MartinCF

Finally getting close to making a deal on an S5 with most of what I want. Basically need to forego the heated steering wheel since most dealers don't order it due to losing the flat bottom (see other current thread addressing that one). I don't get the dealer mindset letting you walk out of their dealership when you tell them your ready to buy their car but are way off on price. I say "is this your best price", they say yes. I say "you know that I will now be talking to other dealers and I'm confident they will have a better price than your best"? They say that's the best they can do and I leave. Over the next 24 hours, I find a dealer willing to do a deal at invoice and give me my trade-in number for current car. First dealer calls me during that 24 hour period and nibbles their price down but is still way off. Dealer selling at invoice still needs to find the config I want and make a trade with a different dealer - this dealer actually wants my business and is aggressively working to earn it. They find my config and are ready to close tomorrow. The first dealer (instead of just meeting my initial terms) is now trying to convince me to come to the dealership and finalize a deal without telling me what the deal will look like. Either you want to sell cars and be competitive or you're happy losing business when a customer wants to buy. Full disclosure, I would have paid at least $500 over invoice (yesterday) had they even tried to look like they wanted the sale.

All that to say is that it looks like I will get the car I want at the price I want and the trade price in I want - at a dealer that I wasn't even talking to throughout my search process. Fundamentally, I don't like that because I like to reward the time and effort of those tasked with spending time with me helping me evaluate their product. It's such a disfunctional business model and one that makes me scratch my head EVERY time I buy a car. I will end my rant there.

zamba0321

similar story happened to me, they would not give a bigger discount (offered 3k off msrp) on a highly loaded S5 SB and I knew they had exact optioned one
on order but they didn't even try to see if that was the case or worked with me to find one, so I did found better deal and
exact optioned one myself ...

MartinCF

Quick update - was finally able to close on the S5 SB yesterday afternoon. I want to give a quick shout out to ScarGuy who spent a few minutes with me on the phone talking through some negotiating strategy. He's a dealer and provided some great insight. I wound up getting the fully loaded Daytona Prestige with Magma red interior (love the combo!) for dealer invoice. The dealership that spent the most time with me and allowed a 2 hour, 40 mile extended test drive wouldn't come close to my terms. Worked with another dealer who was extremely aggressive and helpful but they couldn't get my config on a swap with another dealer. The first dealer kept calling and nibbling on their terms. It turns out they were the only one with the config I wanted in the whole area - the others had all sold in the last couple days. I let them know my terms hadn't changed but would still like the car if they would agree to them - they finally did and I drove the car home last night! Very excited and looking forward to enjoying my first Audi - they've always been my favorite in the luxury brand space.

zamba0321

congrats, sounds like a good deal and for exact car that you wanted, so was that like 6% or even 8% OFF MSRP then ?

MartinCF

It depends on how you define invoice pricing. Audi adds back a couple of fees that I've not seen with other brands. It wound up being about 7% off MSRP. The thing I was surprised about was what I was able to get them to pay for my trade in. Given the low negotiated price on the S5, I didn't expect to get them to come up to my trade-in request since it was above the KBB estimates for my area.

SCarGuy

Told ya

Enjoy it!

Dr. D

Here in Northern Virginia I’m buying an A5 SB for 6.2% below invoice. Premium Plus, Nav pkg, cold weather pkg.

friguy3

NJ...looking at a S5 SB, sat and talked, gave me the 3% off. Is a 8-10% of MSRP really "easily" obtainable? Ive read this thread, how do you guys do it?!? Guess time and patience, just not sure how low to counter?

Dr. D

friguy3

Dont know how to edit, but they also offered to pay my last month lease on my caddy CTS. Guess thats a plus?