I live in a city with 2 Audi dealers. I contacted one by email a couple of weeks ago to arrange a test drive. I drove the A3 and liked it a lot. Since I wasn't yet ready to buy, I wasn't going to discuss pricing, but the internet guy gave me a price anyway, which was their Costco price of $750 above invoice. That didn't sound too bad but then he said plus the advertising fee, which was $495. He checked Edmund's TMV and it turns out it was a little less, so he said he would offer that price. But I thought TMV was supposed to be the average price paid, so shouldn't you expect to be able to beat that by a good amount?

I am a Costco member, so I checked out their car buying webpage, and it looked like it might have some advantages, so I went ahead and put through a request, expecting it to refer me to the same dealer. But in fact it came back with the second dealer, so I met with them. Their Costco price was $1000 over invoice, also plus the ad fee (he showed me an invoice to confirm the $495).

I also asked both about service loaners. The first dealer's answer was a bit vague, but sounded like you'd only get one for a major service appointment. The second dealer didn't even have loaners. I'm curious whether other dealers offer loaners, and when you get them?

 

Not every dealer offers loaners, all have one way shuttle bus, then offer deals with car rental agencies. Usually dealers who do offer loaners to their Audi customers are for jobs that requires extended overnight repair. If the first dealer mentioned major service appointment then that's probably their policy.

I often wonder how accurate Edmunds TMV price is anyway, considering I can input two different areas couple hundred miles apart and be quoted the same TMV price. You can haggle price, but which dealership did you like better. You can always buy from one, and get service from other!

 

It's all a matter of competition. In SoCal, I haggled over a price and got WAY below TMV for my A3, and the dealership I bought also services the vehicle with free loaners or rental cars for any service. I'm sure that they bill it back to Audi anyway. You're kind of stuck with what you can get in lesser markets.

Cheers!

 

In my area with only one truly local dealership, they ask that customers wait for the car on site if it's regular maintenance...they claim they can finish things up in less than 2 hours. Service loaners and rentals are reserved typically for warranty related repairs or anything that might take longer.

They may be more accommodating to A6 or A8 owners though.

 

If you can find a leftover 06, you can do a WHOLE LOT better than that. As far as loaners, my dealer (the only one in the area) is also a dealer for Infiniti and Porsche. They provide an Infiniti G35 for all service work (including reg maint like oil changes), they just ask that you schedule the service about a week in advance so they can make sure to have a loaner avail. In the case of having to have warranty repair work done, if they don't have any of the G's avail, they will actually pull a car out of the used car inventory for use as a loaner.

 

Hi Chef,

I live in SoCal, which dealership did u go to that offers loaners for any service. I've went to 2, one @ torrance(where I bought mine at), and one @ norwalk. None of them offered loaners to me, since I came in both on Saturdays, they claimed they only offered loaners in the weekdays, but I doubt it.

This is the only negative part I learntfor getting an Audi, no loaners for any services.

 

I bought my car at Pacific too. I always get my service done on the weekdays, so I didn't know that they only offered that service then. I've been very pleased with the buying experience and the service they offer. One of their master techs also works for Eurocode Tuning in Torrance, so that doesn't hurt either when you have a bunch of mods on your car.

Are you going to make it to the next GTG?

 

Yeah I got @ Torrance with Kim. Service I received was great, but next service I will definitely try to do it in the weekday for the Loaner. I work in Orange County, which makes it tougher for me.

My car is APR chipped and Neuspeed CAI installed (both done @ Eurocode), so you think they will be cool with my car? I'm in my 21000 miles, so I'll probably be heading to the dealerships in 4 weeks.

I will definitely try to make it for the next GTG, if not the following one.

 

I still suggest switching the car back to stock mode. But I had my car in a few weeks ago with the CAI and such and they didn't even bat an eye. Actually, the list of parts for the 15k service still included the air filter on the invoice listing. They didn't bother me, and I wasn't going to bother them.

Cheers!

BTW, what about the finance manager and the cashier??? Whoa!

 

What about the finance manager and cashier? Smoking young, as I say.