peekyIL

Is Thanksgiving/Christmas incentives always better than Summer? Or that also depends from dealer to dealer?
Out of luck to get what I want to the dealer inventory, so I have to place a custom order.
So I want to find out when is the best time to place an order.

SCarGuy

incentives are regionally based

it is extremely difficult to try to time an order to capture an incentive, because no one knows what incentives will be like next month, let alone 3, or 5 or 8 months from now when an ordered car arrives. Orders can come in early, late, etc. Nor does anyone know what models might be excluded from incentives.

peekyIL

i see. Thanks! I thought some dealers and audi fans here might have some statistics on that.

SCarGuy

There are 2 "events" - Summer of Audi, and Season of Audi. Summer of Audi got all jacked up this year for a few reasons, and it was extended beyond it's usual period of July/August. Season of Audi runs November/December.

If you try to order a car to time it for arrival to one of these, you may find yourself disappointed. Especially since the dealer has to have allocation to even build the car in the first place. I've had cars ordered that took significantly longer than one might think, and others come in much earlier than projected. Most often, incentives are tied to financing or leasing through Audi anyway, so that limits your choices. Incentives vary by region, and by model. Some cars get "Event" incentives, some cars do not.

Your best bet is finding who you want to do business with, making sure they have allocation, and just ordering the car. You have zero control over when it comes in, and whatever incentives apply at delivery, you can stipulate that they would be added into the deal at delivery.

peekyIL

No incentive for cash deal?
I'm thinking of financing but to pay it off in a month. I was told nowadays, there's no penalty for finishing all payment before the terms.

SCarGuy

There is almost no incentive not tied to financing/leasing. Season of Audi gets $750 now on an 18 Sportback, and that would apply to a cash deal as well. No other incentive would apply on a cash deal for that car, right now. Over the summer, there was $0 incentive for a cash deal, all incentives were tied to finance/leasing through Audi Financial

There is no prepayment penalty...but financing paid off before the ~6 month mark will mean the dealership can get charged back for whatever incentives applied to your deal by Audi Financial. Best thing I can suggest, finance the minimum ($20k), you can make lump payments so that during whatever short term you do, pays it off. Yes, you'll accrue a couple hundred in interest...but, you will capture all incentives you qualify for, and that almost always far outstrips any a small amount of interest paid. This would apply if you value the relationship with your dealer, and feel that they earned your business. If you don't care, then do as you please. This is a conversation to have with your intended dealer

peekyIL

Thank you mr. SCarGuy !!

Costasz

And you have to wait 6 months before you pay it off so that the dealer gets their cut.
The $750 season of audi also applies to the 2019s

peekyIL

Found a prestige with the spec i want, dealer came back " We don’t know if that car will make it to the dealership this year or not, it has no incentives from the manufacturer so we could do 1000.00 off the MSRP "

ughhhhh

Costasz

You can always wait them out. The incentives will come. Audi sales are down globally so I would expect pricing to loosen up eventually.