.

Their responsiveness had been very good until recently. They were supposed to have placed the order for a MY2000 over a week ago. I emailed to check status and they said they weren't sure if it had been ordered yet. Problem is, it could be sitting on a Caroder desk, or on the dealer's desk. I have asked for a status update and haven't heard from them in a couple of days. I plan on calling before the end of the week to see what's going on.
What type of "trouble" were you experiencing?

I've got an A4 2K on order and ended up working mostly with the dealer - University Audi in Seattle with the understanding CarOrder will be making up the difference in price. My main concern is that CarOrder will make good on its promise to do that when the car arrives next month!

The Dealer has been providing me status and answering some questions.

Eric

It is my understanding from dealing with them that CarOrder.com has no role between order of the car and the actual receipt of the car by the dealer. Also, the way their organization is setup, your rep has no good way to get information (your rep just deals with you....someone else deals with the dealer.) Best bet is to get the name of your actual dealer from CarOrder and contact him or her directly. This doesn't seem right, but there you have it.

I'm not getting the warm-fuzzies from carorder.com, despite all the free gifts, but I don't want to badmouth them - I'm still confident that I'm going to get my car, and I know the price is much lower than I could have negotiated for myself. As of now, if I had it to do over, I'd still go with carorder.

BTW, it was about 3 weeks between placing my order with CarOrder.com and my order being placed with Audi by the dealer.

Good Luck, and of course, your mileage may vary!

DougR '00 1.8TQMS (on *car* order)

I placed an order with carOrder on 9/14 (not an A4) and have received a t-shirt and a stainless steel commuter cup from them so far. Other than one email I got from my sales rep a couple of days after that, I have not gotten any kind of update even after an email and phone call from me. I understand they must be incredibly busy since they have very good prices (on the vehicle I ordered anyway). Since I'm in no huge hurry to get the new vehicle, I can wait a bit more. But still, it would be nice to know when I can get it. As long as the price quoted holds, I should be a happy camper.

P2....98.5 2.8QMS <---not on order!!!

This may or may not help.

When you call your dealer and "order" your car of choice, the dealer does not necessarily "order" your car that day. He may wait until the end of the month to place the actual "order".

For instance, I ordered our A4 on May 19 (that is the day I called the dealership with the okay). The dealer then waited almost two weeks before ordering their allotment. My order was actually placed with Audi around June 7.

Check with the dealer and find out when they submit their orders to Audi. You could wait a few days until they order, or, you could wait almost one month until they order. You would hate to miss it by just a few days.

This was my experience. Others may differ. Just my $.02

JR
1.8T qms Silver (picking it up on Oct. 9)

I placed 99 A4 order with them in late August. It took about 2.5 weeks till they found out that a car had to be ordered. They informed me about that and placed the order at the same time.

I told them I would like to add some options ( xenon, etc.), they said it's OK but they did not know the price yet. Less than a week later, as soon as they got the price, they called me and ask if I want those options or not. I was told it's a change order since the order had already been placed. I added the options and everything worked out smoothly. Also at that time, they told me the scheduled delivery date would be late Nov.

So far I am very satisfied with their service, and have nothing to complain about. Their reps are very busy, but they do return calls and emails promptly. However, they don't want you to contact dealer directly about your order.

Hiya,

The way I read it... CarOrder is a broker and nothing more. They will take care of business stuff like contacting the dealer(s) in your area, hooking up the initial order, and dealing with the financial obligations. In the end, your payment will go to CarOrder first, who will pay the dealer later. All my questions re: the business end of things (i.e. pricing) has been answered in a timely manner by my CarOrder rep. They might not be very knowledgable about the cars themselves as they handle many different models (I had to explain what SideGuard was to my rep, for instance. =)

The actual order/equipment/delivery info is handled by their local dealer affiliate. Usually, this person is a brand specialist (i.e. technically knowledgeable), unlike the CarOrder rep, who is simply an account manager of sorts. In my case, the dealer rep (David at Rector Cars) has been extremely helpful in answering my questions and verifying the actual order of my '00 car. In fact, the dealer rep contacted me about the need to order and options *before* the CarOrder rep did! I've touched base with them via email periodically and have managed to confirm an order number for now. I also checked in on details about getting the remote reprogrammed at delivery and the possibility of a swap on the wheels/rims... yes, I'm being a bit premature here. =)

Keep this in mind when you decide who to call. Good luck!

-e
Jaspis/Opal '00 A4 Avant 1.8T QTipS SG/X someday...

PS So far, i've received a t-shirt, insulated coffee mug, and mini-toolkit from CarOrder.com.... what else can they pack in before delivery? ;)

I'm not worrying either. CarOrder quoted me an invoice price on a 99.5 model which had to be ordered as a MY2000 car because of my options. The dealer, Rector, has my complete list of additional options that couldn't be ordered on the CarOrder web site (Xenon, Sideguard), so I'll get those when the car is delivered. Rector has also been updating me on the delivery date -- I'm looking at sometime in November. Things are going very smoothly, so I have no reason to be concerned.

Artie