Hello A4 Folks.<br>Just recently purchased a passat wagon for my wife. Can't stay out of the car, absolutly love it. My questions to the A4 folks are these. There is not a great deal of difference in price in the base models for both cars. 1.8T standard transmission...blah blah blah... Can you buy a standard A4? Are they available? I paid 3% over invoice for the passat. Can you get a comparable deal on the A4? The only option that I would want on the A4 is leather. Is this possible to do without adding any other add-ons? Personally I like the A4 sedan much better, and they seem to be more plentiful than the Passat. Thank you for your time.<p>Jeff Cahall<br>

The cost of a base model A4 1.8T (no options) is ~$23,500. As for the % over invoice, I think the best I've heard here is 5%. And leather is not an option on the 1.8T, but you can settle for the letterette (looks and feels like the real thing). Also, it is very hard to find an A4 without any options, so you may have to order it and wait a few months for it to arrive. <p>Cris

I did a little less than 3% over invoice for an A42.8M 98.5, in July, so it can be done. I'd reckon people regularly do better.<p>That said, my company's CEO - who'd bragged like crazy about the GREAT deal he'd done for the same car back in '96 (less than 1% over invoice), is now singing a different tune. He just went for a new lease on the same car; got about 5% over invoice for a 99.<p>Granted, we had different parameters - mine was a straight buy, no lease, no trade. His was a car coming off of lease and a lease. FWIW.<p>--Greg<p>P.S. They offered us $8.5K for a car we sold, in less than a week, for $13.5K. Look for the rip-off in the trade. We actually sold my old car _before_ the Audi was ready for pickup.<p>

So it is understandable that VWs can be bought closer to invoice price than Audis. I got 3.9% over invoice on a 2.8qM in July and feel I got a good deal.

The base price is close indeed.<br>But you cannot get real leather on the 1.8T, only the leatherette (IMHO a poor substitute, which is way I ordered the cloth seats). In case you don't know, that's Audi speak for vinil. As for the price, you can probably get within 5% over invoice relatively easy.<br>You will likely have to order a car with no options (like I did) and it will be long and frustrating (very frustrating) - set aside around 4 months (if everything goes well) and don't let the dealer tell you it will take less, cause usually it won't.<p>Hope you decide to get one even without leather - drive one with the Sports package and you'll understand :)

The deal I got my mom on her 1.8T was $24,000 even. This included sport package, sunroof, manual trans, remote locking, front drive w/traction control, cloth-(Audi has the best cloth you have ever seen), power everything, and some other goodies. A great looking car and safe to boot. If a 65 year old woman can feel the difference in how the A4 feels compared to say a Honda or a Toyota,(these are cars my mom called boring) how is it that the rest of the world is dead or just doesn't get it. Our gain I guess.