I wonder if that's the only way I'll be able to get a B8 Avant with a manual?

In the US that is.

I'm so pissed right now.

...and forgetting about their customer, and that they are in fact a car company first and foremost that should concentrate on offering inspiring cars rather than the next quarterly report.

. . .the bitching and moaning customers (and I used to be one) don't pay the bills; quite the contrary, they (we) make the cars possibly more expensive.

Time and again AUDI has been responsive to the vocal minority -- remember the A6's brought to market with manuals?

The amount of manuals was a fraction of that.

The potential sales figures (based on several years of data that doesn'lie) outweigh possible positives from the S4 Avant.

<ul><li><a href="http://forums.audiworld.com/canada/threads/16109.phtml#128205">"its over a year away"</a></li></ul>

I am part of the public. and I dont want one.

versus something less "cool" but many people will buy? You're not familiar with the rules of business are you?

As others have said... the S4 Avant (manual AND Tip) the past years have been getting less and less, getting into the low hundreds nation-wide last year.

assuming the next S4 has a turbo V6 with decent mileage instead of the V8, and given the B8's larger interior dimensions, the B8 S4 avant could make a compelling SUV alternative to a lot more customers.

but I also had 2 A4's and 2 A6's.

the Avant was th minority. And I probably wont buy another avant.

and willing to pay? It is somehow related to certification/crash test/etc, which requires additional spending from Audi without being sure they will compensate it with certain number of sales? If bringing sedan - why not bringing avant? Ship does not care what's on it...

I understand why they may don't want to bring manual transmission - because then all dealers will need to know how to fix it. But avant vs sedan...

All this noise we make doesn't pay the bills.

I wrote letters, I argued long and loud -- often about manual transmissions -- and even when Audi apparently did bring them to market, they gathered dust and rust on the dealer's lots.

Ultimately they were discounted and no matter what the dealers did they found these cars difficult to move and even more difficult to floor plan.


My dealer tried strippies and fully loaded sticks, A6's, allroads, and even S4's--I was loaned an S4 when my car was in for service: it was a stick. They had to put the sticks (and few of them, at that) in the rental fleet to somehow pay for them.

"Nobody" despite our bitching and moaning buys these things in any numbers sufficient to justify the expense of certifying them for the US market.

I fear the same fate could befall diesel Audis -- for in the US, diesel fuel is still not widely available. The cost of diesel is over $4.00 and lots of folks know or care little about clean diesel, weapons grade torque and can not justify the added expense of the diesel plus the fuel cost for a 3 year lease.

Audi is brining "what the people want to PAY for to the US."

If "we all" would put our money where our mouths are, now, THAT would make a difference.

(like me) think they suck. At least SUV's can look sporty, but there is no way a minivan can look at all interesting. Just my $.02.

year, 4000 were Avants. I'll leave you with your thoughts.

You just can't call an Avant a "station wagon".

The unruly mob of 400 Americans who actually bought one last year will hunt you down and kill you. ;-)

. . .opinion may be to those who do want one, you are the overwhelming super majority.

Were I in charge, and constrained by capitalism, I would do what AoA does, too.

Customer gets what they want.
Dealers don't have to sit on them.

Win Win in my opinion.

I just don't get it.

That costs ALOT of money.

Given the current state to the Dollar's value relative to the Euro is just isn't practical for Audi to do it.

It comes down to money. It sucks, but it's reality.

I'd totally go for an A4 2.0T Avant Quattro Manual (basically the newer version of my 2006 Manual Avant 2.0T)...but it's not offered in a manual.

Why on earth wouldn't they let me order that.
How difficult would it be to just offer the manual in the 2.0T for special order only?

I guess I'll have to stick with my 2006 A4 2.0T Avant Quattro Manaul Sport. Could be worse.

I wonder if this will cause the value of my car to hold?

If sales were up 10%, they'd be celebrating...

if they found it to be profitable to bring that model over here they would. But it looks like dealers have a hard time selling them.

but only sold in Europe, it would be a hot car if sold over here...

are funny!

Makes no sense, so I think it's just a dumb excuse. There's no reason an S4 Avant, which is structurally similar to the A4 Avant, can't be brought here cost-effectively enough. Especially not in some way that they can't at least offer them for factory order if they are so concerned about them sitting on the lot.

You can wish about it all you want, but the fact is that all powertrain variants must be separately certified and more importantly crash tested, which is where it gets *really* expensive. Crash certifying a car uses up something like 10 vehicles.

While it may not make intuitive sense, changing even small things cam make a difference in how the car fares in testing. For example, in the euro C5 A6, there is a cubby in the drivers knee bolster which is missing in the US version because that area is taken up by an additional deformable crash brace. So even things like trim items (which might be different from an A4 to an S4 for example) could conceivably have to be re-engineered to make a car certifiable in the US.

As another example, the RS4 avant could not pass US crash standards because it had the battery in cargo area. A seemingly small thing, but it was enough to sink that whole ship.

Long story short, there is a LOT that goes into certification and it is NOT cheap, all wishful thinking aside.