irenesbob

Look at the positive side - you don't have to live here. lol

Seriously, I hope you are OK after hearing about the earthquake.

nzaudia6

Have you thought about importing a brand new car from the UK? We are in the process of bringing in a 2013 Mercedes E Class custom-specced and factory built for about $60k less (landed incl gst and compliance etc) than the equivalent car here.

The local dealers have been price gouging for years by not passing on the exchange rate savings.

PM me if you would like a UK contact

kiwilester

That's true :-) Although I am coming to the States in September for a month on vacation. My ride will be a 25 ft RV, 7 litre V10 engine that does 8 mpg!

Kind of you to ask about the quake. I live about 25km north of Wellington so we certainly enjoyed a bit of rock and roll, but happy to report that no damage was done at home. I did get a day off work as the office building had to be checked by stuctural engineers, but sadly it was OK too :-)

kiwilester

I did think about that, as a work colleague had done the very same thing with his brand new A6 last year - indeed he's just ordered another one by the same method!

For various reasons I decided not to go ahead with it though - in particular I was concerned about the attitude of the local Audi dealer to the car, as I intend to keep this one for a very long time and need to build an enduring relationship with them.

I agree about the dealers pocketing the margin while the exchange rate is in their favour, although I guess that cuts both ways in the longer term. They do have to maintain the support infrastructure on a much smaller base of sales. In a moment of boredom the other day I looked up sales figures for 2012 - Audi sold 78 A6s in NZ that year :-)

irenesbob

This country is vast and has lots of manmade and natural stuff to see. One good thing is the cost of gasoline here is pretty reasonable comapred to a lot of other places. What part of the US will you be exploring?

kiwilester

We're flying into New York and doing the conventional tourist thing there, then down to Philadelphia by train, pick up a rental car and go to Gettysburg (long standing desire of mine to visit the battlefield - I'm a history geek :-)), then Washington DC and on to the historic sites in Virginia before picking up the RV in Manassas. Next 18 days will be a big loop covering the eastern half of the States - we plan to do the western half on a second trip at some stage. So up to Chicago, then Minneapolis, and then essentially southwards down the Mississipi (meandering back and forth a bit) to New Orleans, turn left, through the southern states, up through the Carolinas and back where we started. Fly home from Dulles :-)

At the moment my new car is scheduled for delivery whilst I'm in New York, but I'm hoping the date will come left once the shipping details have been sorted so that I can pick it up before departure.

Juan D Alvarez

Yea it comes out to roughly 10% off MSRP, but the real kicker is no taxes and i get to drive it where it was meant to be driven... the Autobahns!

jr'sAudiA6

Yea yea yea, don't rub it in, lol. I have driven the autobahn before back in the early 80's. Would certainly love to do so again with my A6.

teelo

you got a fantastic deal. Dealers in my area will not offer audi care free or discounted after ACNA discount. The best I got was the 6% plus free all weather mats thrown in & this was for a 2014 S6.

snagitseven

I'm not doubting you but it's surprising as the math doesn't work for the dealer. Even with the $599 fee, after you subtract about $375 for half of the AC cost to the dealer, they sold the car essentially at cost. Audi does not do holdbacks; there are at times dealer incentives available for meeting qutotas, etc. but these are not applied to any specific car.

Since a dealer couldn't stay in business unless they, at the least, cover all their expenses over time (i.e. property costs, utilities, salaries, commissions, advertising, etc., etc.), Being involved in the retail business for over 40 years, I find it very puzzling how they can sell a new, intro model year car at invoice cost with no profit-making trade involved. And dealer inventory reduction needs can't be a factor on a new car order. I guess it's possible for a one-off transaction to a relative or a close friend but to the general public, it just doesn't make sense. Last time I checked, Audi dealers were not found to be charitable organizations.