Audi Finding It Impossible To Keep Up With US Demand

Stop building such awesome vehicles. Lol.

Rotfl!

I just think the company needs to better manage their supply chain. Theres no excuse for not being able to keep up with demands, outside of "Acts of God". This just means Audi did not have their long-term plans in place several years back. BMW and MB obviously planned it out, having plants in South Carolina and Alabama, respectively.

As "poorly managed" as you may believe Audi is, I believe that BMW and MB are wishing they had the same problem of demand out-pacing forecasted sales.

Audi should fire the moron who makes public statements about wanting to be the luxury leader in the US within the next five years, and at the same time severely underestimates the forecast and under stocks their dealerships. Having frequented Audi dealerships as of late, there were plenty of frustrated shoppers. Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't the S5 come out during the latter half of 2007? The Q5 a few years ago? Yet these cars are still rare. If you you can't keep a four year old model from selling out, regardless of record sales or not, then you are a moron. I highly doubt BMW or MB would be this stupid.

I don't know that any of their statements about gaining luxury market share were about the U.S. market specifically. The irrational U.S. market has been a bit of a sore point for Audi since the "unintended acceleration" fiasco. It is the reticence of the U.S. market to re-embrace Audi that forced them into China very early in the game and which, subsequently, saved their bacon during this Great Recession.

Audi has been busy taking advantage of the exceptional margins and significant momentum they have in the Chinese luxury market. While they've been advertising heavily in the U.S. market, it's been part of a longer-term strategy to create demand, limit supplies, and thus raise profits. If the Chinese market reaches a saturation point (bubble?) at around the same time that the U.S. market approaches full recovery, they will be poised to shift their emphasis here when the demand is at its peak and will, quite frankly, dominate the luxury segment. They've been brilliant, but lucky as well.

don't get me wrong, I'm a die hard Audi enthusiast, but I just believe that the moron planning their inventory and supply management is killing the company.

But I do not believe it is a situation that is very locational. I'm from the Northeast of the US and there are Audis everywhere, and the dealerships seems to be getting new shipments of vehicles weekly. No shortages in Greenwich, CT.

don't get me wrong, I'm a die hard Audi enthusiast, but I just believe that the moron planning their inventory and supply management is killing the company.

But I do not believe it is a situation that is very locational. I'm from the Northeast of the US and there are Audis everywhere, and the dealerships seems to be getting new shipments of vehicles weekly. No shortages in Greenwich, CT.

Must be tough on the dealers. Drove by Audi Escondido and the lot had so few cars I thought they were out of business.

You can build the best widget in the world but if you can't get it to the people on time you lose out big time.

My wife and I had a headache trying to test drive an A8, while cross shopping a couple of weeks ago. None in stock or already pre-sold. Even went to an Audi A7 reveal event at a local Audi dealership, nice little event, beautiful piece of machinery in the flesh (always looks awkward in the pictures on the internet). We arrived two hours after the start of the event, turns out that the three A7's on the lot were already purchased. Not even a demo vehicle to play with. Doors were locked on the sold cars. No test drive. No sale. What's the point of Audi talking about being the #1 luxury brand if all their dealerships are barren lands of A4 2.0's. Looks like BMW will get our business again, maybe Jaguar.

Well Audi's certainly have the best car interiors of all the Euro models although I have to say I like Jaguar as well.Other then the TTRS,the TTS, and the A5 Coupe I'm really not a fan. If I was in the market for a luxury car today it would have to be Jaguar. To me the styling is beautiful, I like the front end restyle of the XF,the XJ really feels more special then any of the other Euro's and the XKRS is supposed to be a fantastic driving tool.

Say what you will but here are the hard facts.

Audi has the capability of building more cars and they would if they could. The problem is in the suppliers. Companies like Bosch and Siemens are operating at capacity and are not willing to make the capital investments to expand compacity. Audi is stepping in with financing to help some of them increase capacity but it will take a while before they fully come on line. The most recent Japan debacle has also caused problems that may not be fixed till sometime next year. The biggest problem Audi USA has is competing against all the other 41 countries for inventory. The price points here will have to be adjusted up to make the company more profitable and to make the US a more appealing market to do business in. The weak dollar works against Audi more than the others because we do not have manufacturing here. That may be addressed when Chattanooga comes on line but only if VW is willing to give up some manufacturing capacity of their own which may not be too likely. VW has there own agenda here and it doesn't include making Audi more profitable to spite themselves. China and most of Europe pay soooo much more money for these cars that the US, with it's weak dollar and low profits, can't make a big enough impact on the bottom line to sway production away from those countries even if we were to double or even triple sales here. My advice is to order an Audi ASAP and enjoy the price you bought it for knowing that everyone else on the entire planet is paying a lot more for it. That is....before they raise the prices to a more sustainable level.