spacey

I ordered my car in February for a June ED delivery. The dealer worked out timing with the factory to have the car ready when I wanted it. It was finished early (even with exclusive color) and the factory held the car for a few weeks to meet my delivery timeline. They were great as was the dealer.

TIME89

Don't forget 1,000 EUR insurance deductible per accident.
This +VAT make my think.

alatsacto

Yeah that 1000EUR deductible would be a big pill to swallow if there were any issues. We were also worried about this plus having to deal with parking in unknown areas for our brand new car, so we plan to only drive it for a small portion of our honeymoon (2 days from Inglostadt to Nice). And since I'll be able to drive it through some of those famous roads, I'm happy with just the two days. Knock on wood, hopefully we won't run into any issues.

04A4cab

I've read some posts where dealers didn't cash that check. That was not the case with mine, and, yes, it stinks to have that large upfront cost. As for the $1,000 deductible, that's usually the case with many rental insurance coverages as well unless you pay extra to have your deductible reduced, so I don't see this as a down side vs. renting a car while in Europe. Makes me wonder of you could add supplemental insurance through a third party or, here's a suggestion for Audi, make it an option for ED (i.e. pay $x per day to have deductible reduces from let's say $1,000 to $300).

TIME89

I scratch my bumper not once - twice, Cost me $0, when car get back to US.

alatsacto

Well I know the local dealer is supposed to detail the car after it arrives in the States, so maybe your bumper scratches were very minor and were buffed out?

TIME89

No, my SA show me invoice from VDC - hole bumper was replaced with new one.

alatsacto

WOW, that's awesome. Crossing my fingers that this won't be an issue, but if it does come up I hope it will be a non-issue like in your case.

pdx19751

One big advantage BMW has over Audi in European is no deductible. They will fix ANYTHING before the car is delivered for no charge. We didnt have any issues but it did provide peace of mind (especially when driving in Florence!!!).

alatsacto

Round 2... so the timing of doing ED ended up not working for us in September 2012 with our Honeymoon. With delays in production of the 2013 Audi Q5 3.0T where these didn't hit the streets until December/January, I moved on with planning our Honeymoon without ED. While we ended up filling the time by going to Santorini which was our favorite city, part of me regrets missing out on ED. We were in no hurry to get the car, so one year later we are considering making another attempt. This time we are trying to plan a trip to Europe with the primary mission of ED. This time around we are aiming for early October 2013 and from what we are being told, this would most likely be a 2014 model. I'm hoping this time the timing of it all will work out, since the 2014 model should be nearly identical to the 2013 model. Since it won't be our honeymoon, I want to drive all over. I have ambitious plans assuming the weather cooperates to drive from Ingolstadt -> Munich -> Bormio -> Lucerne -> Brussels -> Amsterdam.

I finally got a chance to test drive the new 3.0T engine on the Q5 and loved it. We plan to move forward. From what we were told, we should place the order around 4 months from delivery. But it's just difficult trying to wait on the timing of it all to purchase airfare and hotels, while you wait on the ED process. According to Audi's website, I'm not supposed to purchase airfare and accommodations until about 4 weeks from delivery, but as we all know stuff like airfare increases in price the longer you wait. After I place the order, can I start making reservations and planning accordingly? Will Audi accommodate to my schedule? Or will I really need to wait last minute to make my reservations? My local dealership seems to think they should be able to work with me assuming there are no production delays.

Driving the Autobahn at 100+ mph sounds intriguing as well as driving up the mountains, are there any concerns of needing to break in the car?