"To Sport or Not to Sport" saga over - Just got my car! - Buying Story & Impressions (LONG)
08-23-1999, 05:23 AM
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"To Sport or Not to Sport" saga over - Just got my car! - Buying Story & Impressions (LONG)
Alright, I will teach all of you what a LONG post is. I plan on recounting my A4 buying experience and providing my initial impressions of my new car (A4, 2.8, Tip, Quattro, Sport Package, Sport Seats, etc.). Fill up the coffee cup before you start reading.
Given I am in Nebraska and we only have a small Audi dealer in the state, I decided to go the old fashion route in searching for a car. A plus was that I had the summer off - thus searching for a car turned out to be a hobby for me. At the first of June, I created a detailed fax of the exact car I was looking for down to color preferences, required options, and undesirable options. I next used the A4.org dealer locator to generate a list of all dealers in an 8 state region (from Oklahoma to Minnesota). I believe I ended up with 15 dealers. Next I called every one of them on the phone and talked to an Audi salesman. I asked him for his fax number (all the people I dealt with were men) and told him I would send him a fax with my requirements and asked that he get back to me within a couple of days with availability and pricing. As an aside, about a month or so ago someone posted on this board that when talking to a salesperson, make sure they are an "Audi Brand Specialist". That is, they only sell Audi's and not Hyundai's. I would concur. Back to the story….by the next day, all of them had called me back. One of my undesirable options was a sunroof. I have never had one and really did not see a great point in getting one. I quickly found out that unless you order a car, you are getting a sunroof. But even then, I noticed that dealers are hesitant to order one without a sunroof in case you back out and they are stuck with it.
After several dealer calls, I realized that the dealers all have access to the same internal computer network and can do a dealer lot search in the US. Thus, they all started calling and telling me the same thing. Over a 3 day period, I easily had 200+ phone calls given many dealers called back several times. It soon became apparent that that the stickler was going to be finding an A4 (2.8, Quattro, Tip, Sport package, and if possible, sport seats) in my major color preferences of Silver or Santorin (sp?) Blue. The hard combination was Tiptronic with the Sports Package.
In short, the car I wanted did not exist at a dealership in the US. As such, I started questioning my need for getting the sport package. Thus, several months ago, I posted the message "To Sport or Not to Sport" in regards to my search for an A4. Many of you responded with great advice and suggestions on what I should do. Thank you all for your comments!! One person summarized it best when he/she said "given you are going to spend XYZ for this car, the last thing you want to say to yourself in 3 months is 'I should have…'" Based on your encouragement, I decided not to compromise.
In all my phone calls with dealers, Bob O'Neel at Carousel Automobiles in Minneapolis (I originally had a TT on order with him, but decided to cancel and go with an A4) said they did not have my exact car on their lot, but had one exactly like it slated for June/July production and that I could have it if I could wait for it to arrive. Given my decision of not compromising, I decided to go for it. Just picked it this Saturday!!!
As for having dealt with 15 dealers in 8 states, I am positive about the experience. One of the key thing I have concluded is that "Dealer Size Matters". Carousel Automobiles is one of the 5th largest Audi dealers in the US. As such, they get a much larger allotment of cars - plus as a big dealer gets better preference in having cars delivered from port since they usually have enough to fill a truck themselves. Of all 15 salesmen I dealt with, 5 were great, and 9 were really good. Only 1 bozzo in the group - he really tried, but was the only one that acted like a salesman - "are you sitting down?" "what do I have to do to close a deal today?" In fact, this salesman and I were close to a deal once and I ended up backing out. He was not a happy camper. In fact, he actually told me, "I have done everything I can for you, please do not call me again!" I kind of wear this as a badge of honor!
Here are the specifics on what I got on my A4: 2.8, Silver with Onyx (black) leather, Quattro, Tiptronic, Sports Package, All Weather, Sport Seats, Audio/Bose system, Trip computer, and Sunroof. Overall, pretty much everything except for the phone.
As for pricing, Bob and I negotiated $1800 over invoice. This is about 5.5%. It is not the greatest price for either of us. The best I was able to do with two different dealers was 4.5% over invoice. I finally decided that is would probably be the cheapest couple of hundred dollars to go with Bob (a salesperson I trusted) and get the EXACT car I wanted. Given we had some history, Bob did not require me to put down a deposit. Total invoice was $33,048. Hence, my cost basis is: $34,848. I highly recommend Bob O'Neel and Carousel Automobiles (Maplewood Imports in the Minneapolis are is owned by the same group). Bob helped me tremendously when I originally ordered a TT with him and did an amazing job on my A4 order. Plus, he did not complain once about my weekly "status" phone calls.
