It's not a merger. As I understand it, they have basically agreed to sell each others parts.
My knee jerk reaction was: bad idea for Dave. After giving it some thought and talking with him about it, I've done a 180. GPR and Porsche are my main suppliers. For me this means that GPR will have stuff that I wouldn't have gotten from AA.
Since I opened my shop seven years ago, there have been a few times that I've thought about burying the hatchet with George (and no not in his chest). Lots of guys have had problems with AA, but they have a large customer base and lots of loyal customers. Like them or not, they do know 914's. Sure George has an ego the size of Alaska, but no one has a 914 catalog like them. I remember getting my first or second AA catalog and thinking "I need to get a job there". I don't think that anymore, but I do still love 914's, so that is something we all have in common with George.
I don't remember ever hearing anything bad about GPR, maybe just a bad memory, but they have a excellent way of doing things which WON'T CHANGE! AA has stuff you can't get anywhere else. I haven't got my hands on the AA flairs, but they have to be better than the Porsche flairs, which are horrible. The flairs are just one example of many 914 products that they have tooled for, which will help us keep our 914's on the road, as well as improve them.
Maybe I'm getting old and soft, but perhaps it's time to move on. Things change ya know
The parts business is tough, really tough. Have you seen that post on the birdboard? The guys that want to stay in business have to get creative. It really is a dog eat dog world, when it comes to the parts business.