Why aren't Audi's selling better in the USA?

I could not agree with you more. I'll buy Audi's over any other car. After I had my first child and my wife quit her FT job to stay home and raise our child I could not go to the Audi dealer and pay premium any more. I had to get a deal in order to get my next Audi. Unfortunately, this did not happen. I ended up buying the next best thing ... an Infiniti. I love our new FX and its reliability, but, it's NOT an Audi. Now I need to wait until my child goes to school and my wife back to work or Audi offers better deals on its cars.

Good God you are pitiful. It's hilarious that your life is so small, that the only thing that gives you a reason to get up each morning is checking these boards and ranting and raving about Audi's so-called superiority over Audi.

I could debunk half the "engineering excellence" crap you spew on here, but instead, let's look at it from an economic standpoint. In the US, capitalism is king----one of the many tenets of capitalism is that the consumers can speak with their wallets to vote for what product they think embodies the best blend of price and quality.

To that end, let's look at BMW's September numbers (I'll even exclude Mini). September sales - 22,052. 2005 Year to Date - 193,631. In both categories, that is THREE times the number Audi has sold.

In other words, the majority of the marketplace doesn't give a crap about your inane ramblings about V6 vs I6, turbo vs. NA, BMW copying wagons, etc-----Audi gets it's ass handed to them by BMW in the States year-in, and year-out, there's nothing that a small niche enthusiast like yourself can do to change that.

In the eyes of the US market, Audis are nice VW's, nothing more, nothing less----and the fact that Audi owners get the same crappy sales and service experience that any Golf owner does does not help that perception.

Put down the Audi pipe once in a while, and consider getting another hobby-----there's more to life than defending a second tier automaker who could care less about you.

I don't know about what most of the country is facing when they visit thier local Audi dealer but things look pretty good from here. We have a brand new $12M Audi exclusive facility in a fashionable part of town close to everything. We have a fleet of Audi loaner cars that we hand out for free for even the most rediculous of reasons. The lease programs on most of the Audi fleet is very competitve in relation to our immediate competition. I will concede that the A3 lease is really bad. Audi Financial Services had a budget for incentivised leases in the USA for calender year 2005. They unfortunately didn't factor the A3 into that budget. They only expected to sell about 9000 units this year and assumed, because of the price point that most would be purchased traditionally. AFS usually "saves money" and delays thier best programs until the 3rd quarter of the calender year. Right now is the BEST time of year to lease an Audi product! You have until the end of the year to get it done. After such a strong September you may have to let the dealer work for you in order to find the perfect car. Inventory levels are at an all time low right now so it pays to plan ahead. If you have a lease coming due in December, the time to start working on a replacement is right now. Don't expect to walk into an Audi dealership on Dec. 26 and find the perfect car in stock, it probably won't happen.

The quality of the entire product line is better than it has ever been. In 2001 the dealer had to practically finish building the car after it arrived from port. Many needed to wait weeks before parts would arrive so we could fix them and make them availble for sale. Now all we need to do is pull the plastic off, boot up the computers and gas them up! If we have one with a major problem, its more of an exception, not the rule.

I just bought one for myself a couple of weeks ago (my third). Each one gets progressively better by leaps and bounds. It's exciting and rewarding to be with Audi right now. There are a lot of really good reasons to be here. We have 6 new models planned for release during the next 36 months. The core products are mostly in place right now with the exception of the Q7 (or whatever they choose to name it here). Its now time for the performance variants to arrive. The RS4, S6 and S8 are all scheduled to arrive in calender year 2006 along with the much needed and anticipated redo of the A4 Cabbiolet. If the "Cab" comes off as good as the B7 sedan platform did, you will start to see a lot more of them in the sunbelt regions of the country very quickly. It looks a lot more masculine than the current version and the 2.0T is the perfect engine for that car. I wish Audi would give us the 3.0TDI instead of the 3.2 petrol engine as the upgraded powerplant in the US but I don't get to make those decisions.

The top brass at Audi USA and DE have all made product quality a top priority. If there is a problem, they bend over backwards to fix it and take care of the customer. I rarely....no, make that never hear of that kind of experience from BMW and MB owners. Most say the manufacturer never admits fault. By the way, most of the service advisors from our own BMW and MB stores say that as well. It all starts from the top as Mr. Schrempp so clearly demonstrated a month or two ago.

I believe the situation at MB will be solved fairly quickly. I beleive that Dieter is the right man for the job, as does most of MB's shareholders. We will someday be singing his praises as the new automotive turn around king. BMW on the other hand? Who know's, they seem to have an endless supply of ether over there.

Regarding Audi lease prices and the decreased sales due to those high prices.....Audi and VW have gotten burned because their vehicles once out of warranty do not bring residual at auction and even when they are still under warranty do not bring BMW or MB money at auction. Audi can not continue to write off the end of lease shortfall. Remember the people who buy Audi's at auction are professional dealers. These guys know the market and have to account for repairs and reconditioning, so to protect themselves they will not bid as high on Audi's. If Audi quality has improved then Audi must put stonger residuals on their cars, take the losses and eventually auction will reflect the quality with higher prices. That is easier said then done and can cost Audi millions, money that can go to improving quality and new models etc. Audi quality was not good and they are now paying the price.

