quite upright) and last time I insisted on an OEM screen because both OE ones had cracked from only relatively small impacts. Eventually got my own way after a couple of weeks arguing about it - no extra excess (it's already £125!) and they gave us £35 compo for it taking so long.

Not sure having Audi fit the screen is necessarily a good thing though, I'd rather have somebody that does it all day every day, Audi won't have had much practice at it.

Oh, I also refuse to deal with AutoGlass as they scratched the bonnet of the previous Mini fitting a new screen to that one, AutoWindscreens got our job instead

To be honest I don't know if Audi will be doing the job itself, more likely they will have third party in to do the job. But because it goes through the dealer there is hope that correct materials, accessories and procedures will be used, like spacers, primers and 2 component adhesive which is not guaranteed going elsewhere.

You tend to find that certain windscreen companies use a cheaper quality screen.

Our company vehicles (mine in particular) had 3 screens in the peiod of a few weeks.

The original cracked,
The replacement lasted a week
The second one was also poor & cracked
The third one was a different OE spec brand

Its a shame the auto industry won't move on. I'm sure there are now versions of lexan/polycarbonate which are scratch resistant enough to serve as a windscreen.
And as a bonus if someone off a bridge throws a brick at your windscreen or a brick falls off a truck, it is unlikely to go through the windscreen and hit you. Unlike with standard windscreens they use now.

I don't know what standard windscreens are like nowadays, but I remember way back in the dark ages buying a Triumph Dolomite and one of the features of that was a triple-layer laminated windscreen which was supposedly very shatter-resistant.

I do recall a crow flying into the windscreen once when I was doing a "considerable" speed and there was an almighty bang, a very bloody mess but no damage whatsoever to the windscreen.

These screens are made in the same factories, but are very difficult to make, so they are graded into different qualities. The best go to VW/Audi, the next will be branded the glass company's name such as SEKURIT the distorted ones that are not bad enough to scrap will be unbranded or branded with a faux brand. If the Audi factory ordered a batch of screens they would be inspected and the whole batch rejected and the supplier told to collect them if they did not meet their standards, but Autoglass et al are more bothered about a deal on the price.

Got the windscreen fitted on Monday at Audi Northampton, they did not do the job themselves but had Corby Windscreens in to do the job. Only problem is that there was some corrosion under old windscreen so they did not provide any warranty for the job because of that. They cleaned it up and put some primer before new windscreen but there is no guarantee that it will not start to corrode again. Audi 2K adhesive was used as it's meant to be by Audi while going to the windscreen fitters directly they would most likely have used single component adhesive.

Audi was once again cheaper then TPS providing bigger discount with the list price of £330.74 including VAT, TPS price being £304, and Audi price including discount was £252.43, not that I care much as insurance is paying for it anyway. Other costs were £85 +VAT for Corby Windscreens for fitting and £39.98 +VAT for the 2K adhesive so you can see why windscreen fitters usually use 1K adhesive which is under £10. Total cost £450.73, all the paperwork sent to insurance, just waiting for £350 cheque to arrive.

Thanks that's good info, next time I need a windscreen fitted I will make sure I ask if they use the 2K Audi adhesive.