markcincinnati

Just wondering if you know the reason dealers in large 2nd tier cities -- such as mine, Cincinnati -- don't carry, in stock, examples of Audi's best and greatest flavors of their cars (the obvious reason, I assume is that "demand is infintessimally low)?

If the sole reason is low demand, so be it. Yet, even if that is so, is it just Audi prospective customers who wouldn't care to see, feel and drive A4's (or whatever) that were the finest example of the mfgr's art?

Our primary local BMW store (we have two Bimmer and two Audi and two Mercedes dealerships), called, The BMW Store, always seems to have available for a test drive, a "high content" model or two representative of the line. Audi, on the other hand, rarely has anything other than relatively stripped models -- even in the showroom. And, with my hand to god, I have never seen an SLine or Prestige with Sport on display or even marked, SOLD.

I asked my dealer, "how many cars do you sell per year" -- he said, "about 600 new ones." Now, I guess that must be pretty small in the scheme of things, but we have two dealerships in Cincinnati -- so perhaps 1,000 are sold annually.

I am not asking you to speculate about Cincinnati, for all I know, Cincinnati is an anomaly -- but I do travel a fair amount and I am always on the look out for Audi dealers and my observation does seem to be accurate.

What gives -- in your opinion?

Oh yes, this is also out of line with what seems to be the case at the Mercedes and Cadillac and Infiniti dealers, too -- they always seem to have a Dark Cherry Pearl Luxury II with advanced nav system available on a moment's notice to test drive. Then if you want one in diamond white waka waka pearl-dazzle, they have one of them too "and would you like that with teak or walnut, sir?"

coolnesh

Good observation Mark.... I notice that too... I have seen that in NJ, with 4 different dealers.

It seems they don't have any 'decked out' versions almost all are the very basic and/or common ordered options.

John Thacker

One word: Volume. Audi sold 6,407 vehicles in the USA in July 2009, a year on year decrease of 5.4% from 2008. Audi has sold 44,252 vehicles through July in 2009, compared to 51,827 for the same time period in 2008.

Now let's look at BMW. BMw's sold 16,381 BMWs in the USA in July 2009, a year on year decrease of 31.5% from the 23,914 in July 2008. BMW has sold 109,944 through July in 2009, a 29.3% decline from 155,427 through July in 2008.

So while Audi is doing a very nice job catching up in market share, the result is that after a very good year BMW only outsells Audi 2.5 to 1 in the USA, instead of 3 to 1. The automobile manufacturer with the greater sales volume is going to be able to have a greater variety of cars on the lot.

It's the same reason BMW sales more a la carte options in the US, whereas Audi has more packages, even though in Europe it's different and Audi sells nearly everything a la carte.

John Thacker

Oops, messed up the links using Quick Reply.
Audi July Sales

BMW July Sales

AofC_RR

It's a matter of what sells. I can tell you this much it's the end of the model year and if you poke around a bit you'll notice most of what's left are either LOADED cars or colors that are not silver, gray, black.
I saw your thread about S-lines. Audi had S-lines on SOLD ORDER ONLY status almost the entire model year. So there were very few made. The new packaging structure also leads to a change in volumes of what is sold. Prestige cars are Slow sellers. Perhaps some sales are missed by the lack of these configurations in inventory because many people have no desire to pay for shipping to get what they want. Also many people that bought S-lines in the B7 were buying a much less expensive car. Now you have drop well over 44k to get an S-line. Heck for 09 you could spec a 55 grand 3.2 A4 and that just did not make sense.
Could just be a regional thing on the sport package cars. We usually stock a few at a time. But those are usually Prem Plus or Prem cars with sport packages because again that's what sells.
Audi also determines how many cars a dealer gets per year. So they might say you get 8 S5s this year. Hence there wouldn't be one laying around the whole year.
Then FINALLY a store's inventory is reflective of the sales manager who orders and company's style. For example my boss likes cool cars so we get a ton of black cars with sport packages and they sell.
Stock what sells, it's as simple as that. Many of our cars are lower volume so you're not going to find more than one at a time on most lots.
Then you have to keep in mind we sell cars so we might get in XYZ car but it's gone in 72 hours. I had a guy call me we had leased an Avant to saying he had turned in his lease and got another Avant elsewhere because we never seemed to carry Avants. Well if he'd asked I could have told him we get them all the time we just sell them quickly.

markcincinnati

I guess I'll continue to order the car I want and enjoy the "anticipation." I will, however, add one thing -- "typically" ordered cars seem to command a higher off MSRP discount.

My friend who sold his dealership to the now named Audi Connection here in Cincinnati, told me that he does not have to "floor plan" an ordered car, so there is more margin to discount. He remarked to me that he sold a lot more Porsches than Audis that were custom ordered -- and that his expenses (pro rated, etc) were lower overall with ordered cars and that in an ideal world, he would stock ONLY demos, none for sale and take orders for cars -- prices would go down, costs would go down, and some of the vicissitudes of the months and seasons would be smoothed, thus allowing a more predictable revenue and income stream.

That, in the US, is mostly a dream. Folks like to get up on a Saturday morning and go car shopping -- and if possible "git 'er done."

I'd be that way too, I'd imagine, if I could pick from what I wanted in local or regional inventory.

Interesting that our AW dealer sales rep member indicates his boss likes to order "cooler cars" -- AND they do sell. Assuming there is more profit in a sport package equipped version, why not order 2 of them for inventory, instead of 0 and see if people would consider stepping up to the TRANSFORMED A4.