From what I have been able to figure out, my car was manufactured the first week of July, left Germany the last week of July, arrived at the Houston port the 5th or 6th of August, left by truck to the dealership on the 9th, and arrived on the 13th. This past Friday (the 20th), caught a ride with a buddy who was heading to Minneapolis. It is a 7 hour drive. Stayed the night at a Holiday Inn. Next morning, took the Holiday Inn shuttle bus to the dealership. Met Bob for the first time - we have probably had 25 phone calls between us. Inspected the car, paid the bill. They tacked on a $25 documentation fee in the end. Hmmmmm……after all I have been through, I can live with $25. Was politely asked if I was interested in an extended warranty - said no, but wondered what the cost would be. It depends upon how many miles you drive, etc. I believe a 6 year extended warranty with 12,000 miles a year was $1800 or so. Though the manager said that one should shop around since each dealership deals with different agencies.
After Bob gave me a detailed tour of my car, I was off for Nebraska. Given I planned on varying the speed while I drove to help the engine break-in period, I specifically had Bob NOT show me how to use the cruise control. Thus I would not even be tempted. Also working to my advantage is that here in the Midwest, we primarily have two seasons: winter and road construction. Thus, every few miles one has to slow down and go through a construction area.
Having driven the car 450 miles in the past two days, I can honestly say "I NOW UNDERSTAND" For months I have been reading all your enthusiastic posts about your cars. I have never been a big car fanatic, but wow, I now understand that driving can be fun! This car is incredible! I cleaned my old car by taking it through the car wash ever few months, but now can already envision enjoying washing and waxing my baby by hand!
Specific items I want to rave about include:
(1) I love the Quattro. The car is solid and you do not have the pull feeling from a front wheel drive vehicle.
(2) I love the sports package! The suspension is solid when changing lanes and the steering is incredible. When test driving cars, I loved the BMW 323 with sport suspension. My A4 with sport package is very comparable. I would say that the A4 has a bit less road feedback, but the sure-footedness of the Quattro more than makes up for it.
(3) I love the sport seats!!! I had never seen these seats (my local dealer did not have a car with them), but based on the comments of those on this board and given I really liked the BMW 323 sport seats, I decided I wanted them. They are perfect for me, but I could see that if someone is a bit large, their butt might not fit in them. Well worth the money!
(4) The Audio/Bose system is really good. I am not a huge audiophile type, thus it sounds great to me.
(5) I love the Tiptronic transmission! I have always had a manual transmission and was worried about the Tip. No fear - it is outstanding. Plus, if you manually shift yourself, it is the same as a five speed. Though I could see how it might lag on the 1.8T.
(6) The interior and leather is great! Something I have seen no one mention is that the headliner/ceiling material in the car is nice. The one feature I thought looked cheap on the Mercedes C230 was that the headliner was a felt-like material. The textured fabric of the A4 is classy!
(7) I feel safe in this car. I felt like I would be able to easily perform emergency maneuvers on the freeway. It makes me not want to drive my other car - time to sell it!
(8) This car kicks butt on the highway. Even though I was very gentle when driving back, the boost from 55 mph to 80 mph on the highway is great! In fact, driving the car in town at 35 is like holding a dog on a leash. It wants to be let go and run. Soon I will be commuting 45 miles each way to work on I-80 (75 mph speed limit with very little traffic). I had been dreading this, but now I am looking forward to taking my car out each day for its run!
(9) While many of you live in a place with numerous A4s, especially silver ones, I think I have only ever seen 1 A4 in my town (Lincoln, Nebraska - go Huskers!). In fact, I have seen more TTs (3 of them) than A4s. As such, my car has gotten more than its share of looks. While driving around Sunday evening, just as a fluke, a silver TT pulled in front of me. Thus, going down the road was a silver TT with me right behind it in my a silver A4. An amazing sight!
(10) Braking is good. Given this is my first car with ABS, I have to learn not to pump the brakes. As Motorweek television says: "Stomp, Stay, and Steer".
