Audi Reports a 3.4% Decrease in US Sales for October

How come none of the Audi fanatics on this site have written to explain away the decline yet. Surely with the new SUV being given away with great lease deals the Audi total sales should have soared - no?

Merc- because you posted your comment 10 min after the article.

I work for an Audi store and it was a tuff month. The A8, S8, S6, A3, A6 all have bad leases and Audi has very little support for them.

It looks like they are trying to finish out the year selling A4s and Q7s

This is primarily due to American consumer stupidity! Americans would rather drive Accords, Camrys, and Sonatas than a sleek, quality engineered product of VAG.

I hate this country!

Which VAG products are high quality - I wasn't aware of any? Please enlighten this stupid consumer.

Merc-

1. A8
2. A6
3. S6
4. S8
5. A4
6. Q7

I work for Audi in Southern California. If you want to come in to the dealership I will show you waht quality products are.

Exactly, make a car that anyone can afford and then you won't have big sales number envy. If Audi wants to run with MB, BMW, LExus and even Porsche, then take your lumps and then if Audi competes with Toyota you would really big crying like the big F****** baby that you are.

And if EL34i lives in the US, get out.

I bought an '06 Accord EX for $25,400 with navigation. If Audi would have sold me a new A6 for the same price, (the closest dimensions to the Accord), I would have done them a favor and bought it, even though I would take a reliability hit over the Accord. It's Audi's decision to make. But the A6 would have cost $48,300.

So, I'm stupid to buy a car at half-price that will last 10 years?

And don't buy an Audi in SoCal, they will just call you stupid and laugh at you after you leave.

I dont think hes kidding... about the consumer that is

Exactly. But that's not a fair comparison--Americans would rather buy an Acura, Infiniti, or Lexus over an Audi and that's really their personal, unique choice that can't be seen in other markets.

"1. A8
2. A6
3. S6
4. S8
5. A4
6. Q7"

You forgot the A3, S4, and RS4!

Most Americans still view Audi as an overpriced piece of crap like they were in the 70's, 80's and most of the 90's, that's why. And 6,00 units a month not much of a factor in the US economy.

rocker - Most companies are throwing $thousands of to keep the volume up. For some reason Audi is not playing this game. A A6 is $700 a month right now, a A8 is $1,500, a A 3 is a $600+ lease, and don't get me started on the S8, S6.

Evil Homer,

We have virtually no support from Lexus Financial on any of our models, and our leases are in the same ballpark- but we are having no trouble selling cars. We are having trouble GETTING cars to sell.

mitch - you are right Lex is selling well in the US.
Lex sells well because they are a good product (not my style but good)

Remember Audi looses 20% on the exchange rate alone

You sell Audi's you should defend thembut don't bitch at Americans for not buying Audi's that is the wrong way to handle any potential customer.

i agree w/ rocker, people are not buying Audis for a reason - whether it be the price, value, quality, or prestige - whatever... is it the customers' "fault" for not buying a particular car - NO! instead of blaming consumers for being "stupid" for not buying an Audi - how about do some market research about why they're not selling and then change the strategy of the company??

I love snatch.

El34 is an idiot
i vote he can't be an Audi fan

It's not much point trying to sell more 6's, 8's and Q'7s.. they are never going to be massive volumes.

Audi needs to concentrate on getting the big volume A3 and A4 sales.

but then the A3 and 4 still have a premium price. You can get a Mazda3 for a third of the price.

I completely agree with you. But VW has base vehicles that do fairly well in the US(my father had several of the oldstyle Bugs)but Audi just has a negative persona in the US from what I can tell by the country's reaction to Audi. Most people think it is a VW under the skin so why pay a premium price. See Snatch's comment about market research, find a common thread with the people and go with that. People will not pay $70k for a VW(look what happened to the Phaeton). And pay $70k for a 4 cylinder when you can get a ZO6 or a LS for that.

rocker - most people ? I think most people don't even know Audi and VW have a relationship.

Hell "most people" don't even know Audi in the USA. I tell people I work for Audi and they look at me like "what is that?"