I think some of you are missing the big picture here. If you charge $5000 to $10000 more for a car to begin with, such as BMW and MB, you can afford to pay for higher residual values in your leases. It's all a numbers game folks. If the only number you are looking at in a lease calculation is the residual percentage, then you are only looking at a fourth of what makes up a lease payment to begin with! Here are the four things:

Price of the vehicle
Interest Rate Charged
Fees charged
Depreciation throughout the term

They can all be manipulated to a certain degree by the manufacturer. If you are charging an extra $5000-$10000 right off the bat in the price of the car, then you can afford to play with residuals quite a bit. I'm talking manufacturers cost here people, not dealer cost. If you take the badges off the big three German brands, the parts you can't see pretty much all come from the same places and cost pretty close to the same thing. We all know that Bosch and Siemens are the major suppliers for most of them. The German auto industry all pay their workers the same wages to build the cars. They all built their plants about the same time (roughly 1948) so costs are very similar between the three brands.

Industry studies show that a lease customer is twice as likely to stay with a particular brand than a customer that simply purchases a vehicle outright. The manufacturer is betting on the fact that they will stay with them even over several vehicle purchases down the road. They may even throw some loyalty money out there to ensure that they do.

If BMW or MB takes a hit at auction (and they do so every day), they can afford to because of the cushion they gave themselves at the beginning of the lease, and the fact that they sold you another new car for an even bigger cushion than the first one.

BMW, MB and Audi all charge different interest rates and fees on thier respective leases. The aquisition fees are $575 through Audi Financial, $695 through BMW and $795 through MB however, when you compare similar cars such as an A4, 3 series, or a C class with the same equipment, they will often fall within $25/month of one another. How can that be? Each manufacturer manipulates the numbers differently to come up with a similar (competitive) lease payment.

Leasing can often make up the majority of a captive financial institution's portfolio. It is a very important method with which to market high end cars here in the US. They only people that care about RVLG residuals are banks and people who purchased the car outright. People tend to use it as a prediction of what the resale value might be on their respective car of choice down the road. They are also used by the banks to calculate their own leases. They tend to be very conservative at best. The last thing any bank wants to have happen is to lose money on a car at auction. They only have whatever profit they made on the money they loaned the customer to do the lease in the first place. Keep in mind, they are publicly traded companies as well, and they are monitored by Federal Inspectors. They can not factor in any profits from the sale of a vehicle until they get the car back from the customer and sell it at auction. A bank may never care whether they ever lease another car to you again. If it looks to the bank as if they stand to lose money at auction on the car they leased you, LOOK OUT! They will nickle and dime you to death with damage fees at the end of the lease to help minimize any losses.

A manufacturer captive's job is to keep you with the brand. They are often much more forgiving than a bank would ever be. The last thing they ever want to do is piss you off! In the past, many became so lenient that they are now required to hire third party appraisers to inspect for damage in order to protect their own shareholders from such losses.

Bottom line; if you are leasing from a manufacturer's captive finance arm, count your blessings. They have the best (most competitive) lease deals around. They are more customer friendly than any bank will ever be and will often entice you with additional incentives to keep you within the brand when you reach lease end.

If you purchased your car in the conventional way, good luck to you. You have made an investment in the free trade system and whatever the MARKET says a car is worth come trade in time is WHAT IT IS WORTH, regardless of what some book says.

If you lease a car you will never have to complain again over what some used car manager is trying to give you for a vehicle at trade in time. That's most of the arguing that occurs in any car negotiation! If you want retail value for your next vehicle , you should consider leasing from whatever captive lender is responsible for the brand. The residual value will usually end up being pretty close to that number, maybe even more.

I've owned 3 Audi's, and I can tell you from personal experience, their reliability sucks. Bad ignition coils, bad steering racks, bad cat. converters. Their dealers, for the most part, are awful as well. Beautiful cars, but poor engineering, and assembly are the main reasons that they are not selling. Try selling a 3 year old Audi, and you will see why the lease payments are so high...they have no residual value.

Coffee man puts it simply and aptly. Of course there are many factors in the formulation of leases but resales is the only factor that sustains itself. Interest subvention and minimizing profit can be used over the short term but sooner or later they will be just too expensive to continue. That's why smart banks have come up with lease programs that are sometimes better than a captive (finanace source} they MAKE money at auction by selective lease programs for high demand high quality vehicles. The point we are all attempting to make is that VW/Audi had great looking crisp handling products that disapointed a whole lot of people INCLUDING banks and CONSUMERS!!! Not a good thing.

I have personally owned three Audi's myself and have never had a coil problem, steering problem or a CAT problem. In fact, the only problems I have ever had with any of them was one power window regulator (Bosch part) used by all of the German brands, and a clip on a driver's side sun visor. That's it. I am not a conservative driver by any means, I've even autocrossed them on occasion. As a representative of the brand, I see about 30 cars/day come into our service department which is nothing compared to the 250 that drive into our BMW facility right next door every day. I also have a C320 for the wife which has been to the service department at the Benz store up the street so often that I am now on a first name basis with my service advisor. Granted, it's never done anything that has left me or her stranded, but it is still frustrating to see a fault light come on almost monthly.

I don't see how the depreciation agument holds water either. When I cross sell an Audi with a BMW on the preowned side, the BMW is almost right on the money $5000 more just like they were when the cars were new. Believe me, those guys are not affraid to ask all of the money for them either. That tells me they are depreciating at the same rate. This must be a regional issue. In the US southwest, we simply don't have the problems you are experiencing with either resale value or quality.

A BMW 325 currently has a residual value for a 24 month 12K mile/yr lease of 75%. An A4 2.0 Quattro has the same 75% residual for the same term. This offer is good through the end of the month through AFS. The money factor charged for the lease is about half what BMW Financial is currently charging. This number varies depending on what the finance manager at your local dealership chooses as his markup to a retail customer, but assuming they mark it up the same amount at both dealerships the Audi number should be .001xx whereas the BMW number will be .002XX.

Combine the lower selling price with a lower interest rate, and lower aquisition fee and I think you should get the picture.