funkadelic

Hi Folks,

I spoke with 2 dealerships in the Bay Area this morning inquiring about the S4 availability and one said that if I was to place an order soon it would be July that I should expect to see it. And another dealer said that any orders now would most likely result in a 2001 S4 (of which he said production begins in May). One top of that, DriveOff.com said that it might be 5 months to get delivery of an S4. ARRGGGHH.

What have people's experiences been with the availability of the S4? I would also especially like to hear purchase experiences with DriveOff.com, CarsDirect.com, and CarOrder.com for any of those that went through these sites to make their purchase. DriveOff.com asks for $39,595 excluding taxs/fees/etc. which is lower than CarsDirect or CarOrder, so I placed my $250 deposit with them this morning and am eagerly awaiting to hear confirmation from them on availability...

-norm

Sander

As reported I used carsdirect.com and had an S4 in 10 days. MSRP + $300 or so

Stu S.

Similar experience. I was quoted 9 months wait and $1500 above msrp. Sad. Let me know what you find

tompa

I used carsdirect.com (reported here earlier)Ordered in Nov, delivered to my front door in Dec -$500 msrp (san jose)

richter

I got lucky and found almost exactly what I wanted by calling every dealer in the bay area and asking about thier canceled order cars. (silver,onyx,all but phone - I was open on the Nav). The best price I could find was $1500.00 over sticker at a 4 week wait. I am now 2 weeks away and still happy. I think "Sander" was just extremely lucky finding one in 10 days through cars direct. A friend of mine used them for a new 328i and waited 6 months. A San Jose dealer has called me 2 times with canceled cars that they are auctioning off to the highest bidder. The last Nagaro blue that came in unclaimed sold for over sticker in 2 hours. They were asking 5K over.

If you want Laser Red with no Nav, call Randy Hill at Rector Motor Cars in Burlingame. He might still have it.

For 3K over, Calrsen in PA might still have Nagaro/blue Alc. and Silver/silver Alc. coming in unclaimed. They wouldn't budge on price and I later decided that I wanted plain Onyx.

I couldn't possibly wait more than a month for a car. I would change my mind or something better would come out.

Supply and demand is a real problem in the Bay area. (even when going out to lunch...)

Good luck,
Brad

joe curcio

I purchased my A4 from carorder. Order was entered in July 99 at early '99 invoice prices. By the time it arrived in October 99 I was provided a 00 A4 at an early 99 invoice price.
I went through Rector in Burlingame as my "local dealer". Both Rector & Carorder's service was outstanding.
I would not hesitate to do it again.
Having said that, looking at Carorder recently they are stil asking $1000 or so over MSRP. You should be able to do the same at any local dealer (I purchased my S4 at Carlsen in Palo Alto @ $1000 over MSRP in October -the same time as our A4).

mbh

If the high profit margins being captured by Audi dealers in the SF Bay Area on the S4 (and to a lesser extent on other Audis) are worth the decreased sales volume due to the shortage of cars (and the potential "bad feelings" among S4 shoppers). I would imagine that there is a supply/demand optimization analysis that could be done here that Audi has not done yet.

Mitch
'99.5 A6
'00 A4 2.8 Avant (coming soon)

Sander

Mine came from LA (van Nuys) where they don't have the high demand we have here in the SF-BA. Those Hollywood types don't like classy cars like S4s I guess :-)

Sander (which is my first name)

tompa

My car also came up from Van Nuys (Keyes Audi)

I believe that the allocations are based on historical sales demand. Aside from skiers that were interested in quattro, I don't think that audi was a very popular brand in california. Audi ships a lot more cars into the northeast & colorado than to the warm west.

I relocated to nor cal from ct recently and there were a LOT more audis'in ct than in nor cal...a lot more snow too. I was in ct in nov & visited my the dealer I had my old car ('96 A4Qm) serviced at, & they had 2 S4's & 2 A6 2.7T's to chose from & he claimed he could get anything I wanted in a week or two...I went to dealers in the south bay area a week later & heard them tell me to wait 4-5 mos...thats when I went to carsdirect.com

was

I bought my S4 through carorder.com. Service was
great, I got a ton of junk - mouse pad, coffee mug, t-shirt, etc. and the car I wanted too

They actually ended up paying Rector $3k 'cause
they quoted me a lower price.

It was great, and took about 3 weeks to get the car back in December. Rector has been great - I sold my porsche boxster to get the s4, and I can say that the porsche dealers have *a lot* to learn.

--w (silver '00 S4)