bandersen

Just got back last night from 12 days. Of course - it was a most excellent trip! Some stressful parts of course (mainly relating to finding parking or the hotel!)...but all in all, a winner. I won't re-hash some of the other threads here that make some excellent points..I'm going to just point out things that I belive haven't been recently covered/updated...
- My first time with Audi..I've done 2 BMW pickups before
- Ordered the car in mid-May. Produced in July, paid for it in Aug
- Salesman gave me 6% off MSRP (vice 5%), and yes, paid the dealer delivery fee, and the 10k VAT check (which they cashed)
- Mid-Sept is a great month to go - smaller crowds, new model year, great weather, easier flights/hotels
- We used mileage for the air tix. Think of going over in economy class (it's only a 6hr flt (from east coast) w/the tailwind, and overnight to boot), and use some extra miles to upgrade on the way back (flt time is longer...it's a day flt). We're w/Continental/United - so Star Alliance - Lufthansa, and Virgin Atlantic were our planes...Virgin Upper Class - worth it!
- Pick up the car the FOLLOWING DAY after landing...same day would be to much...the Audi Forum processes about 200-250 deliveries a day - of those, only 250 PER YEAR are for American's..the rest are mainly Germans
- Stay at the Kempinski (it's one of their 3 choices) at the airport - easy 25 min train ride to downtown Munich on that first day that you get in....and they pick you up in the AM.
- The Garmin they lent (the car's NAV isn't loaded w/the Euromaps) worked like a champ for us. For it to pick up the little hotel we used in the Italian city of Trieste - I almost kissed the thing when it took us to the hotel door...you need to have one - a print out of Google maps just doesn't cut it..
- Driving in Italian cities...I probably should have avoided....should have stuck with just Germany (Castle Neuschwanstein) and Austria (Salzburg). The S4 is considered a 'large' car...
- Biggest concern was finding adequate parking garages/spots without scrapping a wheel (which I did) or getting a ding. We got a 4 - if you're getting an A6/8 or Q7...think long and hard if you want to do it. If you do it, pick hotels just outside of the cities...
- Drove a combination of autobahn (131 mph top speed & I think I'll be getting a ticket in the mail...), and curvy, 1 lane roads in the Italian Alps...) To fill up my 16 gal tank - about $100...
- That's it...feel free to PM me with any questions if you've got them. We'll do it again...and I can't wait for the car to show up (had a hard time driving the Wrangler to work this morning)....

Rupesh

Congratulations!!! Can't wait for my turn to pick up a Q5 through ED. I've sent you a PM to get the information about your Audi Sales Rep.

Cheers!

TIME89

Congratulation!
Few more pics will be nice.
your face looks familiar from Bimmerfest ED forum

bandersen

...nah..not me on the bimmer forum...here are some more pics..

TIME89

RAMMTU

Just got back ourselves on the 27th. Had a great time and were even able to hit Oktoberfest. I am glad to hear I'm not the only one who scraped up a rim. We also managed to get rear ended in Italy (scratched up the bumper).

RAMMTU

Here are some pics at the Forum and on the road. We dropped it off in Zurich just over a month ago and I was told yesterday that it's still in Germany. Can't wait for it to get here, even though it will need winter tires installed as soon as it arrives.

TIME89

Nice shot!

bandersen

awesome shots.

Mine is in Georgia..been there since the 25th - 4 weeks and 3 day since drop off. Hopefully I'll get her this week. I'm getting tired of SIRUS calling me every other day to renew my subscription..when I haven't even activated it yet...

Russ - a Subaru, a Jetta, a Ram - and now an S4? That's a collection...

RAMMTU

Ours is supposed to land in RI on Friday. Then we'll see how long it takes to clear customs and get shipped to MI. We dropped ours off in Zurich on Sep. 27th.

NK about SIRIUS...we don't get calls, but lotsa mail (regular and electronic). I finally called SIRIUS this past weekend and told them that I didn't have the car yet. They said the dealer must have activated it and that I could call them back when I get the car. Hoefully the dealer can help get the trial period reset.

As far as the fleet..
Jetta - 120K miles, project car..eventual Rally-xer (hopefully)
Subaru - 128K miles, my daily driver
Ram - 118K miles, severe weather/tow vehicle
S4 - wife's daily driver, 1st brand new car since 2004