Car Buying Advice - 2015 S4 never registered - "Used" with 112 miles

alexha123

I'm checking out this 2015 Audi S4 and I don't entirely get what's going on. Could someone help me make sense of this?

http://www.royalauto.com/used/Audi/2015-Audi-S4-1926b8680a0e0adf748d53f48da1e13a.htm

I called the dealer and the sales guy said that this car was marked as "sold" in 2015 so that the dealer could hit its numbers. But it was never actually sold or registered to a buyer, which means it's a used car but it's never actually been driven before.

It looks like a good deal, but I'm also genuinely afraid of getting screwed and buying a car with title problems. Is this sort of thing normal?

Thanks!

Mr_Shiftright

Seems like they have two like that. Well they are a big dealership that's been around forever, so I don't think there will be any wildly fraudulent practices----however, you might want to check on what the warranty situation is. If it's never been registered then it should get full warranty.

Not sure it's that great a deal. I would hammer on that price pretty hard but let me ask around for you. I tend to be tough on pricing.

Mr_Shiftright

OK, our resident expert says the price isn't too bad at all. The car would auction off at around $40K, so there's not too much profit packed in. You might try to shave $1K.

But the situation is a bit peculiar. By all means check on warranty provisions. I think Royal IS an Audi dealer--is that correct?

Anyway, you'll have to armlock them and find out the WHOLE story here. It's just odd, but if there is a plausible explanation, then let's hear it....

alexha123

Makes sense - I'll look into the warranty and see. Royal is an Audi dealer; they also do VW next door. I'll talk to them and see what I can find out.

alexha123

Warranty started in October 2015. Just asked the dealer and he said it's a "punched" vehicle, which means they listed it as sold so that they could hit sales numbers and ostensibly get more allocation of 2016's.

isellhondas

Now, that was a desperate act by what must have been a desperate dealer!

kyfdx

alexha123 said:

Warranty started in October 2015. Just asked the dealer and he said it's a "punched" vehicle, which means they listed it as sold so that they could hit sales numbers and ostensibly get more allocation of 2016's.

That means the warranty will expire 1.5 years sooner than if the car were new. So, if Audi has a 48 month warranty, it will be up in 10/2019.

kyfdx

isellhondas said:

Now, that was a desperate act by what must have been a desperate dealer!

Dealers do stupid stuff, all the time.

I was at a VW dealer last week, and they still had two new 2016 GTI Autobahn models on the lot. $35K MSRP vehicles, and they are offering $2700 off. You can buy a new 2017 model for less. There is no good reason for that.

As far as the Audis? If Audi says we'll give you $5000 for every 2015 S4 sold by the end of October, when the 2016 models are already out, but if not, you get nothing, then you'll mark the car sold and get your incentive. That's not stupid. What is stupid? Not cutting the price and getting the cars sold right away.