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And, I agree, the Audi treatment far exceeds most VW dealers (and my dealership -- while not a dual, also owns -- or used to -- both Audi and VW brands).
How in the world does VW expect to bring a Phaeton to the market unless they do make the "leap of faith" that Americans are looking for a $60 to $80,000 VW, ramp up their dealer network to "Lexus" standards and bring in more and more high buck product.
I believe that they are determined to try this -- I also believe that we will see VW and Audi diverge over the next 3 or 4 model years; and finally I believe that there will be many more high buck VW's than we ever thought could happen in the US.
But, man, what an uphill road -- the VW crowd "believes" the W8 Passat is a steal -- and it probably is if you compare it to an A6 2.7T. And, I was proven wrong -- I thought for sure that Audi "wouldn't allow" a Passat W8 and an Audi V6 to coexist -- but the W8 is, apparently, not eating into A6 2.7T or A4 3.0 sales (I had assumed some "cannibalization" would occur -- if it has, it has been only a tiny amount).
Yet, when you can get the "Audi treatment" that most of us enjoy -- well, it is hard to imagine anything even close to that at a [current crop] VW dealership. Again, maybe the Phaeton will give the VW dealer network "religion."
Come to think of it, even though I see many Passats and quite a few 4Motion Passats, I see very few W8 Passats -- I think I may have seen 3 in the past 6 months. "Regular Passats" -- well, I see a dozen or so every day.
The future, like a Chinese curse, could be -- for VW -- "interesting."
This past summer my wife was looking for a wagon. I immediately considered the Passat 4Motion GLX wagon, which was actually more expensive than my A4. My wife loved it and we were prepared to buy. The VW dealer treated us so poorly that our minds were spinning. It was an old-fashioned 2 hour back and forth to the office nightmare. The man refused to give me a price offer unless I committed to buying his car.
We left the VW dealer and accepted an offer that the Volvo dealer had on the table for a V40. The dealer experience made our decision for us.
I feel that the VW product is making great strides, and has excellent vehicles. But their dealers MUST learn that someone spending 30K on a car expects to be treated better than they were when they bought their first Civic hatchback. My experience tells me they have some distance yet to go.
Overall, I can't imagine being treated any better than I have at Carousel, and this goes for those vaunted Lexus dealerships too. Too bad Audi can't raise the bar and make this more uniform across the country (I say this only from reading the comments of others in the various Audi boards here). Still, from what I can tell, Audi is miles ahead of VW, and like others I question if VW can improve their dealer network quickly enough to satisfy the luxury car buyers that they will trying to attract over the next few years. After you've experienced true luxury car service, whether it's from Infiniti, Mercedes, Lexus, Audi, or whatever, it becomes very difficult to "go back" to the service typically offered by the lesser car makes. Right now I put VW squarely in this category.
I have done extensive research on the A4 and it's competitors and have come to the conclusion that it offers the biggest bang for the buck in the entry level luxury class.
Since last October, Audi has been offering 2.9% financing for 60 months, however, the incentive is about to offer on January 7. For budgetary purposes, I need to finance the vehicle for 60 months.
The local dealer doesn't have the exact car in his rather small inventory (he is a combined Infiniti, Audi and Porsche dealer with Infiniti being his primary line).
Unfortunately, the power seats have only been available in A4's produced since November so that limits their availability as the cars are just now arriving in the States. And, my wife wants power seats and since it will be her car I want her to be happy.
The premium package will increase from $1600 to $2000 as a result of the driver's power seat inclusion. Why wouldn't they include a power passenger seat as an available option? How can such a great company produce a totally loaded luxury car but not offer a power passenger's seat? Oh well.....it's not the end of the world.
The problem is that the deal has to be "booked" by January 7 in order to take advantage of the financing. Basically, that precludes my car because it is not available at any dealership within the our region. To book a car, they need a VIN and I am not about to buy a car I've never seen or driven. And, besides, they don't even have that car (nor can they yet obtain it) with that equipment even if I bought it unseen. So, ordering it is out of the question because they can't "book the deal" on an ordered vehicle.
Bottom line: After speaking with my dealership, I am holding out on getting the Audi as they are confident that Audi will soon offer yet another incentive which actually may even be better.
Admittedly, it is a gamble because there is nothing definitely known about any future incentives and I have to purchase a car within the next 60 days at the latest as we are down to one vehicle which is rather inconvenient.
Here is another kicker: I am just now in the financial position to buy this car but I have a limited budget and if I can't get the 2.9% rate (or some type of cash incentive to the dealer) the whole deal will fall apart because I will only allow myself to spend a certain amount for this car and I'm not going to compromise on the equipment.
So, this whole "deal" could be tricky and is going to require a bit of luck for it to materialize.
I really want the Audi, but if it doesn't work out, I will have to start from square one and buy a less expensive car.
There is no other car that I am aware of for under $30,000 that can come close to the quality of the Audi (and with the same options), so if this little gamble fails, I will have to drive 200 miles to attend the Tarrant County Auto Show in Ft. Worth in early February to see if anything catches my eye. The Ft. Worth Auto Show is the first auto show of the season in this region and time is of the essence.