Evil Hommer, whats the going rate for a semi-equipped A4 ( at lease from your dealership )? The numbers you threw out regarding the Audi line up are perplexing ( i.e ridiculous).

yes the leases are high for the cars i mentioned but the A4 and Q7 is great
you can get a A4 with a MSRP of about 31k for the mid $300 range with little down
see www.socalaudidealers.com to see info

I would dare say that an Audi lover and an Audi Salesman just doomed their company in the US. This needs to be posted everywhere that Audi thinks Americans are stupid. And said they were idiots for buying the best selling and most reliable car on the road(Toyota).

You all probably know 'lease math' but the real reason that there is 'no lease support' is that Audi's depreciate like rocks falling in a swimming pool and so that depreciation has to be spread out over the 36 (or whatever term) months of the lease.

Why do Audi's depreciate so much? Perhaps b/c of the reasons people cite - reliability, value perception, etc. - which drive down 'used' demand.

nybeamer - the depreation has nothing to do with it / audi has great resell. Yes BMW is better in some cars and not as good as others.

If resell had anything to do with it a SAAB payment would be $2,000 a month. It has to do with lease support.

If that was true the old A6 (not as good as the new A6 for resell) would have been more then it was. The old A6 was a good lease for $400 a month but the new A6 is easly $700 - $800 a month.

I have been trying to state this and yet people on here have been saying the whole time that Audi will surpass BMW in 5 to 10 years in the US. That is a lot of cars to make up. Doesnt help that Audi cut back production of their new Q7 by 20% for shipments to the US due to lack of interest.

not for lack of interest, but because they make more profit in other countries due to the weak dollar. other countries are demanding the q7 like crazy.

Audi sales of the Q7 have been increasing each month since the backorders cleared out. So I fail to see why you think the sales are subpar.

June 1310 (lots of back orders)
July 590
August 777
September 1333
October 1653

Where are the Audi lovers? They need to step up and defend them or just shut up.

EvilHomer, which Audi dealership?

nice

Will welcome to the Audi post

This topic is stupid because at the time it was listed there were no October numbers

This site would be great with about 7 less users (not you will)

Actually the post and the sales figures were and are still correct at the time of the post.

Where is Chewy, S4fox, germannut audimana4 or planoa4.

Where is Chewy, S4fox, germannut audimana4 or planoa4.

Hey, wait a minute. Are will and watisthat the same person?

but the 2 of you replied at exactly the same time, do y'all live together?

not much of a difference but thanks anyway for trying to throw the attention away from you and the dark will.

Anyone I want? Pam Anderson, maybe.

They're all doped up, they won't know.

Thank god americans dont like Audi so much, if they did it would become dull and uncool in a second in europe

Why do you guys engage Will? He makes every post about himself. You feed into it by responding. He apparently lives for this site, given how often he posts.

*Don't feed the idiot*

At least it is a change from everyone bitching about how great their favorite brand is or how horseshit another brand is.

Uh, yeah. As long as you want a boilerplate lecture on Lexus/Toyota. Go ahead and give him a reason to live.

I'd much rather read his (Will) posts than yours.

Sorry to correct you Will, but it was 1983 when Eiji Toyoda had the meeting in which Lexus was officially created.

"I used to think that BMW fans were the worst, but thanks to people like you and S4Fox, my opinion is changing..."

I'm sorry my dislike of Lexus offends you, Will. I guess that everyone has to like... no, LOVE Lexus for you to be happy.

I've been saying this for awhile now... there's not much that they offer that the competition doesn't.

"Yet another German car fan upset with me for promoting a healthy environment of civilized discussions of ALL car brands, and not just the crappy ones from Germany."

ROFL! Spare me!

Hipocrite...

let me guess you are an Audi salesman. Read the thread before you reply.

dickbag

jtgct - you're an idiot... let me summarize Audi's "progress" in the US for you...

