Scott_F

Going to pick up my A7 in about an hour. Dealer said Audicare cost for that car is $820. Does that sound right? I've already negotiated the car price, etc. so not sure if they will move on that or not.

Any guidance from those of you who have "been there, done that"?

RookieWill

Fairly sure that is exactly what I paid. They seemed unwilling to negotiate on that price, but they were more than willing to negotiate on the other "extras" (tire warranties, clear coat, etc.)

As an aside, against my better judgement, I took the plunge on the tire warranty as 1) I live in Boston metro area (horrid roads) and 2) 20 inch sports are on my car. My colleague who took his S6 in early summer has already used his tire warranty

NaplesQ7

Seems about right. I usually negotiate to get that at no cost prior to biting off on the automobile. I have not been turned down yet after 5 audis.

audi40

$820 is the right price. Since you've already negotiated the price of the car, and unless you left some significant $$ on the table in the price negotiation, there's probably little incentive the dealer has to offer Audicare for much more than 5-6% off. I'm sure other forum members will chime in that they got Audicare for 50% off or free, but when all is said and done, it's really just a numbers game for the dealer and getting to an all-in NET # that they can live with to seal the deal. In my case, I got Audicare for "free", but in the intererest of full-disclosure, my dealer (who I had bought 2 cars from previously) was offering $1,500 less on my trade-in than a competing out-of-state dealer - the local dealer's used car manager was struggling to match a bigger dealer in a bigger market (I was getting 6% supplier discount + $1,500 owner loyalty from both dealers on the new A6 so not much room to haggle there). Wanting to keep my business local, I suggested my dealer make up the $1,500 trade difference by "throwing in" Audicare + all weather mats + trunk liner, not to mention their doc fee was $100 less than the out of state dealer. They agreed to do this and I ended up with a net price I was happy with and assume they were as well (esp. considering they were able to sell my trade in < 2 wks).

snagitseven

This comes up frequently on the forums. Audi Care cost to the dealer is not much less than the retail price so getting a discount on its own is nearly impossible as the dealer isn't going to sell it below cost. As to getting it "free" or at a hefty discount at time of the car purchase, as previously mentioned, it's all in the numbers. Since the dealer cost of AC, like the cost of the car, is fixed, if it's "thrown in", the dealer is essentially giving a further discount equal to the Audi Care cost (roughly $50 less than retail). In other words, if one didn't get the Audi Care for "free", one theoretically could have gotten the equivalent amount as a discount off the price of the car or a higher amount for a trade in. Nothing is free, including Audi Care.

Scott_F

Thanks guys. I wrote the deal up earlier today and just went for the AC @$820. Interestingly, the dealer guy said that reg. maintenance for my TDI was actually more expensive than for the normal 3.0 but that Audi hadn't set different AC prices for gas vs diesel (yet?).

Anyway, have owned the car for about 6 hours now and it has a whopping 39 miles on it so all is good. It should only take me another 50 hours or so to figure out all the techno widgets on this thing.

The start/stop feature is quite strange to get used to. Curious as to whether it makes a material difference from a mileage perspective.

audi40

Congrats and good choice on the TDI...I've got 2,400 miles on my A6 and love everything about it (MPG/range, torque/power, tech features, etc.). As for the start-stop feature, this is one of those love-hate things...at first I couldn't figure out why it would shut down sometimes and not others, but once I figured it out (i.e. read the owner's manual) and learned how to modulate pressure on the brake pedal to activate/deactivate it, I actually enjoy using it when I come to a stop at a traffic light, etc. No idea how much gas it actually saves, but I like the thought of not putting unnecessary emissions into the air, not to mention the great mileage the TDI gets overall. The one thing I am leery of with it is when taking a left hand turn accross traffic...i generally will turn it off in these situations so there's power at the ready when I need to go.

Plutolawyer

Not much room on the Audi care. It's really just a loss leader to get you in for service. I was able to heavily negotiate the price and my trade in and I got them to throw in LoJack for free. My dealer pre installs it on all vehicles. They wanted like $600 for it so I said they could just take it out. They gave in and let me keep it for free.