Hello everyone

It's just a thought, lets say if we have more than 50 people interested....

1. Contact different Audi US dealerships to pre-arrange sales persons onsite at dealership
2. Book one day return bus trip from Canada to US
3. Thruout the day, Visit several Audi dealerships in US/Canada border
4. At each dealership

- Meet and greet
- They know we are serious Canadian buyer
- We are ready for serious bargain
- Place group order for additional discount

5. Bulk pre-order all necessary parts via these dealerships to fulfill import requirements
6. Same day, bus returns to Canada

7. Arrange accountant/book keeping company to process all of our puchases, this includes completing all paper work and submission to RIV canada.

8. OK, When all of our ordered vehicles arrived at dealership.
9. Arrange logistics company to pickup all the cars

10. Arrange bus trip to Canada border
11. Accountant/Logistic/Owners all meet at border
12. Pay and Clear custom
13. Take the bus back home

14. Logistic company drop off car right at your door
15. Every owner then process their own license and stuff

In this case

- You dont need to drive new car from US to Canada
- You dont need to process an paper work
- You dont need to buy from Canada
- Your saving from buying US can cover you all these

Doable ?

when the dealerships in Canada close, you can all drive together and service them in the US.
Great idea Einstein!

get their **** together then. If we can save $20+K on a car, why wouldn't we do it. We would be stupid not to, unless money grows on trees in your world. Porsche has done it (though still not even close to what it costs south of the border), and all the other manufacturers need to follow suit.

The only thing is, I doubt US dealerships will sell new cars to Canadian customers and if they do, I'm sure Audi will soon void all the warranties or pull some stupid **** like that. Look for a lightly used car from the US, or get a friend in the US to buy it, title it, then sell it to you. It's a hassle but likely worth it in the end.

Sorry, but that's my opinion and I'm sure many will disagree. Flame away.

many dealers and negotiate with each one, or you do the deal with one dealer, and then accept deliveries will be spread over time.

I used to work at a pretty large dealer in Southern California and we got maybe 40 cars a month in allocation. I understand allocation levels have been raised for dealers who can do more volume, but you are talking about wiping out a large portion of inventory for a month - if you all can agree to take the blend of A3s, TT, A4, A6, A8, and Q7 that the dealer gets at any one time. They don't get to dictate what models they can order - just options, colours, etc. So they might get 15 A4s. Of those, maybe 1 V6, the rest 2.0T, and an Avant in one flavour or another every other month. Same goes for other models. Sure, you can take what is already on the lot, and you can have the dealer arrange for a search of inventory nationwide via a special dealer-only intranet, but that is a ticklish business and of course you incurr shipping costs just to get it to your US dealer for conversion and processing. And then the cars will either pile up at the dealer waiting for more cars to arrive (in which case the dealer is going to want to be paid), or you have multiple parts orders (they aren't going to stockpile parts for long), trucking arrangements, customs events, etc.

That overlooks the fact that dealers in the US tend to make rather small margins, so they anticipate most of their profits to come from servicing the cars, in which case they have no desire to see such a sizeable chunk of allocation vanish from their area. There may be some form of wrath from AoA too, which the dealer will have to face.

One of you will need to be the leader, finding this accountant, customs agent, a list of potential dealers, the bus charter, a trucking company if the dealer doesn't have one that goes over borders, and perhaps playing banker as all these cars will have to be purchased, not leased, and the dealer may decide to let none go until they have been paid in full for all (after all, the cars will vanish over the border).

By the time you pay for the bus, pay for parts and mechanics to install them, accountant(s), customs broker(s), and trucking company, reduced resale from an out-of-country car, local dealer ill will and Audi of Canada ill will when it comes to servicing the car, it might not be worth the hassle.

While there are some savings to be had, they need to balanced with what you give up - time, hassle, resale, warranty coverage, and lack of pull with your local dealer if and when Audi Canada does stop hedging like mad and creates prices that reflect the current exchange rates. They will probably take you more seriously if you go in individually or as 2 or 3 people (dealers know order customers are notoriously flakey and at least 20% drop off), so they can get a feel for your personalities.

It would really suck it you went to all this trouble just to find out that the car is almost the same price in Canada.

If more people just stopped buying Audi cars in Canada it would speed up the price correction.

to Canadians.... I don't know about you but I don't have 60k sitting around that I want to dump into a car. And if you get your own financing here, you'll be paying through the nose.

It's still doable but that must be taken into account.

The whole thing with multiple bus trips and booking multiple dealerships is all a dream IMO. Nobody will do that... at least I won't. If I was to do it, I would do it all over the phone and fly down, pick up the car and drive it back... the way most people do it from what I have heard.

