Bada Bing

To be specific, if you are to order a B8 A4 2.0T about a year from now for June delivery, would you be able to get any discount beyond the 5% ED discount? It seems like if you took a car from dealer inventory toward the end of the model year, you would get more than 5% off MSRP ($2K off on a $40K car).

On my ED BMW 335i order, I got 11.8% off MSRP which is well above the 7% ED discount BMW offers. Many BMW dealers negotiate up from ED invoice price. Just wondering if Audi dealers have any incentive to offer anything beyond the 5% discount.

ebusch

While Audi doesn't have a separate ED invoice price like BMW, but they do pay the dealer 3% of the invoice price as a commission on ED sales. The dealer does't receive floorplan assistance, reserve, advertising, etc. but because of that commission, anything above 97% of the invoice price is profit for the dealer.

K2audi

are not comitted to a certain dealer, shop around.

Bada Bing

Judging by the miniscule amount of activity on this board, it doesn't seem like ED has caught on with the Audi crowd, perhaps partly because AoA still limits it to purchases. I am also not sure why one has to leave a deposit for VAT. I have never heard of BMW buyers/lesses having to do this. In any case, I will woryy about the VAT issue latser on. I will take your advice and shop around for a little better deal.

miwim

when i did it on May 07 pickup, I was the first one in my dealer that did it and the process was not as smooth as it can be (and don't work with Kathy Bliss, she is really bad at contacting you back)

The_Clear

But I agree regarding the VAT. Another point is that there is a 1,000 euro deductible for comprehensive coverage for Audi, reportedly it's 0 for BMW though I can't find it documented.

PKV

"...anything above 97% of the invoice price is profit for the dealer."

This is an interesting point here, and I think it deserves further discussion: if the dealer gets commission on any ED sale over 97% of *invoice*, then it should be absolutely possible to negotiate discounts well beyond 5%, assuming the dealer ED invoice-to-MSRP markup is larger than 5%. For sake of apples-to-apples comparison, a BMW 335i Coupe has a 17% markup on ED invoice to regular MSRP. That is to say that the everyday MSRP of the car is 17% higher than the ED invoice price a dealer would be held to by BMW corporate (whether BMWNA or another entity) before taking dealer profit into consideration.

Assume the markup on a TTS is in fact 15% between "ED invoice" and regular MSRP (we know Audi does not differentiate between ED invoice and regular invoice, but this is where the extra 3% is baked in, I presume). The MSRP of a base TTS is currently $45,500, which would put the theoretical "ED invoice" price at $39,585. Assuming the dealer sells at the base 5% ED discount, the dealer makes $4,828 on an ED sale, calculated as follows: [$45,500 MSRP * (1 - 5% ED Discount) ] - [$39,585 ED Invoice * 97% "profit point" ]. Final calculations are [$43,225 - $38,397 = $4,828]

Unless my math is crazy, which is tends to be from time to time, the profit to dealers is absolutely incredible, as long as the Audi ED program is similar to BMW's in that the car in question does not come out of the dealer's annual allocation. BMW ED final profits to dealer are regularly calculated in the range of $800 - $1,200 depending on model, all based on ED Dealer Invoice Price. In other words (just to be clear), the ED invoice price of a 335i coupe is $35,935 (though the advertised ED price post discount is $39,060) -- at the end, one would offer the dealer $36,935, which is the ED Invoice + $1,000 "profit to dealer".

I think this warrants discussion if for no other reason than to clarify similarities and differences between BMW and Audi ED program structures. Right now, the 5% Audi ED discount is not apples-to-apples vis a vis the BMW program; BMW effective discounts can be as high as 12-15%, since the confidential dealer invoice prices are so widely distributed to the public, which allows a bare-minimum profit to be squeezed out of the dealers. At the end of the day, though, an ED sale results in pure bonus ($800 - $1,200) since it does not come out of the dealer's allocation -- therefore the dealer doesn't have to be concerned about not having sold the same car to some non-ED schmuck willing to pay full MSRP.

Has anyone been successful in pushing the discount > 5% (especially above the 10% mark), considering the relative nascence of Audi's ED program? Do dealers fully understand the benefits (both on a small and big-picture) of the program at this point? If 10% ED discounts are possible, then it's a no-brainer whether to go for a 335i coupe or a TTS, but if they stick to the 5%, then I see no point in shelling out that kind of cash for minimal savings at the end of the day.