I don't know if this is a regional thing (I'm in Colorado) or what, but dealers here are trying to rip off buyers with a bogus regional ad fee of $495. They say this is on their invoice and the online websites miss it.

I have had to tell three dealers in state that under no circumstances will I pay any fees or dealer prep charges. (Offering $500 over invoice on '07 A3). I also said they compete with other luxury brands like BMW and as previous owner of two BMW's, you don't have to put up with that from their competitors.

Anyone else have to deal with this?

 

Let me amend the above post -- the fees are actually two separate: one for $300 for an advertising pool fee and two, a $195 port prep and inspection fee.

 

This is normal. You have destination, port prep, and advertising fee on all new Audi's everywhere in the states. You can argue with dealer about this, but this paragraph says it all: Additional costs vary from state to state and even region-to-region. These include taxes, title, registration, and emission fees. Specific vehicles may have dealer- or manufacturer-added options not shown here that also affect price. In addition, there may be regional marketing and advertising fees or other costs that are beyond a dealer’s control.

 

If Audi were smart, they would bake these fees into their base invoice price like BMW. It smells and makes them look bad.

 

I'm in Colorado, and when I was soliciting bids (mid-June 2007) none of the dealers mentioned any mandatory state-wide fees. However, all their bids came in well above invoice, so they could have just accounted for those fees in giving me my bids.

I eventually went with a bid on a pre-order 2008 model at ~$900 over invoice, which according to the dealer "included" their mandatory fees of about $400. I don't care what they label various charges; I just want the lowest price. $900 over invoice was the lowest, so that's fine.

 

Hey zlg, I am talking to Scott West at Prestige Imports and Adolf at Phil Long. Where did you get the best deal?

 

I've bought 2 new Audi's in the last year - one in Chicago, one in Tulsa. Neither had regional ad fees, port fees, or dealer prep fees. I've heard that some regions have these, and like every thing else, they're negotiable. I did pay destination charges on both of my cars.

 

Agreed. You'll never get out of the destination charges, but all of the others are fully negotiable.

Cheers!

 

I solicited bids via email for an '08 A3 3.2 with no options, regular paint. Including the destination charge, the invoice is $33,187 and the MSRP is $35,690.

No one at Elk Mountain Motors returned any of two emails.
No one at Phil Long Audi returned any of three emails.
Adolf Zoch at Ed Carroll submitted a bid of $34,571 + tax.
Chris Root at Stammler Audi submitted a bid of $35,200 + tax, including factory iPod integration.
Craig Muthard at McDonald Audi submitted a bid of $34,076.50 + tax.
Dave McManus at Prestige Imports submitted a bid of $34,075 + tax.

I went with Prestige Imports.

A couple of footnotes: (1) I let Prestige Imports have the last bid, because I've heard good things about their dealerships. (2) I've heard very bad things about McDonald Audi, all via the internet. (3) The Prestige bid includes their $399 dealer preparation and handling fee, which is printed on every contract in the same ink as the grid-lines. But somehow he mysteriously crossed out the first '9' and replaced it with a '4' with a ballpoint pen, so it now reads "$349". In any case, the bottom line is still $34,075. That's about $900 above invoice, about $1,600 below MSRP, which is good enough for me.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

 

Congrats.

I lived in Colorado Springs for a long time and Phil Long had the worst reputation, but I've only ever heard good things about Prestige. Never personally delt with them, but I'm glad you pick the better dealer.

Cheers!