Figures taken from AW news postings on August and September sales for 2008.

The August drop off isn't too surprising given the inventory bleed off and the general knowledge of the new 2009s being just around the corner.

<img src="http://www.audiworld.com/news/08/audi-usa-aug08-sales/header.jpg">

And the September year to year comps likely reflect limited availability in the first month of release for the B8 A4, so the 11%-ish drop isn't too surprising either.

<img src="http://www.audiworld.com/news/08/audi-usa-sep08-sales/header.jpg">

But what will October hold? Overall AoA sales are down about 4% for the year and another price hike imminent (a whole three weeks into model availability!) it looks like Audi has decided to forgo lube and just take it. Ooof.

as much as a A4 2.0T Premium Plus. I priced out an A3 without Nav for around 36K.

<ul><li><a href="http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2008/09/03/098526.html">http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2008/09/03/098526.html</a</li></ul>

doing for the year so far?

<a href="http://www.autoblog.com/category/by-the-numbers/">Click -- (autoblog by the numbers) </a>

Down toward the bottom they have auto companies as opposed to just brands (BMW group vs. just BMW at the top...) Audi was down "only" 5.1% last month.

The $30K hatch market is a tough one and, like you mentioned, a really nicely appointed A3 goes north of $30K quickly.

<ul><li><a href="http://www.autonews.com/section/DATA">http://www.autonews.com/section/DATA</a</li></ul>

They have a problem starting next year since it seems they like to compare year over year as opposed to month over month. If you look at from a month over month, it spells disaster.

I suspect they will lower their pricing Nov1. It takes min 45 days for the new pricing to cycle through the market which would put January on target for the new pricing to take affect.

Dollar is strengthening against Euro so Germany can more easily lower pricing without taking the hit they would have 2-3 months ago had hey lowered their pricing. In fact, the pricing you see today is based on a Euro of 1.55 meaning every US dollar they make, they only got 65 cents Euro. Today they will get 75 cents euro back, and in 2 months they likely will get $1.05 euro back for every dollar, provided the Euro keeps sinking. Remember, a strong dollar is good for an oversees company that sells in this country. Another way to look at it, a weak dollar is great for europeans to come and buy stuff here for cheap.

followed by Mini and Volkswagen. These three were the only brands not to have suffered a double digit drop in September sales. Even Toyota posted a 30% drop in sales for September.

Hummer and Volvo were the biggest losers in September; both posted sales drops in excess of 50%!

Are there really R8's just sitting around these days? Everyone that I've seen at dealers were sold cars, including the ones at the dealers that I visited in Germany.

Almost double the amount sold in August 08 vs August 07.

The tightening credit markets is severely hampering automobile sales in the U.S. Autonews is reporting that 2 out of every 5 dealerships will fail in 2009!

Chrysler Financial dropped leasing on August 1 and GMAC has curtailed new leasing agreements. Without any credit facilities in place, most individuals simply cannot purchase a new automobile. Even, Toyota with its cash rich balance sheet is facing issues with the credit markets.

What's even more scary is that the credit markets did not tighten significantly until the final week of September. I can't imagine what the October numbers will be.