I'm in the market for a 07 A3 2.0T and have been seeing internet price quotes from dealers as low as $800 below invoice for any car in stock. (I'm in the bay area and apparently all dealers here quote invoice price as the invoice price you see from Edmunds plus $495 port and advertising fees, which, according to Edmunds, is legit).

One dealer suggested that I make a decision before the end of the year, as I quote:

"...this is becuase Audi has given each dealer an incentive for A3 sales which run out before years end. That explains why you're seeing price quotes so far below invoice."

I'm wondering if there's any truth to it?

 

Hmmm....there are no lease or sales pushes involving A3 currently, A4 yes per dealer, but there is the common goal of selling as many Audi's to meet year end goal of record number of Audi's sold. Some particular 2007 A3's that have been sitting on the lots since late summer, and they need to get rid of them. Some have been test driven lots of miles, some are scratched. So I would think dealers will be inclined to rid themselves of these A3's. BTW The destination charge is still $720 in this area.

 

The only published deals that I've seen are in financing:

1 yr 1.9
2 yr 2.9
3 yr 3.9
4 yr 4.9

 

Get yourself on the mailing list for Royal Motors in SF - though I think they are but one of many options for dealers - I get an email from the sales manager about once a month with some new, hot A3 deal on it. I'd normally hate the spam but it's fun to geek out on the prices of the car I happen to now own. I think it's easily done by getting signed up for multiple dealer quotes through the audiusa website - that's how I ultimately got connected with Oakland Audi - which happened to have the best price for me for the model I was looking for. That said, it seems like there are some pretty nice deals happening right now, so I'd work 2-4 dealers to get the best possible deal...essentially, they all pull from the same pool.

 

In my area at least, I'm not seeing nearly the deals for the 3.2...probably because there are not many dealerships in my area and nobody seems to have more than 1-2 of the 3.2s in stock.

I paid over invoice, but I still got the best price available to me aithout searching outside the state, and I still paid below the Edmunds TMV price for the area.

I suspect pricing might be more competitive overall for you closer to year's end, but you'll probably find a better deal if you can bring yourself to wait til late summer.

 

Even though I see a number of 3.2's on SF bay area local dealers lots, the local dealers were anticipating selling 80% 2.0T versus 20% 3.2T this year. Both cars are fast, so I think it really gets down to the fact, do you need the Quattro option with an beefer engine for more $ versus FWD.