call to dealer today to test the waters on when to order B8 Avant for delivery in October. == "No orders accepted for a month. Earliest delivery December." Riiiiiight...

I placed the order for my A4 at the end of May 2001 and it was delivered around the middle of August 2001. I figure that process remains pretty much the same. Call another dealer if there are others in your area - there may be allocation issues at play.

Meant to reply to Hokie_Audi below:

When you bought yours, the B5 was already toward the end of its lifespan, so production was already fully set up for it. From being on these boards for a good while, I've seen the pre-orders run into the most delays.

Go look at the S5/A5 boards for the most recent examples. IMHO, that's the most whacked-out launch I have ever seen on a new model. Build up a buzz, then see it fade because there isn't any product on the ground. Waiting lists for over a year on S5 tips. Allocations/month/dealer of one or none for S5, a handful for A5. Wait times that have been stretched from three months to 12. You might get an Aston sooner than that (a friend got his in 11 months, a little under the quoted year). Granted the S5 is not a bread-and butter car, but you would think the launch would go BETTER because of the lower volumes.

I'm definitely taking this one with a grain of salt. ;-)