Lowered their prices on new cars this year.

And I also agree with you that Audi and other car manufacturers are caught in a catch 22 situation... If they lower their new car prices too low then people are going to bitch when trade in time comes around with very depreciated used car values.

And again let us not forget that when our Looney was very low to the USD, Audi and others were artificially keeping their car prices low in Canada (subsidizing Canadian buyers) because there was no way that the US retail and Canadian retail matched the ten 40 to almost 50% exchange rate.

For those that want to buy a new car south of the border that's your right and choice but don't expect top notch service from a Canadian dealer afterwards.

Myself I'm more interested in the used Porsch market down south... Come on let me see if I can find a red Cayman S with PCCBs and Chrono package.

... first thing I'd be asking myself, is, wtf am I doing with that money just sitting around!!

borrowing.

It'll make your head spin if you drag it out for 5 years.

A lot of Canadians in my company that are working in the US buy cars and then import them back. A lot cheaper. Warranty and everything stands.

Audi may void a warranty for future purchases after making that decision, but it could/would be illegal to alter a sales agreement for warranty and support after someone has already purchase (but I'm sure all these big corporations have some covering clause to let them do it).

Imagine all the Canadians in Hollywood. No one is denying them a car sale.

Q7's base price went from $62,900 to $59,800 and the price as well as the content of the options makes more sense and it's priced better for 2008.
The A4 is probably the one with the most savings. In the last 2 years we've been using pretty much the same base price, with the difference that we are including extas such as; sunroof and 17" wheels. Now we have the A4 SE wich is even better.
We have to work more on the A3 and A6, the price for them hasn't changed much in the last 2 years.
2008 A8's prices are not out y also improvedet. I have a feeling that the price for it will drop quite a bit.
TT is priced the same as it was in 2005 and 2006.
Audi Canada has also improved the residual values for our cars.Trade in value has improved as well.

Always kept 50K or so in her chequing account, and 5K in cash at home "for emergencies".

This will never happen on a mass scale so I'm not sure why you're bitter about it.

a) they need to have "cash" for the purchase
b) they have to be willing to go through all the trouble, which 99% of people are not willing to do.
c) Audi Canada's sales have been increasing despite weak US dollar.

Canadian customers, but there is no doubt that they sell the cars with or without AoA consent.

50% will take a loooooong time to even out.

Was at the printer to pick something up here and somebody decided to print off their last month statement on their TD chequing account. Low -420, high 2200 LOL.

They will have huge problems with AoA if they decide to sell 50 brand new cars to Canada, especially if Canadian dealers raise havoc...which they will and rightfully so.

Single car sales will slip through and thats the only way to bring them in. If you want to do so, I'd suggest you do it now because its not too long before AoA forbids dealers from selling outside of US. Its still doable but if dollar vs. price ratio continues to improve in our favor, that door will close.

I know this is a delicate topic, but is there someone that has done this recently that can share their experience?

I have contacted a US dealership and the response I got was:

"I don't know how other dealers handle this but it against the Audi franchise agreement to sell cars for export. When you purchase a car here you would sign a non-export agreement that is good for at least a year. We have had customers sign this agreement and export the car anyway, however, Audi checks and we were held accountable."

long distance deals. Most shy away from them as they fall apart at some point. 50 of them? That would scare off most dealers unless they are on the ball or sleezeballs. The trick would be to seperate the two ;-)

You would also have to modify the car to meet Canadian standards (eg. add daytime running lights, gauges with km/hr, etc.).

The US drivers license is sufficient proof of US residency (even if you file as a non-US resident for tax purposes since the classifications are determined differently).

AoA will also allow you to use the VIN of your Canadian Audi for certain discounts applied to previous Audi owners.

It will also impact the AoA because they will not be able to re-sell the lease end cars for anywhere close to their residuals. I suppose anything can happen, but I don't think that the prices will drop that much within two years. Thats not to say that something else won't come into play to prevent Canadians from buying over the border.

When the order grew too big, it was more difficult to "keep it under the radar" from big brother so to speak.

Worth trying I guess. Better if someone on Audiworld works at a dealer!

cdn $ lease and the line of credit cost, since I'm sure AoC charges some interest on their leases.

Secondly, why wouldn't one - assuming they have this option - get a LOC on their house and pay prime rather than leverage the car.

Just sayin'

however, even 3 people would probably be worth it and would "slide under the radar".

By selling cars you bring in more potential service clients.

Given the choice between 10 new cars to service vs selling 10 cars that you couldn't service, which do you think the dealership would pick?