ortsofsorts

Just returned from a 24 day trip after picking up an A 8L 4.0

I will try to avoid tips that others have already mentioned.

1. I strongly suggest spending the night in Ingolstadt after pickup or very close by. Most pickup appointments are in the morning and will be followed by a factory tour of 2 hours (excellent even for wives who hate cars). No water or bathrooms; plan ahead. Take full advantage of free food in the excellent restaurant and bar until 6 pm. Spend the rest of the afternoon in the museum and restaurant. Don't be put off by the buffet, you will search in vain for better food in Deutschland.

2. If arriving later in the day, stay at the airport (Kempinski) it is MUCH nicer, but if you arrive earlier you will have to pay a lot for train to Munich and there is little to do near the airport. It seems like about $30 rt last time I did the airport to Munich trip and cab was $80-100 one way.

3 Remember to get a vignette for Austria, Slovenia Switzerland and other points East as others have frequently mentioned.

4 Gas/petrol is quite a bit cheaper in Luxembourg. France is also a little less than Germany, but way more than offset by the autoroute tolls.

5 No matter what you read about credit cards and French toll booths, it will not be universally true. Try several different cards and try to stay near a manned booth. Avoid remote exits after dark since they don't take cash.

6. Don't plan on driving long distances except on autobahns or autoroutes. There are too may roundabout and on the Autobahn you miss the good scenery. No trucks on the road from Saturday night to Sunday night. This can be helpful, especially in Italy.

7. Take an SD card of your favorite music - don't rely on your iphone or iPod. Remember if you have your ipod music set to read from iCloud, it won't work with out a data connection. I was able to connect with Bluetooth and use previously downloaded music (Rhapsody) but no display of music titles.

8. I took my own GPS and downloaded various routes and waypoints before I left, which made things much easier, but this is only applicable if you are well familiar with your GPS. The Garmin unit they give you works fine, but is pretty much limited to entering one destination and going there.

My trip involved the Romantische Strasse (Rothenburg area) then to the Black Forrest and Baden Baden, then Cologne (visiting relatives) then up the Mosel from Koblenz and on to Trier and through Luxembourg to Beaune , France. Then down to Arles and 2 weeks driving in Provence, departing from Nice. The car drop off there is just 1 km from the airport. L'Isle Sur Le Sorgue, Roussilon, Arles, Les Beaux, Moustiers Saint Marie, and St, Paul de Vence (plus many more) were highlights. The Gorge du Verdon was a great driving experience, like a cross between mini Alps and the Grand Canyon, but somewhat narrower roads. Villefrance sur Mer is also a must see as it has been used in many car movies (e.g. Ronin).

This is not a travel site, but one hotel for car aficionados is definitely worth a mention. In St. Paul de Vence ( 15 km from Nice) was one of the best hotels we stayed in (under 200 Euros), Le Hameau, ( look it up on booking.com or Trip Advisor for information, but you may save by booking directly), but what makes it even more interesting was the fact that you can have a free ride in one of the owners Ferraris, Lamborghini Countach, or Alpha Romeo 8 C (Ferrari 4.7 engine). Unbelievably fast on the local roads. I choose the last of these since there were only 500 made and less 10 in the US. Yes I took videos.

Warning to those not familiar with driving in Europe, the roads here are very narrow so make sure you know the exact measurements of your car in meters since all narrow places are marked (2.1 meters is the least I could drive in - for width) and I encountered many 2.1 meter signs. I can do a little less with mirrors in - though remember you can't get out of the car. Many times I encountered steady parking warning tones from 2and 3 sides at once. Once the tone is steady you don't really know exactly how close you are. It does help a lot (not) to have 2 or 3 French drivers screaming at you and making gestures - understandable only to them. My only damage was a scratch on the lower right plastic from a parking lot boulder not visible from the drivers seat. (my wife's response : "oh, I thought you saw that).

I have picked up several cars (BMWs and MB among them) and while each program has it's pluses and minuses, this was overall the most pleasant experience. The 2 notable negatives are the lack of European maps in the car nav and the inability to commit to a firm delivery date until the car is a actually produced. Also the fact that Audi asks for the VAT amount by check before you leave seems pretty lame, but so far my check was not cashed. The car is awesome and the salesman equally so (I’ve never said that about a salesman before).

ortsofsorts

The first post was of the A8L at the forum, Schwäbish Hall, interior, Pont Du Gard and Vence, France.
I will try to attach a panorama of the Forum and several other Provence pics (you guess where).

TIME89

Great post! Thanks for sharing!
You scratch will fixed in VDC - sure you knew about that.

Osicom

Gorgeous pictures! Thank you for sharing.
Agree with you on the vignette and SD card for music.
The loaner GPS definitely was not up to par. Wish I thought about loading up my home GPS with Euro maps.
The VAT check is more of a formality. They were never going to cash it unless you didn't drop the car off at port. The dealer should return the check to you when the car arrives.
Agree with you about the delivery date. I had some time to finalize my flight and itinerary but would've liked more because they wouldn't confirm until production was complete. So my car was sitting there for a while waiting for me.