There are no lease deals on A3's and they will be selling at MSRP.... good financing though 2.9% up to 36 months and 4.9% up to 60 months.

So unless you pay cash for the car it might change less that $20 in your payments....

only 543 sold nationwide so far, that only a tad over 10 per state in 6 weeks, pretty pad.

My dealership has only sold one as well, 6 others sitting on the lot.

And they only started selling in late April, so that's 689 units in a little over six weeks.

I thought they were only planning to sell 6,000 this year. If so, they're already 10% into their goal with just under eleven months to go.

Is that really that bad?

and that most people don't even know the car exists yet, I think they should meet their goals.

In the end though, Alex is right, even if the dealer makes no money on the deal, it's only about $20 a month in payments. And although a penny saved is a penny earned, if somebody is worried about $20 a month on the purchase or lease payments, then they shouldn't be looking at any car in this price range.

Also keep in mind that the salesperson makes about 20% of that $1400 profit margin - and are on 100% commission with no base pay. They sell anywhere between 12 to 20 cars a month, depending on time of year and inventory. If they are a factory trained ABS (Audi Brand Specialist), they must take unpaid time for training. An average deal takes between 3 and 8 hours when you add in multiple visits with test drives, phone calls, follow-up, perhaps doing a dealer trade or ordering the car, and finally the delivery. That's not a lot when you consider many salespeople must work weekends, evenings, and holidays - often 6 days a week and 60 to 80 hrs, to make those numbers. So whenever the average person has time off, the salesperson is working. If they don't do that, they don't meet you (or anyone else since the rest of the world works more conventional hours), and they don't have a chance to make a deal. Most Audi salespeople who are any good, graduate to selling Porsche, simply because they can make a decent living doing that. Selling Audis means barely scraping by unless you are willing to have absolutely no life. I know of 5 crack people who have left Audi sales, 2 who have moved to other higher end brands, and another 2 who are looking to get out.

Beyond that, the remaining profits go back into the dealer to improve the facility, hire new staff, train staff, and perhaps supply perks like loaners, etc. Often dealers will hold back the best perks for customers who purchased at that store.

With barely any advertising.. I'd say they are on par.

And the sales numbers.. they said 6000 cars this year.. did they mean model year though or actual calender year?

I have a lot of friends looking for cars. I was up front the whole time, polite and the salesman was the top salesperson for his dealership. We got to chatting and he knew of my situation and whatnot. (this is a audi/vw/porsche/MB dealership btw) and so he went to work and got back to me in two days with that deal.

Regardless, he mentioned that it was a new dealership that was trying to drum up business so immediately I referred to my two other friends to check them out (one friend looking for a Carrera Coupe and another waiting for a 2.0T DSG Jetta). Two days after he quoted me that $150 price, all three of us went down there and talked to him about our respective cars. It was the least painful negotiations / sales experience i've been through. Definetely though, by treating me right, he has been given an opportunity to make two more sales.

Dave

as far as advertising, i've seen newspaper and tv, and plenty of web now.

if a dealership is only moving a few a month, that is not good. I know summer is peak selling season, but with gas still high and the economy teetering back and forth, I wouldn't expect a surge like normal.

Remember that a lot of people are also special ordering their cars, so we won't see those deals come to fruition for another couple of months at least.

few years to catch on with the general public, and inventory was incredibly scarce. In '97 to '99, we rarely had any A4s on the lot at all. They were all special ordered, and vanished as soon as they arrived. In '99 Audi changed some production aspects and increased allocation. Even then, we sometimes had shortages of desirable drivetrain combos from the factory, and then people snapping up cars on the order sheets, but not yet arrived.

So a couple of months into A3 sales some cars on the lot tells me three things:

1. Audi needs to keep pushing the advertising. Once people start seeing A3s on the street now and then, they will start to pay more attention.

2. It's not a flashy car that fashion victims or cult followers aspire to, so sales will slowly swell, not explode.

3. Audi is serious about supplying enough inventory to keep impulse buyers in the fold, and cars to demo on the lots.

We may end up looking back upon this time as the calm before the storm.

Seems to be getting quite a bit of attention :)

On the way to work this morning a guy drove a GTI past me and was staring in his side view mirror and then turned his head completely around to look at the front of the car. He looked like he was trying to figure out what the hell it was!

Add fee?
Inspection?
Delivery?
Port?
Other extras?
Low-balled trade-in?
They've got to be making it somewhere...