In case this helps anyone, I just wanted to let everyone know that I just signed a deal for a new '08 A3 3.2, brilliant black on standard grey leather, no options except front license-plate holder.

MSRP is $35,690; invoice is $33,187. I will be paying $34,075. I won't be receiving it until August at earliest, so I have a $2,000 deposit down. The deposit is non-refundable, which kind of scares me in case it gets damaged or they try to tack on some junk I don't want or it takes an extra couple of months to arrive. I'll update this when I get the vehicle to inform folks whether the dealer tried to screw me over in that area.

I went to Prestige Imports in Lakewood, Colorado, and I worked with Dave McManus. I did all my research, bargaining, and bid soliciting via email, except for a ~1 hour test-drive a couple of weeks ago. Dave faxed me the contract yesterday, and it looked okay, so I made an appointment to sign today. It was the first time I set foot in their dealership (I test-drove closer to home), but I was in and out of there within 20 minutes. They didn't try to sell me any extra junk or try to convince me to finance or anything like that. Though maybe they will once the automobile arrives and they've already put $2,000 "worth" of rust-proofing on it that they want me to pay for... That's my nightmare anyway.

Hope this helps someone. This forum has been very helpful for me in my research.

EDIT: Why does this forum automatically hotlink phrases like 'c-a-r' and 't-e-s-t d-r-i-v-e'? Is there any way to turn that "feature" off?

 

The desposit varies per dealer, some $1000, some $2000. When you order a car, they will inspect it totally when it arrives before they call you for the pick up, and then you can inspect it to death before any final paperwork is processed. While its possible to encounter a rare shipping accident most Audi's arrive perfect. VW and Audi are rust proof already (galvenized), and you don't need $2000 worth of rust proofing.

 

Right, JohnS1. My worry is that they will try to stick me with random fees for worthless things that I don't want.

 

Yeah your right, sometimes they do try. After you talk about the A3 pricing they will attempt to sell you PermaPlating, or 3M Rock Guard. Then there's the Audi 4 year maintenance for $550, or far worse the 7 year extended warranty/maintenance for $2500. I only took the maintenance plan which seemed acceptable for the 15K, 25k, 35k , 45k service points. My service rep also said to just remind him about tire rotation and he would do that for free. The 5k service with tire rotation is free, but the other services don't offer tire rotation...pretty odd!

Its a another way to push unwanted advertisements towards readers. ;-)

 

I have never done a non-refundable deposit so I would feel a little worried too but you are purchasing a brand new worry free accident free rust free car and that is what they have to give it to you. On a past car, they added a film to the car to protect it and said all the cars come with it, company policy but since it was not on the purchase order/invoice/contract, they finally had to eat it.

Anyway, congrats on the car, sweet car! The wait is going to be a b!tch though! Good luck!

About the ads, using firefox with their ad-block feature should take care of that problem. Probalby

 

My god 20 minutes???

It took me two days to hammer a deal on my car, this after I had already agreed on the priceand options(via the Internet and about 5 phone calls with the salesperson)had my financing pre-approved via CUTTLE and had my insurance lined up, even though in CA you have 30 days to get the car insured. This was on a car that was already sitting in on a show room floor. Even after all that, the salesperson tried to get me into a different color car.

Livermore Audi was by far the hardest dealership I have ever bought a car from.This much is true, I'll never buy a car from them.Lucky for me, their service/parts department has been much, much easier to deal with. My experience was so bad I was willing to forgo the free 5K service and do it myself. However, the I3 reflash required me to take the car in, and I learned that the other half of the dealership had a different attitude toward customers.

 

OMG I have to agree. Livermore Audi is by far the worst dealership I have ever been to!! I went there to buy an A3, I had done all my research, knew I wanted the car, had the money, and had been talking to a sales guy that worked there through the internet and he said they had the car I wanted. So I drove down there from San Jose to find out the guy wasn't in and that they didn't have the car. But they didn't even try to sell me another car. In my opinion the assh**l that was helping me saw how old I was and blew me off. He even got on the computer and said they had the exact car I wanted at another dealership, but he wouldn't tell me where and they wouldn't even try and get the car for me (which I know they can cause they did with my Lexus). I was pissed, so when we left we used my navigation to get the #'s for all the bay area Audi’s and started calling. Found the car I wantedin Palo Alto, drove there and bought it that day. Anyways- Livermore Audi SUCKS!!