So far, I havent' seen any other car which even remotely excites me for under 30k.
I guess I might have to look at the newly redesigned Saab 9-3, but I am not very excited about that car since it is basically a GM product, but Saab (GM) is trying to sell these things and they have a nice dealer holdback which can work to my advantage plus the base MSRP is lower than the A4. Again, the Saab wouldn't be my first choice but it may turn out to be my 2nd choice.
So, for now all I can do is hope that Audi either extends their current promotion or quickly introduces a new and better one.
I'll let the group know what happens. Hopefully, I will join the ranks of Audi ownership in the very near future.
Scott
Oklahoma City
It would help you to be flexible on colors if supplies are limited.
Don't rule out the Saabs, They are far from typical GM products and priced very attractively.
You might be able to get a 9-5 for under $30k.
Also consider a CPO A4 if a new one is a stretch for you, you can get a virtually new car for a lot less ($5-6k) but again, need to be flexible on colors etc.
2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93
I am shopping for a sedan, and the A4 is on my list.
Steve Logsdon
O'Neal Littlejohn
And at Boardwalk Audi:
Oscar Ramirez
It seems that University Park is willing to deal more than Boardwalk but that may just be my experience. If you have questions you can PM me as on my profile. Good luck and you can mention my name. Regards Allen
Just a suggestion, good luck.
I drove in for a routine oil change and they replaced the front brakes/rotors---replaced the heater blower motor--- and fixed a leaking rear seal, all under warranty.
The heater motor part in stock also turned out to be defective and I needed to come back a week later for replacement when the new part arrived. They did not charge me the 2nd time for a loaner-(I didn't buy the Audi from there so I did pay for a loaner car the first visit).
The service work was finished on time and to my satisfaction!
Mark- Does the A6 2.7T/4.2 have similar 0-60 mph times with the VW W8?
I think this makes the A6 2.7T Audis quickest -- it beats both the S6 and S8 and even the spunky High Output (225HP) TT (@ 6.3 seconds, at last glance).
The W8 is hampered by:
auto trans
gear ratios not as aggressive
torque of W8 is lower than the V8 and comes on higher than the 2.7T which reaches 258 foot pounds at 1850RPM thanks to those tiny little bi-blowers.
The W8 in the Passat is still a great engine in a nice car. The "one to have" if you are drawn to the VW will be the W8 passat with the sport package and the 6spd manual transmission. Should be available soon here in 2003.
The specs are published at VW.com as I recall (for the current auto W8 Passat, that is).
If you want to get an idea of what the US W8 6spd Sport Passat MIGHT do, check VW.uk and go to the configurator for the Passat W8 -- I think it tells the performance (and they use miles per hour in the UK, BTW). Of course if you can sift through the German site, the info is there too.
I have been lurking here for a while and would like to thank all of you for your posts (esp. markcincinnati). This is my first Audi and my very first new car purchase. To say that I am excited would be an understatement!
I will try and post more info once I get the car. Thanks again!
What is the deal with the new premium package? Has Audi included more equipment and raised the price of the package?
Thanks for the interesting comparisons!
Thanks.
Here's the scoop:
1.8T 2000
*23000 miles
*fully loaded
* leather
* price is 21000
* 2 yr warranty
jetta VR6 GLX 2001
* 32000 miles
* fully loaded
* leather
* price is 17500.
I am planning to sell the car in 1 year.
What should i buy???
Billy
My plan is to now check out the Saab board messages.
Any comments?
I am interested in a couple of 1.8T cars they have on order. But, the salesperson has already tried to condition me that they don't have "much room to deal" on an A4. According to Edmunds price list, the cars of interest to me is marked up about $2700.
In any case, my car is about 3 months old and I'm loving it. Especially with all of the snow we've been getting in Chicago.
One question, the dealer left some adhesive on the glove box from the sticker that is there on new cars (airbag warning I think). Anyone have any good suggestions for ways to get it off?
Thanks!
. Better reliability
. Better performance
. Rave reviews from all the automotive press
nuff said
FYI-I own a Saab and an Audi.
2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93
I was thinking about using syn or semi syn oil -- but at the regular specified intervals.
If there is syn oil in the car, it must only be in the 1.8t -- I have an allroad 2.7T and unless he misspoke, I have just passed on the skinny.
I thought the name of the parent company was interesting. They did explain. I always like to know whom I am dealing with other than the local folks.
2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93
2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93
What do you guys normally use to clean the interior panels. The panels generally get white marking on them, which are hard to remove. Any suggestions?
Thanks!
Thanks~
But the door panels has white marks from either touch or other stuff. The material is very dry, so I don't know what to use to clean it up.
Also, the Goo-Gone I talked about before would take the sticky stuff right off probably.
These two are both great cars and I don't know which one to get...
Need some input please.
I drove all the cars in this class, and I considered the Audi A4 to be a close runner to the BMW.