NEW YORK (Fortune) -- The U.S. luxury car market has been a bonanza for Mercedes and BMW as they have motored from one sales record to another. But the third German luxury brand, Audi, keeps making detours. Despite its backing by corporate parent Volkswagen (Charts), pioneering engineering developments like all-wheel drive and a strong performance elsewhere around the world, its stop-and-go efforts have caused it to get lost in the shuffle. Audi has lost money in the U.S. for years.

The automaker has missed opportunity upon opportunity in the U.S. As long ago as 1975, it sold more than 50,000 cars here but 25 years later it had only gotten to 65,000. Lexus, by comparison, didn't get started until 1989 and today is selling around 300,000 vehicles a year. Audi has suffered revolving door management, inconsistent marketing and inattention to customer needs. While Lexus gets nearly half its sales from SUVs, Audi didn't get around to selling one, the Q7, until this year.

if you still don't believe me - here is the article... dumbass

http://money.cnn.com/2006/10/13/autos/pluggedin_Taylor_Audi.fortune/index.htm

also, i never said audi can't sell worldwide - just that it can't sell in the most important market - the US...

one last thing, it's idiots like you [jt] that lead people to choose another brand... the arrogance to think that people are "dumb" for not picking your brand... instead of trying to change the customer - why not try changing the marketing strategy??

I'll say it again, I love snatch

Hey Audi-lovers, I'll be the first to point out the Audi's sales decline of 3.4% was better than BMW's sales decline of 4.6%.

So there you go, Audi did better than BMW this month
:-)

Maybe it was the R8 announcement?

I hope that 1 of you is a female. Or rocker u a F**GOT

dickbag, you must be the fag if you don't like snatch

i wish i could kick people from this site

Relax, breathe.

BMW FAN, I just said I like snatch and Pam Anderson. I didn't say that I like mocus and Judy Garland.

itgct, so lexus is not selling overseas! They relaunched the brand in South Africa july this year, and guess what? they only offer the GS300 & IS250 so far and Lexus is breaking sales records never seen before.

"they only offer the GS300 & IS250 so far and Lexus is breaking sales records never seen before."

Umm, that's because they've never been SOLD there before!

Wow!

I'm stunned that you would say something so... stupid.

I m stationed here by the UN and i have been here for 2 years, in a country where BMW,MB & AUDI's are as common as corrolla's, but less than three months Lexus is rocking up the show imagine when they go to markets where they have no presence yet.

If were a diehard Audi fan I would love news like this. I like car companies that are successful, but not to the point of seeing the same damn things at every intersection.

I don't think this makes much of an impact on my life.

Wow, so Audis aren't selling as well this month as they were last month.

That doesn't keep me from loving mine.

"There's no excuse for lost sales.

It's just decreased consumer interest, pretty much."

you never know, audi could not care much about the US market.
i'm serious, they make very little profit there (weak dollar, low car prices), they don't build there, they have to ship everything over there, americans don't like them, why bother? stick with the rest of the world, it's easier.

Americans not liking Audis while the rest of the world does just confirms how shortsighted we Americans are.

sckdik, you sound like an audi salesman

sckdik, you sound like an audi salesman

please excues the double post

Actually, I work at a Mercedes dealership.

good move

Now we can say that MB salesmen think Americans are stupid just like the Audi salesmen said.

And where do you work?

Shortsighted and stupid have two different meanings rocker, btw. But as the last 11 years have shown, more and more Americans each year are seeing the value in the Audi brand. I'm not a salesman, and I work at a large MB dealership in Socal.

If you told 1000 Americans that they were shortsighted, 999 would say, "Are you calling me stupid?" Being smart can sometimes backfire.

I can't imagine Audi is too upset about this number. Their sales are down roughly by the amount of TT and Allroad sales. That's a risk you take when you wait too long getting your product to market. That's one thing I've never been particularly crazy about with Audi. They create a new car, unveil it and then it takes a year and a half before we get it. The enthusiasm weres off a bit.

However, something I would be concerned about at Audi USA is the Q7. It's not that it's not doing well. 1,500 cars a month for Audi in the U.S. is respectable. These buyers appear to be existing Audi customers and not converts. Since the Q7's introduction, sales of the A4/A6 have slipped considerablly and almost always close to the amount of Q7's sold. I'ld imagine that Audi wanted these numbers to be in addition to existing numbers not in conjunction with.

