[encantotom]

hi gurus,

i am fortunate enough to be able to call Karl Blade and talk about questions that I have. I talked to him a couple of times today about this.

there are a couple of things to comment on.

first.....they like to sell parts so their policy in general is not to give out oem part numbers. they assign NC (newell coach) part numbers to everything they sell.

second, they buy directly from their oems and dont in general shop around to get alternative sources. an example of that is the ZF suspension. in this case they just buy parts including airbags, directly from ZF. he doesnt know if they have alternative firestone or goodyear bags or not. they just order from zf.

it would be interesting to know if anyone has taken one off and seen if they are a zf part or firestone or goodyear. or someone else.

i also had a discussion with him about the handling charge that they tack on to everything. he is aware that is a sore point for us. dunno if anything will change about it or not. i would guess not, but at least he knows how we feel.

i will say that karl is easy to talk to and always willing to talk to me or answer a text.

he is also glad for the newellguru forum for helping out newell owners and i appreciate the encouragement that he and newell gives this forum.

so, the part number issue is not because morgan is doing it on his own, it is a newell policy.

later

tom