4SallyPat

New to the brand, but not new to German automobiles. Originally, we were planning on doing a BMW Euro delivery but none of the cars were worth driving - they all are soft and disconnected now and there are no SUV available.

So changing gears after we test drove an SQ5 - fell in love with the awesome SQ5 supercharger and Macan like ride - we are still going to Germany but now it's Ingolstadt instead of Munich...

Questions about picking up in Germany next summer:

1. Drive to Rome, Italy from Germany - how long is the drive if I stick to motorways (no alpine zig zag roads) ?

2. Can the hotel stay provided by Audi be scheduled for the end of the delivery day (instead of before delivery day) if we decide to come from another part of Europe via train prior to delivery?

3. What is the actual re-delivery times back to the states (west coast) after drop off - does the drop off location make a difference on return time? Need to plan this as our BMW lease is up in fall....

4. Is it worth ordering a new 2017 SQ5 or get the outgoing 2016 SQ5 at a steal of a price ? We are going in August which is typically the cut off between model years ??

5. Your opinion on whether to tour less expensive eastern Europe (Eastern Germany, Poland, Czech) or the more expensive west (France, Switzerland, Italy) during late summer / early fall - August or September??

Thanks!

BTW last time in Europe was London - drove a rental Merc A180 diesel - on wrong side of the road - that was a blast!

TIME89

Hello, 4SallyPat and Welcome to AudiWorld ED forum!
1. I would recommend split driving from Audi Forum to Rome in 2 or 3 days.
a.) stop in Zurich for 3 hrs and sleep in Lucerne.
b) next morning drive to lake Come, spend 1/2 day at Lake Como (or sleep there) and than take 50 min drive to Milan
c) next morning drive from Milan to Rome. Get hotel outside Rome and make sure it has private secure parking. To get to the center of Rome use public transportation (to avoid hart attack)
2. Yes
3. 2-3 month
4. If money no object - 2017, if you try to save - 2016 - there are no significant change, unless 2017 model change year.
5. mixed both. In my ED I pick up car in Germany, drive true Austria Swiss, Italy, Monaco, France and drop in Madrid Spain - best vacation ever!!!

chicagoA6

I'll try and answer some....

1) Not sure about drive time, but load up Google Maps and put those destinations in and calc the drive time. We did that for our trip last year and it was pretty accurate.

2) Once you start working with the Audi Euro Delivery team you can request which hotel you want (Munich or Ingolstadt). I bet they would have no issue on which day you select. However, you might have to take a cab from the train station to the factory

3) This depends greatly on where you drop off the car. If you drop off in Munich they have enough volume that your car doesn't sit around for very long before being moved to port. If you drop off in another city that might have a longer wait time before the car is moved to port. For us it was 5 weeks from drop off to delivery. We dropped off in Munich

4) If its close I would get the next model year. We purposely waitied to take delivery in August to get the next model year.

5) We traveled through Germany and Austria in August last year and it never felt crowded. Although I would say that hotels where expensive. Make sure to book in advance right after you know your delivery date. DONT DELAY!

For our trip I spend a lot of time with Google Maps plotting out routes.

Have fun!!

Q5forWife

I agree it depends on drop off location. In 2013, I dropped off in Nice and it took 2 weeks before the car was loaded onto a vessel in Emden, Germany.

For the 9-week delivery to the the SF Bay Area, the chronology was:

7/8 - dropped off at Nice Airport
7/24 - loaded onto the vessel Green Cove and departed Emden, Germany
7/26 - Bremerhaven, Germany
8/7 - Brunswick, GA
8/12-8/13 - Panama Canal
8/22 - unloaded in San Diego
9/7 - picked up at the dealership in San Francisco

Hope this helps.

4SallyPat

Very helpful and thanks for the tips!

Helps schedule the overall pre delivery thru post delivery.

Looking forward to posting our itinerary soon.

TIME89

Take 2 weeks for Madrid drop off location before car was loaded on truck to take out to port.

Fithian

1. 10 hours.
2. Probably. Just ask.
3. To east coast dealer from Frankfurt 41 days.
4. Factory is closed in August.
5. Eastern Europe is interesting if you have never been there. Western Europe is always interesting, but more expensive. Switzerland is very expensive, Germany not so much.

4SallyPat

Thanks very much !

Based on all your input, I am now planning on:

Late August - flying into Rome, couple days touring, train overnight to Munich then Ingolstadt.

Pickup 2017 SQ5 first week of September, drive to Austria then Czech and Poland.

Drop off at Berlin then fly back.

Wait for about 2 months to pick up at the dealer and drop off my BMW lease and say adios to BMW.....