av_audi

Those of you who have gone through the process, how much customization is really available? Are you limited to selecting from the normally available options and packages, or can you, for example, order a premium pack (base model) but add say Xenons and a trip computer?

Thanks.
.

NPuter

you can only order whats available as options - basically whatever you can do with the "build" program on Audi's website...
I would have loved to do what you are saying, but it simply is not possible (unless you do it yourself which is what I did...)

iflywoe

it can be done, its just not cost effective, they are just going to charge a lot more for that option. its like ordering your car in a different color.

markcincinnati

. . . My God!. . . what have I done? . . . What have I done? . . .


The "Audi Individual" program offers, for a price (usually $2,500 plus the cost of the option) the ability to customize your Audi.

Configure your Audi from the Audiusa site, then ask yourself, what color combinations and/or permutations do I want on this automobile?

Well. . .

You may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile
You may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife
You may ask yourself: well... how did I get here?

You may ask yourself
How do I work this?
You may ask yourself
Where is that large automobile?
You may tell yourself
This is not my beautiful house!
You may tell yourself
This is not my beautiful wife!

But I digress. . .

You may be able to, for example, configure your new Audi in Ibis white with a scarlet red leather interior treatment -- with almond wood inlays. You may be able to choose from an extra color selection above and beyond the "normal" selection.

You may be able to order your car in Prestige with "sunroof delete" option, and so on. In some cases you can order the dash cover to be in leather.

What you cannot do is configure something that Audi would call an unnatural act, which is what I suspect some folks would actually like to do. I mean why not be able to order a completely stripped A4 base model and specify sport seats (only sport seats) and blind spot warning and parktronic.

Buzzzz, sorry, but thanks for playing, this configuration is an unnatural act.

You can specify Ibis white with the beige interior and, for a mere $2,900 have the thing equipped with dark walnut wood or for $400 almond, but not dark walnut for $400, even tho that is the price for the wood option if you ordered some other interior color "they say" matches dark walnut wood -- regardless of what you say.

You may ask yourself
What is that beautiful house?
You may ask yourself
Where does that highway lead to?
You may ask yourself
Am I right?... Am I wrong?
You may say to yourself
My God!... what have I done?

Be ready to, er, roll up your arm and bend over.

Drive it like you live.

av_audi

I get the picture The bast*rds know what they are doing.

But we all do have to settle for something (reference to another recent post of yours). You either settle for the almond wood, the non-beige interior for meteor gray, the non-auto-dimming mirrors in the P+, etc., or you settle for the feeling of having lubed yourself and bent over to be mercilessly taken advantage of. It all depends which one bothers you more

iflywoe

[QUOTE=markcincinnati;23939164
You may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile
You may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife
You may ask yourself: well... how did I get here?

You may ask yourself
How do I work this?
You may ask yourself
Where is that large automobile?
You may tell yourself
This is not my beautiful house!
You may tell yourself
This is not my beautiful wife!


Drive it like you live.[/QUOTE]

lmao

markcincinnati

You got it! But what are "we" going to do about it? Well, "we" are probably just going to take it or pay it. At the time (about a month later, technically) I ordered my 2009 A4 Prestige w/19" Sport, ADS, power sunshade, almond wood, nav, etc, I attempted to PAY $2,500 for a red leather interior with dark walnut.

The Audi Individual program was available in the US, but ONLY for the A8 models. Later, after my car was delivered (ordered in March, delivered in October) the Audi Individual program for the A4 was "turned back on" and the same red leather interior I had been wowed by in an S5 became a choice.

Now, by the same token, I actually got what I had ordered and when I ordered the car I was unaware even of the possibility of customization beyond the exterior color.

For a fleeting moment, I had thought I would pony up the additional $2,500 for Pearl White -- but I saw an A6 in Ibis and decided I liked that even better. The interior leather argument I was given was that the Ibis white with red leather interior had not been US Crash Test certified.

I guess that means that a car like the one I was wanting had not been crashed into a million pieces so I could have it. I, to this day, don't know what difference it would make if the seats were red, white or purple leather (or beige as mine are), with respect to crash-worthiness. I assumed it must have been a polite way to get me to stop asking.

In any case, what kind of burns me up is that on the showroom floor is an Ibis white A8 with the Cardamom Beige leather interior with DARK WALNUT wood -- apparently those who make these decisions think that beige in an A4 is complimented by almond wood but that beige in an A8 demands dark wood.

Next time, assuming I want something out of the ordinary, I'll just be more pushy.

Here's an oddity: on the showroom floor is a Premium Q5 without a sunroof but with ONE option on it: SLine! This, according to all I can figure out is an unnatural act -- but there it is smack dab in the middle of the showroom. The thing was beautiful -- if it had had the Navigation system in it, it would have been a must have (for me.)

How in the wide wide world of sports it actually made it out of Germany is beyond me, for no one at the store could figure out how to replicate the order.

As I said, why not allow the customers to order the cars virtually anyway they want, as long as they are willing to pay?

Why no rear seat heaters in the US for example? Why no heated steering wheel, either? If I am willing to pay, why not build it for me?

av_audi

I see that you are a lot more "grounded" than you first led to be

It's true, these things can be - no, they are - extremely frustrating. I try to deal with them by reminding myself that there is only so much I can control and, perhaps more importantly, I try to remind myself that there is no prefect car with the perfect combination of options to begin with. Because if I expect perfection, I will be setting up myself to be deeply disappointed every time.

And since we are playing with song lyrics, how about these, but applied to cars:

And if you can't be with the one you love
Love the one you're with