All right, here's my story (it's long).

11/26/99 Order a 2.7T from carOrder.com. Can't beat the price, $500 over invoice.

12/9/99 Can't find my car, so it is special ordered by dealer in SF Bay area (near my home).

1/?/00 Talk to dealer, get VIN and ETA of 3/20/00.

3/20/00 Car not in port yet (SD), should arrive any day.

3/28/00 Message from dealer "Your car is still undergoing port inspection and allocation process - I say that we should see it in 2 weeks or so. They have been slow lately as there
is a shortage of trucks to get the cars here - but we are working on this. I would start getting your wife's car ready to sell!"

4/2/00 Finalize paperwork, get check from credit union, make plans for first long trip, etc. Tell friends, family etc what a beautiful car it is.

4/9/00 Talk to dealer. Says no hold on car, should be here any day.

I speak with dealer twice a week since then. Same story. Then last week, hear that some "trim pieces are missing", waiting on those from Germany, should be in that day, at dealer mid-last week.

Finally, this week I hear that my car has "damaged fender and bumper". No word as to extent of damage. No estimate of delivery date.

In the meantime, wife's car gets rear-ended. $2700 worth of damage. Want to sell this car, had nothing but oil changes previously.

Visit dealer. He is as frustrated as I am (he wanted to close before end of April). Dealer cannot get any more info from port. Today I call Audi client relations, get referred back to dealer. I explain dealer has no info to help me. They say it is out of their hands, they can't do anything. I say I'm an Audi client, you're Audi client relations, this Audi relationship of mine needs some serious fixing. They say they can take a formal complaint for me. I say I wish I had enough time in my day to all this detective work.

Now, I don't know what to do. My 5 months of anticipation have soured considerably. I don't feel right taking a $40+K car knowing it has already been damaged. Hard to find similar cars on the lot anywhere around here. I can order a 2001 now and get it in a couple of months.

I feel like Audi is missing the boat on the customer relationship thing. There is plenty of competition out there for that $40K of car money, most of whom I assume would be more forthcoming with information to both me and the dealer than they have been.

Any advice? I'm frustrated beyond belief.

 

Personally I wouldn't take a "new" car damaged or defective for any price. Hope it turns out ok.

Chris (Nomad 2.7T)<p>2000 A6 2.7T Tiptronic
Cashmere Gray
San Antonio, TX

 

I need details on your VIN and dealer though...<p><a href="http://registry.audiworld.com/audi/registry/details.asp?car=3821"><br><br>
<img SRC="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/AudiWorldPics/2000/ss_s4sig1.jpg"<br><br>
Steve S.
00 Nogaro S4
NorCal Audi Club
http://www.norcalaudiclub.org

 

on a reorder for a new car.

When I ordered my 97 F-350 truck from Ford, it was delivered with the wrong axle ratios which rendered it useless for our needs. The original truck took 4 months to deliver to me. I was given a "priority code" of some sort on the reorder and the next truck took only 6 weeks to deliver.

Ask your dealer if they can do that. Good luck and keep us posted as to how Audi handles you. I am very curious about their customer relations.

 

I totally appreciate your frustration. The dealer is probably equally frustrated. My suggestion would be for a LOGICAL, ORDERLY conclusion:

1) Refuse this damaged vehicle. There is no way you are obligated to take it. This sort of thing happens frequently at ports. Do you recall the huge judgement against BMW for repainting damaged cars and NOT DISCLOSING
same to buyers?
2) Reorder a 2001 model. You should be able to get a price near cost as an offset to your frustration.
3) Bear in mind that the vehicle model you ordered should remain as your #1
choice, because all the factors that made you want that car remain unchanged. Except for the damage. In other words, your frustation is with the process, not the car itself.
4) Try your best to smile!

 

I'm not going to suggest that if you had paid full price none of this would have happened.
And, the following may seem somewhat harsh but
sometimes one gets what one pays for.

I believe that people/business are motivated by profit. and in my experience they expend energy in direct proportion to the profit and value of the transaction at hand. Your post indicated you purchased this vehicle for $500 over invoice. Who exactly would you expect to expend large amounts of time and effort on this deal? The Audi dealer is likely only to get paid the prep- fee from Audi. Car.com or whatever has made $500 bucks (maybe)and is probably considered nothing more than a neccesary evil mucking up distribution by Audi-USA.

So who has the leverage here? What commissioned sales guy/gal is going to find you parts in some dealers stock or a replacement car
in short order?

In my personal pricing experience I used the net to determine invoice price. Then I decided what was a FAIR profit for the dealer to make, creating a win/win price for both. A dealer
came back within $200 of my established FAIR price.

I then considered the fact that this low cost dealer was 30+ miles from my house vs. 10 miles from a local dealer. The local dealer had quoted me a price about $800 above my FAIR price.

True to my word, I went back to the local dealer with the quote from the lowest priced dealer (written) in hand. We split the difference!

Now then, I paid $400 above my fair price. but in the process created a win/win transaction where the dealer and I have an ongoing relationship based on respect and trust. I know that my dealer will go to bat for me (if needed) with the
factory on a serious future problem, and they know I will send a steady stream of customers their way as a result. I also have the convienence of taking my car to the selling dealer for service which is close and has loaner
cars.

So, I'm sorry that your experience has been less than perfect. And, as previously stated it might have happened anyway. But, it looks to me as if you removed the all the profit incentive from the transaction except for yours. As you have discovered the price/cost of the entire transaction is worth considering on a purchase such as this.

Best of luck

 

carOrder has already cut the dealer a check for more than $2900. Profit does not seem to be the issue, dealer is getting a fair price for the car.

 

Just to clarify:

Price to me was $500 over invoice.
carOrder.com subsidized deal by almost $3000.
Dealer gets approx. $3400 over invoice

In my mind, after dealer ordered on 12/9/99 carOrder doesn't have anything to do with it.

 

How does CarOrder stay in business? Better yet, why be in business? Something's wrong.

 

Sorry to hear about what happened. We have a lot in common. I'm also in the Bay Area and I ordered my 2.7T through carOrder.com one day before you do. I picked up mine at Rector Motors in Burlingame on 4/20. So far, the 5 months wait is well worth it. I was going to sell my E30 M3 to make room for the A6. But a month before the A6 arrives, I totalled the M3 on Dumbarton Bridge during the rain. Well, at least I saved the trouble of selling the car and now I have much more appreciation for quattro.
Is your color combo/options very rare? If you don't want the damaged/repaired car and you don't want to wait 4 more months, try to work with your dealer to get a similar car. It's really hard to throw away the $500 over invoice deal.