[T3] A Parts List Concept - general T3 content

["John M. Kowalski" <john.kowalski@zg.tel.hr>]

Greetings from Lurkland!

I wanted to share with you all a very interesting concept that I found for
parts identification.  A German company specializing in NSU motorcycles has
a downloadable parts program with diagrams of all parts, including screws
and washers with accompanying part numbers and prices.  On the left side of
the screen is the diagram with numbers pointing to the blow up diagram of
each part.  On the right side of the screen is a scrollable list of
diagrammed part numbers, quantity needed, corresponding OE part number, and
Motzke's price for that part.  Above that is another scrollable list of the
parts that you just selected to order.  When you mouse-select a part to
order, it prompts you for quantity and then puts in in your current "order"
with a current total price.  

The parts diagrams and lists are very similar to what I saw on microfiche.
However, in this program you can page through all 80+ pages of diagrams and
corresponding lists, or you can search for the diagram page you want.  The
diagrams are very similar to microfiche or the parts books for sale at
meets -- but so much better because they are in your own computer!

Motzke makes this service available through a dial-up connection to their
server using Microsoft network (netbuei?) protocols.  The international
call costed me a bit, but it was worth it because now I have a COMPLETE and
updated parts price list for the '53 NSU Max I am looking to purchase and
lists for my Croatian friends' NSU Konsul and Prima V.  

Motzke's program is in German and I assume (even hope because it is so easy
to use) that they have proprietary rights to the software.  I have only
begun to use it, but I even see possibilities of a firm adding code to the
datalist files that make them expire annually or so in order to keep the
price and availability current.  

I hope the link to T3s is obvious.  There is no such program for our VW
Type IIIs currently on the market EVEN THOUGH there are 10x more T3s than
there are NSU motorcycles still on the road.  Please share this idea with
the vendors you know and see if they would like to tackle something like
this.  Granted, download was a drag, but now I have complete parts and
price lists for three obscure motorcycles that I can browse at will without
being on-line.  Besides being an excellent service to clients, it also
creates a captive clientele base that will surely become faithful to such a
service.

What say?  I'm too feeble-minded to undertake such a project.  What about
you?  What about prompting the better-quality vendors that you know of?
Just thought that I would throw this out because it genuinely is an
easy-to-use, complete parts ID and price list program.

All the best and Happy Holidays,

John M. Kowalski
USAID
American Embassy Zagreb
Croatia



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