EGainer

many audi residuals are 40-45% compared to bmw at 55-65%.

canyoncarver

Maybe you can provide some specific examples? I've never seen an Audi with a 40% residual for a 3 year 36K lease.

need_TQM

The only one I see that low is the A8 -- 40%.

The A4 is 45-52 depending on "trim" level.

Comparable BMW's :

A8 --> 750i is 50%, 760Li is 39%
A4 --> 328i is 59%

So BMW's are approximately 10% (give or take) higher residual vs. the BMW competition -- with the exception of the 760Li.

10% on a 40k car lease is probably better than $100/mo. When buying my car I found a comparably equipped BMW was more expensive than the A4, so that might eat some of the savings...

This is all from http://www.leasecompare.com/auto_lea...5ba4ba22ce1503

canyoncarver

That's interesting information. It's a pretty common practice for many manufacturer owned lease companies to puff up or inflate lease residuals in order to drive stronger sales through small lease payments.

I knew that German cars had lower residual value than Japanese but I had no idea that Audi had such poor resale, or, possibly because they refuse to pad their residual.

I've purchased all of my Audis outright and tend to drive them for for a long time so it's not really that big of a deal. Purchase or lease of any new car is a waste of money, the smartest thing to do is find a 2-3 year old car that some other sucker has paid the depreciation on and buy that (not that I ever follow this advice).

Then again there's nothing like having the latest and greatest.

Carangugi

IM A SUCKER! You point out my ideas exactly- get a 2-3 yr old well maintained A4 with low mileage for under $28k! Sounds great on paper and in my bank account!
BUT MY NEED FOR THE "LATEST AND GREATEST" could not be contained when I hit the dealership!!!!
I saw it there, parked with a big x-mas bow on it screeming my name- Brilliant black 2010 A4 Premium Plus w/ sport package 18" wheels, Nav/DVD, rear camera (which was a WOW for me at the time, but I never use it ,because I cant get used to it, LOL!!!) and B&O, all this for JUST $41,244 msrp!
But I was there for a certified used 2008 A4 with 23k miles for approx $28,999! With my trade in, that was an even trade with no out of pocket expense!
But NOOOOOOOOOOOO....I had to go with the bigger and better!!!
So now, the sucker here has a $12K balance with AUDI!

BUT I LOVE THE CAR! SO GO FIGURE!