If they want to be considered a viable alternative to BMW/Merc/Lexus in terms of sales then it's about time they start mimicing their advertising stratagies. In the U.S. if you want to succeed you have to be aggressive. They are not going to convert the American public by word of mouth.

That being said, I'm sure Auid will acheive another sales groeth record this year (I think 10 or 11 years in a row). I guess they don't need any advice from me.

i keep saying this but...

audi deliberately cut allocation of the q7 in the us due to massive worldwide demand, and in the us they make little profit due to the very weak dollar. in china and europe they make lots more profit.

iown1:

Audi does need your advice. Their prices are too high; their vehicles should have higher specs - include more options; and the leases may need to be subsidized until Audi can get to critical mass.

I think they need a plan to double sales in three years, or they should get out of the US market and simple badge their vehicles as VWs and let the VW dealers get some additional income.

The Audi franchise is not valuable in the US, and the dealers as well as prior Audi management teams are to blame.

Audi's are priced 4% less than BMW and Mercedes, so as far as Audi goes, you get more for your money comparedt Benz or Bimmer. Additionally, you get a car that not everyone and their grandmother owns.

Audi's are priced 4% less than BMW and Mercedes, so as far as Audi goes, you get more for your money compared to Benz or Bimmer. Additionally, you get a car that not everyone and their grandmother owns.

I think it will eventually come down to exposure. The one advantage that I see Audi having over the other luxury car makers is, ironically, their relatively low sales figures. Things are quite often cyclical. No one could have predicted that BMW would sell more cars than Merc in the U.S. but that's exactlly what happened. And then Lexus comes along and sells more than both. People like new and different things. With their quickly expanding product line up this could be the time for Audi's U.S. sales to take off. Hopefully they'll save some money for advertising. And if they have a lick of sense they'll fire whoever did that dumb add about the patents. When VW did those aggressive adds with the crashes I kept thinking, "Why didn't Audi do something like that?" They were very effective.

Another approach I would take is focusing on their interiors. I know it's cliche to say how nice they are. We all now that. However I'm not so sure anyone else does. I would do an entire commercial focusing on the inside of the car. Especially with the Audi Exclusive package and the B&O stereo. People eat that shit up. Do you know how many people would love to say their car has a B&O sound system. It doesn't matter if it's the best sound system or not. It sounds cool. And IMHO I think that's one advantage AUDI has over the other brands... They're cool.

Audi will be fine. BMW has had lower sales for the past 3 or 4 months. But it does look like the Q7 is taking away A6 sales.

yea, audi will be fine they will sell about 82,000 cars this year. I remember when the VW CEO Piecheter set a goal of 100,000 audi sales for 2004, ha ha it is 2006, come back to reality.

And no, they're going to breach 90K this year.

In my opinion, there is nothing wrong with being an audi fan, and sales should not have an effect on how much you like your car. i like BMW long before they were as popular as they are today, like BMW 633csi, etc. But, audi fans on this website claim Audi is the greatest thing since sliced bread, better than Mercedes and they are not.

"But, audi fans on this website claim Audi is the greatest thing since sliced bread, better than Mercedes and they are not."

There are a few, yes. But you must admit, there are nameless BMW fans on this website who can be much, much more worse, to the point of where it's extremely irritating to try to respond to their posts in a civilized manner.

Sometimes I get quite irritated with others myself. I attribute that to more ignorant comments. I don't think Audi is the best brand- there's so many good brands out there that it's too hard to pick a favorite. I like to step out of my box once in awhile, and try a new car. That's advice that some of you should take- it makes you feel quite experienced.

"But you must admit, there are nameless BMW fans on this website who can be much, much more worse..."