Here are come details that people seem to always ask on this board: I drove out of the lot with 9.2 miles on the odometer. For the 450 mile trip back home, ended up getting 25 mpg. The range of the remote locking seems to vary as to whether you have directly line of site to the antenna in the back window (this is my guess where it is). Without a direct line, I average 20 feet or so. With a direct line of site, I average 60 feet or so. As for the cost of car insurance, there is now one good reason for living in Nebraska. For my almost $35,000 vehicle, I will be paying $550 a year (over 30 driver, no tickets or accidents).
Now for things I do not like or wish were different:
(1) I have only had the car 2 days and already hate BRAKE DUST!!!
(2) I wish the random function on the CD-player would randomize songs on ALL disks, and not just the current disk.
(3) The trip computer is cute and well worth $200 just for the display of radio/CD information, but I don't know if much of the information is that useful or accurate.
(4) The sports seats are amazing and can be adjusted dozens of ways. I love the automated lumbar support. The problem is that I wish there were driver memory buttons. I would have one set for city driving, highway driving, and for my girlfriend. After she drove it on Sunday (I only let her drive around the block), it took 5 minutes to get the seat adjusted back to a position I liked given all the changes she made to it.
(5) I have gotten used to having to press the unlock feature on the remote twice to unlock all doors. If I always had passengers and/or children, this would become a pain. Also, I keep forgetting to lock the doors once I am in. I think the automatic locking should be a default once the car starts driving. Will think about having these reprogrammed when I bring in the car for its first service.
(6) I will bet I am one of the few people to ever read the entire collection of manuals and documents given to a new owner. I would appropriately title the "Owner's Manual" as the "Warning Manual" since its focus is on printing warning after warning and not necessarily on describing the features of the car. Having worked as a technical editor, I was VERY disappointed in the quality of the manual. The organization was terrible, several sentences did not make sense, the writer does not understand how to use a comma, and I found one phrase still in German. A $15,000 Honda has better written manuals! Though given how few people actually read the thing, I guess Audi has decided to spend their money elsewhere.
To summarize, I love my car and am absolutely happy with all my choices. Though when driving back, I started to think about all of you in the 1.8T. If the only thing that is different in your car versus mine is the engine - which you can then chip - then you are getting a heck of deal for the price. I wanted the smoothness of a V6, but if you can handle a 4-cylinder, you are getting a great deal!
Now this is what one would call a LONG message! HA!
Given I am in Nebraska and we only have a small Audi dealer in the state, I decided to go the old fashion route in searching for a car. A plus was that I had the summer off - thus searching for a car turned out to be a hobby for me. At the first of June, I created a detailed fax of the exact car I was looking for down to color preferences, required options, and undesirable options. I next used the A4.org dealer locator to generate a list of all dealers in an 8 state region (from Oklahoma to Minnesota). I believe I ended up with 15 dealers. Next I called every one of them on the phone and talked to an Audi salesman. I asked him for his fax number (all the people I dealt with were men) and told him I would send him a fax with my requirements and asked that he get back to me within a couple of days with availability and pricing. As an aside, about a month or so ago someone posted on this board that when talking to a salesperson, make sure they are an "Audi Brand Specialist". That is, they only sell Audi's and not Hyundai's. I would concur. Back to the story….by the next day, all of them had called me back. One of my undesirable options was a sunroof. I have never had one and really did not see a great point in getting one. I quickly found out that unless you order a car, you are getting a sunroof. But even then, I noticed that dealers are hesitant to order one without a sunroof in case you back out and they are stuck with it.
After several dealer calls, I realized that the dealers all have access to the same internal computer network and can do a dealer lot search in the US. Thus, they all started calling and telling me the same thing. Over a 3 day period, I easily had 200+ phone calls given many dealers called back several times. It soon became apparent that that the stickler was going to be finding an A4 (2.8, Quattro, Tip, Sport package, and if possible, sport seats) in my major color preferences of Silver or Santorin (sp?) Blue. The hard combination was Tiptronic with the Sports Package.
In short, the car I wanted did not exist at a dealership in the US. As such, I started questioning my need for getting the sport package. Thus, several months ago, I posted the message "To Sport or Not to Sport" in regards to my search for an A4. Many of you responded with great advice and suggestions on what I should do. Thank you all for your comments!! One person summarized it best when he/she said "given you are going to spend XYZ for this car, the last thing you want to say to yourself in 3 months is 'I should have…'" Based on your encouragement, I decided not to compromise.
