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I am curious to hear from those of you who have purchased through Carorder.com. The concept alone looks like it will do to car dealers what the E*Trades have done to the brokerage industry. I was quoted about 4.4% over invoice for a fully loaded 2.8Avant. Have you had a good experience using this channel to purchase your Audi and how long was your wait? Thanks!

Slivka

Car order is excellent. I waited 4 month for my '00 1.8TQMS. Ordered a '99 model at the end of the summer. CarOrder could not find one and ordered '00 instead. That's why it took so long. Still, '00 or '99 invoice is a pretty good deal. If you got a little bit of patience, go with CarOrder.

The Artie Party

I actually lucked out BIG time with CarOrder.com. I ordered a 2.8 in late August, with delivery just a couple of weeks ago, so it was a three month wait. However, I ordered it at a 1999 price during a time when they were offering invoice pricing in order to get brand recognition. It was built as a MY2000 car. Once delivered, my final cost was actually $286 BELOW invoice (and would have been more if I hadn't included the trip computer as part of the order).

So, the only bad part was the wait. They appeased me by sending me trinkets such as a t-shirt, coffee mug, toolkit, post-its, and other stuff every couple of weeks. But they did a good job at keeping me posted via e-mail. My dealer also gave me period updates on the car's status code. The funny part was that the dealer let me know the car arrived before CarOrder did. I received delivery and drove the car home before CarOrder even knew the car was in the shop. So, the key here is to work with your dealer to find out when to expect the car. And if you can, go to the dealer to pick it up -- mine spend an hour and a half with me describing and demonstrating all the car's features before I drove it away.

For this car, it was WELL worth the wait!

Artie

'00 2.8 QMSX Silver/Onyx (cloth)

AudiPutz

Good for me.
$200 BELOW invoice.
Ordered '99 1.8T Avant, stick, sport susp. and seats on 5/19/99.
Picked up '00 model (at '99 price) 10/2/99 - carOrder paid my airfare from LA to SF for car pick up.

mness

I could have wrote your message.
Ordered a 2.8 in late August at invoice on carOrder.com. Shortly afterwards they let me know I'd be getting an '00. Once the '00 pricing was announced I had them add the Xenon lightsl, which they did at the '00 invoice. Car was delivered on Dec 10. Final price was about $700 under '00 invoice, yipee!
They kept in touch, sent all the trinkets (just got a keychain yesterday - I can't believe that they don't send a carOrder.com license plate frame). I had the advantage that their california dealer happened to be located near me in San Francisco, so I was able to keep in touch with them too and pick up the car myself instead of risking it being trucked for home delivery.

-mness
'00 2.8QMX Silver, Opal Gray Leather, Cold Weather, Convenience, Sport Wheel, Clair CD Changer

Mark Collett

.. I ordered my 1.8T just about a month ago, haven't got it yet - it's being built. It seems that what kind of updates you get depends on your representative. Mine just seems like a typical sales guy, doesn't know much about the process, and isn't much help. But I went for it because of the deal, not what I had heard about the customer service. Basically, you should find out where the dealer is that it's going through and work through them for status updates. The trinkets are cool too... I also think one of the reasons I went through the internet is to be another person showing that the days are numbered for the traditional dealer sales structure...

Mark Collett

Denver J

Yes, it is a good deal, but you will have to have some patience... they can be difficult to communicate with. I finally had to ask for someone else to handle my order and the manager who picked it up (Nancy Mata) is fantastic... and again, can't beat the price... plus the dealer delivering the car is going to make sure that service is not an issue (they will call whichever dealer I bring it into for the first service, since they are 300 miles away).

Supra

I think I'm going to try them out since no dealer here has it and the price is unbeatable !

Bill Dunn

My new 1.8 will be delivered to my office tomorrow. My experience with CarOrder has been quite satisfactory. Nancy Mata at CarOrder and David Leibenson at Rector Audi have kept me appraised as we have gone through the process. I placed my order in August, however I was quite willing to wait for a MY2000 to get just what I wanted. The reason for the wait really had nothing to due with CarOrder, it was just what it takes to special order an exact vehicle. By the way, picked it up for about $400 under invoice cost. I am thinking about ordering another car for my wife . . . through CarOrder. Great experience overall.

jms

My story's similar to a few other folks' stories. I ordered a Pelican Blue 1.8T Avant in late August. They spec'ed a '99 but ended up ordering a '00. Unfortunately, the first dealer CarOrder placed the order with (200 miles from here) played games with us and did not order the car, figuring they might get stuck with a car in an unpopular color. When we realized what was going on, CarOrder switched to a dealer near me. The dealer requested a $2K nonrefundable deposit, which was OK with me (and I figured out which dealer it was when my VISA bill arrived!). Since then (mid November), things have been moving along fine.

Communication has been somewhat problematic, partly because there's high turnover of customer reps at CarOrder (I'm on my 4th!!), they've been working with dealers who are new to them, and there are separate reps at CarOrder for working with the dealer and the customer. The lesson is to try and find out which dealer is handling the order, and then get your updates direct. Unfortunately, CarOrder is now trying to protect that info, but you may still be able to get it.

Obviously the real attraction is the price, and between the introductory pricing (I just snuck in before they abandoned invoice pricing) and the fact that back then they showed the sport and cold-weather packages and Pelican Blue paint being no-cost options (!), the price they've committed to is about $2K under invoice!!

Still, if I were going to place another order right now, I wouldn't hesitate going with CarOrder. $700 over invoice is better than any price you'll get from a dealer, and I can't see any advantage to negotiating with a dealer. Same car, same order time, same warranty. And then there's the coffee mug, the post-its, the road atlas, the t-shirt.....