Take out the "more" at the end. Sounds quite stupid.

s4, 1) in regard to another audi post, i want to enlighten you the reality that audi is a member of the VW group, along with Seat, skoda, Bentley, Lamborghi, etc. VW owns audi, since the sixties when they brought the brand from Mercedes. Secondly, Audi has sold 69,000 year to date, they average about 6,000 or 7,000 sales a month, audi will not sell 10,000 cars in either Nov or Dec, they will sell maybe at the most 15,000 in the next 2 months, i guarantee you they will not sell 90,000 cars this year or next year. s4 you post so many wrong facts, why not do a little research

MOST PREMIUM BRANDS SALES DOWN THIS MONTH....

Dang, some nasty and awefully childish rants going on here.

Anyway, October '06 has been a rather poor month for most luxury brands. For example BMW was down more than Audi. However overall international Audi brand sales are through the roof this year, making Audi the world's fastest growing luxury brand, well ahead of Lexus.

Looks like Audi is on track to easliy become the world's number 1 premium brand within a decade. And this is no fantasy folks, but a comprehensive and extremey aggressive long-term growth campaign that Audi initiated 2 years ago. It's getting a little boring reading ill-informed Americans bash such universally accliamed car brand such as Audi.

But alas, it's their loss. For us lucky ones that own Audi's (myself included with my recent and quite gorgeous 2007 Quartz Gray A4 quattro S-Line manual), it's a great time indeed to be an enlightened car buyer. Especially since there are only a couple more years left to Audi pricing its cars below true value in the US.

The next few months will expose the next major step for Audi, as its modular platform A5 (with even weight distribution, new engine placement, DSG on longitudunal engines, rear-biased quattro etc) debuts its next generation fleet of cars. Despite the brilliance of the new TT and R8, it'll be the state-of-the-art A5 and its Audi-exclusive platform architecture that'll truly usher in the tidal wave of cars that are lazer-focused on finally unseating BMW and Merc.

I can't wait.

Well said.

OK SING ALONG KIDDIES>>>>>60 MINUTES SCREWED AUDI IN THE 80'S.... WITH BOGUS SLANDER FILLED REPORTING!

AUDI'S GOAL IS FEWER SALES WITH HIGHER MARGINS PER UNIT.

phaetonmeister and Anim8or, are you audi salesmen or simply audi owners?

Nope, I don't work for Audi. Doing just fine in the film industry thank you very much.

I am however an Audi owner and car enthusiast. I buy what I want without bias. My current brand of preference is Audi due to its reliability (A4 most reliable German car), quattro (personally prefer it over rear-wheel drive), superior interior quality, exterior beauty, and value.

I have great respect for BMW as well, despite the brand having the stigma of being too common and being driven by arrogant jerks here in LA.

I do prefer BMW's superior weight distribution and excellent driving dynamics, but ultimately prefer Audi as the overall better car. I don't even consider the overpriced reliability nightmares from Benz. Also have great interest in Porsche.

Hope this helps.

rocker-
I own MB, Audi, VW......why??

oh nothing

Iamevil.... $1500 for a a8?. hello... just turned down one at $1100 with NOTHING DOWN in New york!!!. please do not post lies.. if i was ready to sign (got the x5 instead, for my wife), he woudl have given it to me for cheaper. Its not in the same league as 7 or a s. ask all the consumers that walk away from your dealership.

Phaetonmaster.. sorry first time i have seen your name.. are you one of the 12 stupidest men (or women) in all of america to buy that piece of crap? how much shit do you get everyday when you drive to work?.. i am seriously interested form a consumer point of view

Rock on AmazingBimmer

AmazingBinner,

Keep yourself in check.

The Phaeton is an over-engineered luxury saloon, not an excuse to bash someone.

I see two reasons for sales decline. Audi's arrogant decision to cancel "The Audi Advantage" program. The Audi Advantage was designed to make to total cost surprise free. The second reason is Audi is arrogant posture. From their goal fewer sales & higher margins, to lease structures that are unrealistically high says it all. I want to buy a car - not fund their operations – If Audi thinks it costs too much for these programs, let’s see how much it will cost ~ NOT~ to have them. And after my 6 Audi in 20yrs, I might have some consumer qualifications. Oh, speaking of arrogance, they even got rid of the Customer Loyalty Program, guess times are tough.