In all my phone calls with dealers, Bob O'Neel at Carousel Automobiles in Minneapolis (I originally had a TT on order with him, but decided to cancel and go with an A4) said they did not have my exact car on their lot, but had one exactly like it slated for June/July production and that I could have it if I could wait for it to arrive. Given my decision of not compromising, I decided to go for it. Just picked it this Saturday!!!
As for having dealt with 15 dealers in 8 states, I am positive about the experience. One of the key thing I have concluded is that "Dealer Size Matters". Carousel Automobiles is one of the 5th largest Audi dealers in the US. As such, they get a much larger allotment of cars - plus as a big dealer gets better preference in having cars delivered from port since they usually have enough to fill a truck themselves. Of all 15 salesmen I dealt with, 5 were great, and 9 were really good. Only 1 bozzo in the group - he really tried, but was the only one that acted like a salesman - "are you sitting down?" "what do I have to do to close a deal today?" In fact, this salesman and I were close to a deal once and I ended up backing out. He was not a happy camper. In fact, he actually told me, "I have done everything I can for you, please do not call me again!" I kind of wear this as a badge of honor!
Here are the specifics on what I got on my A4: 2.8, Silver with Onyx (black) leather, Quattro, Tiptronic, Sports Package, All Weather, Sport Seats, Audio/Bose system, Trip computer, and Sunroof. Overall, pretty much everything except for the phone.
As for pricing, Bob and I negotiated $1800 over invoice. This is about 5.5%. It is not the greatest price for either of us. The best I was able to do with two different dealers was 4.5% over invoice. I finally decided that is would probably be the cheapest couple of hundred dollars to go with Bob (a salesperson I trusted) and get the EXACT car I wanted. Given we had some history, Bob did not require me to put down a deposit. Total invoice was $33,048. Hence, my cost basis is: $34,848. I highly recommend Bob O'Neel and Carousel Automobiles (Maplewood Imports in the Minneapolis are is owned by the same group). Bob helped me tremendously when I originally ordered a TT with him and did an amazing job on my A4 order. Plus, he did not complain once about my weekly "status" phone calls.
From what I have been able to figure out, my car was manufactured the first week of July, left Germany the last week of July, arrived at the Houston port the 5th or 6th of August, left by truck to the dealership on the 9th, and arrived on the 13th. This past Friday (the 20th), caught a ride with a buddy who was heading to Minneapolis. It is a 7 hour drive. Stayed the night at a Holiday Inn. Next morning, took the Holiday Inn shuttle bus to the dealership. Met Bob for the first time - we have probably had 25 phone calls between us. Inspected the car, paid the bill. They tacked on a $25 documentation fee in the end. Hmmmmm……after all I have been through, I can live with $25. Was politely asked if I was interested in an extended warranty - said no, but wondered what the cost would be. It depends upon how many miles you drive, etc. I believe a 6 year extended warranty with 12,000 miles a year was $1800 or so. Though the manager said that one should shop around since each dealership deals with different agencies.
After Bob gave me a detailed tour of my car, I was off for Nebraska. Given I planned on varying the speed while I drove to help the engine break-in period, I specifically had Bob NOT show me how to use the cruise control. Thus I would not even be tempted. Also working to my advantage is that here in the Midwest, we primarily have two seasons: winter and road construction. Thus, every few miles one has to slow down and go through a construction area.
Having driven the car 450 miles in the past two days, I can honestly say "I NOW UNDERSTAND" For months I have been reading all your enthusiastic posts about your cars. I have never been a big car fanatic, but wow, I now understand that driving can be fun! This car is incredible! I cleaned my old car by taking it through the car wash ever few months, but now can already envision enjoying washing and waxing my baby by hand!
Specific items I want to rave about include:
(1) I love the Quattro. The car is solid and you do not have the pull feeling from a front wheel drive vehicle.
(2) I love the sports package! The suspension is solid when changing lanes and the steering is incredible. When test driving cars, I loved the BMW 323 with sport suspension. My A4 with sport package is very comparable. I would say that the A4 has a bit less road feedback, but the sure-footedness of the Quattro more than makes up for it.
