SCarGuy

end of the month on a custom order car has zero influence to a dealer - it only counts as a sale when it gets delivered, which would be months from now

all these random are just that until someone shows the deal structure - trade in (if any), loyalty, incentives, and time of year matters too, as incentives change by region at different points of the year...quoting fixed % discounts is often extremely misleading as a result

borisivan

Agreed. And I would hope nobody is talking about a % off MSRP that includes their trade-in as part of the calculation.

But I was wondering the same thing re: incentives (loyalty, or the if-you-were-affected-by-these-previous-recalls incentives, etc).

Coming from BMW, I won't have the loyalty incentive, and there isn't an active 'competitor' incentive. Only incentives in my area right now are some not-too-appealing financing rates.

SCarGuy

you're on the right mode of thinking then - and you're right, the "recall" rebates doubles the loyalty rebate this month (and last). I've had plenty of people approach about a "deal" they got from a competing dealer, and when you see it all broken out, they are overdiscounting the new car, and underallowing on the trade - or applying incentives that when push comes to shove, won't be applicable.

sometimes Audi has an acquisition rebate, sometimes they don't. There were, until only very recently, 0 incentives beyond a loyalty discount on Q5/SQ5. Yes, their rates are high, but, the incentive is pretty strong - $1500 is $1500. Depending on your downpayment (if you finance it), $1500 might very well outpace an interest rate differential. Or, if your rate is substantially less, buy it with Audi, use the incentive, and refinance it - best of both worlds. The bonus cash also applies to Audi leases as well fwiw

borisivan

Thanks for the info, it's appreciated!. There may be varying opinions on this, but it's interesting to see how just a small difference in phrasing ends up showing a significant difference in how one can describe the "% off MSRP".

I typically think of calculating a car deal like this:

MSRP: includes destination fee, not doc fee
Invoice: also includes destination fee, not doc fee

Therefore, a 50,000 MSRP (which includes a $1,000 destination fee) car with an invoice (which also includes a $1,000 destination fee) of 42,000, that you agreed to a deal for 40,000, would be a deal for "20% less than MSRP" and ~ 5% less than invoice.

But instead, if the dealer positioned it like this:

MSRP: 49,000, doesn't include the $1,000 destination fee)
Invoice: 41,000, doesn't include the $1,000 destination fee)

... and you agreed to a deal of 40,000, but then need to tack on the $1,000 destination fee 'afterwards', then this might be viewed as a deal "18.4% less than MSRP", and ~ 2.5 % less than invoice.

Or that second example could even be thought of by others as: you're paying 41,000 (40,000 plus the 1,000 destination fee) for a car that he advertised as 49,000, which is "16.5% less than MSRP" and equal to invoice.

And none of the examples above address the dealer doc fee, which I typically find fair to leave out of comparisons anyway, as it varies per dealership, though the MSRP/Invoice/Destination fees are all equal per dealership (well, not sure if destination fee varies depending on what part of the US it goes to, but different dealerships in the same state are typically the same).

Given that there are no incentives going on that I can take advantage of, I'm skeptical I could get a deal close to 15% less than MSRP (which I define as including the dest fee), but would be ecstatic if I could...

I'm assuming I'll get a better deal if I finance it, so I'd likely do that to get the best deal possible even though I might pay it off.

Disclaimer: I'm an engineer, not in the auto business. Please correct me if anything I've described above is wrong...

LuckyFrank

Hi there, I am from NYC. This is regarding the new S5 SportBack price. I have been to several dealers and also communicated with them. So far the best deal I got was around 8% but the dealership is in PA. I was on this forum reading and saw your postings. Please if you don't mind me asking, which dealership was giving you 13% off of MSRP? And if you can let me know who was the saleslady I believed you mentioned the person was a lady. I am going to get one before the end of the year. BTW, your S5 looks very cool. But would what you did ruin the warranty? Just saying.

MOJOBUG

My dealer gave me a "spot in line" with one of their 2019 pre orders. It's a 2019 S5 SB Prestige. It just hit the port in Houston this week and will be here soon. We haven't gotten to price discussions yet because they were "waiting on 2019 pricing" (not sure how that could be the case). What should I be shooting for? Obviously I ordered the car so I'm not expecting some sort of awesome deal, but I would like to pay what's fair. Thoughts?

MOJOBUG

Thanks so much MH62. I also just found the order guide with the pricing, so that helps a lot. Mine finished production on 9/19...just heard that it was at the port in Houston early this week, but they can't seem to tell me much about when it will be here. Has yours arrived at your dealer or do you have an ETA?

MH62

Mine literally missed the boat. It finished production in late September just a few days before the last vessel departed for San Diego and didn't make it to Emden in time so it sat at the port a long time. The next load didn't leave until today so I'm pretty sure it made that one. I'll find out on Monday for sure. It still takes 4 weeks to make it to the west coast so I'm looking at end of November.

They haven't officially launched our 2019s yet so the few that made it across have been held back at port of entry. It's good to know that yours is here, any movement is encouraging to me. They have released the Q8, Q7 and A8 the last few days so hopefully we're next.

MOJOBUG

Here's hoping. There was another post out here with the boat schedules so I was stalking that to see what possible arrival dates would be in Houston. I never did figure out how to tell which boat the car was on, but had some good guesses based on timing. Thanks for the info on them being held back at the port...the dealer told me Monday that it could still be another month before it gets here and that didn't seem logical. Now it makes more sense. Any idea how to find out about release of the 2019 S5 SB?

JD15

Anyone think 6-7% off MSRP is realistic for an ordered 2019? I'm planning to order later this fall.