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What is going on with the residuals on Audis?!


gizze
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My old man has just got a dog again and wants to chop his 2005 S320cdi in for an estate, or dare I say, a 4x4.

He looked at the new ML320cdi and an X5 3.0D sport, the ML was £40k new (list £44k) and they would give a residual value of £22k after 3 years and 60k miles. The X5 is 3 months old and is also £40k (list £46k) and they would give a residual value of £24k after 3 years and 60k miles, even though it is an outgoing model.

I tried to talk him into looking at an A6 3.0TDi Quattro S-Line, new price is £44k with all the toys, the car is 3 months old with 6k miles on it advertised at £39k, I offered them £35k and with no trade in, there and then on the phone he said £37k. I said it was too much, next morning he called back and said he would do it for £36k.

OK, pretty good, Dad went to see the car and quite liked it, he then got Audi to do him a finance quote and it came out at nearly £800 a month! Why? Audi would not go above £11k on the residual for the car.

We called Lombard who we have an account with and they also said £10800 is as high as they would go, and that was with a mileage of 12k a year!!

On my 535d they would have gone to £22k after 4 years and 80k miles, bit of a difference.

So what's going on, he likes the car but he doesn't want to pay £200 more a month than he has been paying on his £55k Merc, and to be fair I can't blame him, the S Class is meant to be a depreciation nightmare, but this is a whole new level. confused.gif

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Audi Finance (VWFS) have changed there policy on RV's and final payments in the last 12 months. They have gone ultra conservative and the final payments in no way reflect the actual RV of the car. In Sept 04 the GFV of my 3.0TDi was set at £14500, which is still pretty conservative. Same deal now on the same car would only give £11000 as you have found out. I think that this change has been brought about partly due to customer reaction, as some people have been stung by high final payments, and partly due to the fact that Audi want to keep customers, and hold alot of stock in repeat business. Leaving people with a decent amount of equity at the end of their agreement, helps achieve this.

Lombard are probably following VWFS's lead. The A6 will never hold its value like a 4x4, so I am not suprised at the final payments on the ML and X5. The final payment on the 535 does suprise me, and I prehaps need to have a look at one of those.

BMW have very recently changed their tack as well. In December I was looking at a 330d M Sport, and the final payment was £18000. Same deal now and the final payment would be £14000.

It has more to do with repeatability, than RV's.

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To be fair though the BMW was £5k more to start with, but we are also talking about having 80k miles on the BMW after 4 years compared with 36k miles on the A6 after 3 years.

Problem is people generally look at what it costs them each month, and they are walking away when they shouldn't be. I just sold a 2.5 year old A6 avant, old shape and only a 1.9tdi and got £16k for it in a matter of days.

I bet I could sell a fully loaded A6 S-Line 3.0Tdi Quattro in 3 years time with 50k miles on it for £20k no problem at all.

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Now if you were not one to look around for finance you may have gone and got a Merc or a BMW, they really are loosing the plot.

I went in to enquire about RS4 avant availability and was told there isn't an avant!! 'Oh right, I must have got it wrong, bye!' ROLLEY~14.GIF

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[ QUOTE ]

Now if you were not one to look around for finance you may have gone and got a Merc or a BMW, they really are loosing the plot.

I went in to enquire about RS4 avant availability and was told there isn't an avant!! 'Oh right, I must have got it wrong, bye!' ROLLEY~14.GIF

[/ QUOTE ]

not sure what you mean - are you talking hitachi or merc/bmw dealers and if the latter why would you be asking about the RS4, Bit lost

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I was saying alot of people would have just walked away and thought that it was not worth getting an S4 Cab when the sales guy came back with a £10.5k residual, you knew that it would be worth £20k easily at the end of the term and shopped for better deal, ie one with a more realisic balloon at the end.

My old man, when he was given a balloon of £11k on the A6 just said sod that and has now written Audi off completely, I guaruntee he will never go into an Audi showroom again, and I am sure there are loads of people out there just like him.

When I said...

I went in to enquire about RS4 avant availability and was told there isn't an avant!! 'Oh right, I must have got it wrong, bye!'

I just meant that the whole Audi experience is becoming a joke, a sales person not knowing there is an RS avant on the way is frankly shocking!!

I am not saying other dealers are better, but buying a new car used to be fun, it is now a real chore!! frown.gif

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I see your point and agree entirely, but it seems to me that too many people give up on the whole car/brand these days just because of one bad experience - the 'baby out with the bathwater' type thing. If the dealer is incompetent, they should simply find a better one - they do exist.

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I have not found a decent Audi dealer, over the last 3 years I have used Robinsons Norwich, Aston Green in Berks. and Dulwich and none of them seemed to be much cop.

Lind BMW of Norwich are no better though, I went in and said I wanted a 535d they had in stock that was £39k and saif if they got below £38k I would take it, and also said I wanted a Mini One D up to 6 months old or new, budget of £15k, I called back 4 times and went in 3 times before giving up and buying both privately!

Now I am in Sales and the hardest thing to do is turn a window shopper into a customer, to turn away over £55,000 worth of business to me is complete imcompetence!

But then I had it with Audi, only decent Audi sales guy I have dealt with is one guy from Aston Green, now a buyer for the group, and a guy called Kevin Hurrel at Robinsons, but he has been poached by BMW!

It is not a case of throwing your toys out of the pram, one of my busniness' is a footwear and clothing shop and I make sure everyone who leaves my store does so smiling whether they have bought anything or not, most people leave car dealerships completely pissed off these days, and it isn't just local it is all over the country, yeah you find the odd sales person that goes the extra mile, but they are very few and far between.

And for an Audi sales person to swear that there is not going to be any other RS4, other than the saloon, released this generation is pathetic and sums up why people get jarred off!

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Maybe I've just been lucky - after buying my A4 I used (in no particular order) Millhouse Audi in Bath, Northfield Audi in Tetbury and Swindon Audi. In all cases the customer service was outstanding.

The S4 was supplied by Lancaster Audi in Trafford Park, and once again I received top notch service. The only fly in the ointment was their 'forgetting' to refurbish its wheels, but they immediately agreed to reimburse me for that after I had them done locally.

All that said, I've never bought a brand new car, so that experience awaits me I guess.

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[ QUOTE ]

I was saying alot of people would have just walked away and thought that it was not worth getting an S4 Cab when the sales guy came back with a £10.5k residual, you knew that it would be worth £20k easily at the end of the term and shopped for better deal, ie one with a more realisic balloon at the end.

My old man, when he was given a balloon of £11k on the A6 just said sod that and has now written Audi off completely, I guaruntee he will never go into an Audi showroom again, and I am sure there are loads of people out there just like him.

[/ QUOTE ]

When I got a quote for an S4 cab (spring 2004), the residual was so crap it worked out at £900+ a month.

I do do a lot of miles though, but still hardly reassuring.

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I must say I have bought two audis new from Norwich Audi, and I have another on order (a8 4.2 TDI)having scoured the counrty for a good % off list, they have come up trumps.

Could not be matched anywhere on price, that sums it up for me. 169144-ok.gifbeerchug.gif

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[ QUOTE ]

I used to deal with Kevin Hurrel but he has buggered off to BMW.

Who do you use John??

[/ QUOTE ]

I use Mandy she is great and always works to make me stay with Norwich Audi, I have got 20% off my next A8 4.2TDI and retained a loss of only 6K over 12 and a half months of owning my current A8 3.0TDI, now thats a deal. 169144-ok.gif

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