(3) I love the sport seats!!! I had never seen these seats (my local dealer did not have a car with them), but based on the comments of those on this board and given I really liked the BMW 323 sport seats, I decided I wanted them. They are perfect for me, but I could see that if someone is a bit large, their butt might not fit in them. Well worth the money!
(4) The Audio/Bose system is really good. I am not a huge audiophile type, thus it sounds great to me.
(5) I love the Tiptronic transmission! I have always had a manual transmission and was worried about the Tip. No fear - it is outstanding. Plus, if you manually shift yourself, it is the same as a five speed. Though I could see how it might lag on the 1.8T.
(6) The interior and leather is great! Something I have seen no one mention is that the headliner/ceiling material in the car is nice. The one feature I thought looked cheap on the Mercedes C230 was that the headliner was a felt-like material. The textured fabric of the A4 is classy!
(7) I feel safe in this car. I felt like I would be able to easily perform emergency maneuvers on the freeway. It makes me not want to drive my other car - time to sell it!
(8) This car kicks butt on the highway. Even though I was very gentle when driving back, the boost from 55 mph to 80 mph on the highway is great! In fact, driving the car in town at 35 is like holding a dog on a leash. It wants to be let go and run. Soon I will be commuting 45 miles each way to work on I-80 (75 mph speed limit with very little traffic). I had been dreading this, but now I am looking forward to taking my car out each day for its run!
(9) While many of you live in a place with numerous A4s, especially silver ones, I think I have only ever seen 1 A4 in my town (Lincoln, Nebraska - go Huskers!). In fact, I have seen more TTs (3 of them) than A4s. As such, my car has gotten more than its share of looks. While driving around Sunday evening, just as a fluke, a silver TT pulled in front of me. Thus, going down the road was a silver TT with me right behind it in my a silver A4. An amazing sight!
(10) Braking is good. Given this is my first car with ABS, I have to learn not to pump the brakes. As Motorweek television says: "Stomp, Stay, and Steer".
Here are come details that people seem to always ask on this board: I drove out of the lot with 9.2 miles on the odometer. For the 450 mile trip back home, ended up getting 25 mpg. The range of the remote locking seems to vary as to whether you have directly line of site to the antenna in the back window (this is my guess where it is). Without a direct line, I average 20 feet or so. With a direct line of site, I average 60 feet or so. As for the cost of car insurance, there is now one good reason for living in Nebraska. For my almost $35,000 vehicle, I will be paying $550 a year (over 30 driver, no tickets or accidents).
Now for things I do not like or wish were different:
(1) I have only had the car 2 days and already hate BRAKE DUST!!!
(2) I wish the random function on the CD-player would randomize songs on ALL disks, and not just the current disk.
(3) The trip computer is cute and well worth $200 just for the display of radio/CD information, but I don't know if much of the information is that useful or accurate.
(4) The sports seats are amazing and can be adjusted dozens of ways. I love the automated lumbar support. The problem is that I wish there were driver memory buttons. I would have one set for city driving, highway driving, and for my girlfriend. After she drove it on Sunday (I only let her drive around the block), it took 5 minutes to get the seat adjusted back to a position I liked given all the changes she made to it.
(5) I have gotten used to having to press the unlock feature on the remote twice to unlock all doors. If I always had passengers and/or children, this would become a pain. Also, I keep forgetting to lock the doors once I am in. I think the automatic locking should be a default once the car starts driving. Will think about having these reprogrammed when I bring in the car for its first service.
(6) I will bet I am one of the few people to ever read the entire collection of manuals and documents given to a new owner. I would appropriately title the "Owner's Manual" as the "Warning Manual" since its focus is on printing warning after warning and not necessarily on describing the features of the car. Having worked as a technical editor, I was VERY disappointed in the quality of the manual. The organization was terrible, several sentences did not make sense, the writer does not understand how to use a comma, and I found one phrase still in German. A $15,000 Honda has better written manuals! Though given how few people actually read the thing, I guess Audi has decided to spend their money elsewhere.
To summarize, I love my car and am absolutely happy with all my choices. Though when driving back, I started to think about all of you in the 1.8T. If the only thing that is different in your car versus mine is the engine - which you can then chip - then you are getting a heck of deal for the price. I wanted the smoothness of a V6, but if you can handle a 4-cylinder, you are getting a great deal!
Now this is what one would call a LONG message! HA!
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