Audi Reports a 3.4% Decrease in US Sales for October

How come none of the Audi fanatics on this site have written to explain away the decline yet. Surely with the new SUV being given away with great lease deals the Audi total sales should have soared - no?

— MercBasher (View Profile)

Posted on 11/1/2006 10:48:41 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 4   

This is primarily due to American consumer stupidity! Americans would rather drive Accords, Camrys, and Sonatas than a sleek, quality engineered product of VAG.

I hate this country!

— EL34i (View Profile)

Posted on 11/1/2006 10:50:18 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: -2   

Most Americans still view Audi as an overpriced piece of crap like they were in the 70's, 80's and most of the 90's, that's why. And 6,00 units a month not much of a factor in the US economy.

— rocker (View Profile)

Posted on 11/1/2006 11:00:09 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 6   

You sell Audi's you should defend thembut don't bitch at Americans for not buying Audi's that is the wrong way to handle any potential customer.

— rocker (View Profile)

Posted on 11/1/2006 11:34:44 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 3   

It's not much point trying to sell more 6's, 8's and Q'7s.. they are never going to be massive volumes.

Audi needs to concentrate on getting the big volume A3 and A4 sales.

— matt635 (View Profile)

Posted on 11/1/2006 11:57:48 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 2   

Evil Hommer, whats the going rate for a semi-equipped A4 ( at lease from your dealership )? The numbers you threw out regarding the Audi line up are perplexing ( i.e ridiculous).

— BavarianMotorrad (View Profile)

Posted on 11/1/2006 12:08:31 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

I would dare say that an Audi lover and an Audi Salesman just doomed their company in the US. This needs to be posted everywhere that Audi thinks Americans are stupid. And said they were idiots for buying the best selling and most reliable car on the road(Toyota).

— rocker (View Profile)

Posted on 11/1/2006 12:09:12 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 3   

You all probably know 'lease math' but the real reason that there is 'no lease support' is that Audi's depreciate like rocks falling in a swimming pool and so that depreciation has to be spread out over the 36 (or whatever term) months of the lease.

Why do Audi's depreciate so much? Perhaps b/c of the reasons people cite - reliability, value perception, etc. - which drive down 'used' demand.

— nybimmer (View Profile)

Posted on 11/1/2006 12:17:26 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 3   

I have been trying to state this and yet people on here have been saying the whole time that Audi will surpass BMW in 5 to 10 years in the US. That is a lot of cars to make up. Doesnt help that Audi cut back production of their new Q7 by 20% for shipments to the US due to lack of interest.

— BMW4me4ever (View Profile)

Posted on 11/1/2006 12:22:29 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 4   

Where are the Audi lovers? They need to step up and defend them or just shut up.

— rocker (View Profile)

Posted on 11/1/2006 12:37:33 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

EvilHomer, which Audi dealership?

— smshnick (View Profile)

Posted on 11/1/2006 12:47:55 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

Will welcome to the Audi post

This topic is stupid because at the time it was listed there were no October numbers

This site would be great with about 7 less users (not you will)

— IamEvilHomer (View Profile)

Posted on 11/2/2006 12:33:16 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

Actually the post and the sales figures were and are still correct at the time of the post.

— PlanoA4 (View Profile)

Posted on 11/2/2006 1:18:46 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

Where is Chewy, S4fox, germannut audimana4 or planoa4.

— watisthat (View Profile)

Posted on 11/1/2006 1:09:19 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

Where is Chewy, S4fox, germannut audimana4 or planoa4.

— watisthat (View Profile)

Posted on 11/1/2006 1:09:19 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

Thank god americans dont like Audi so much, if they did it would become dull and uncool in a second in europe

— CarNut (View Profile)

Posted on 11/1/2006 1:18:01 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 0   

Why do you guys engage Will? He makes every post about himself. You feed into it by responding. He apparently lives for this site, given how often he posts.

*Don't feed the idiot*

— audiot (View Profile)

Posted on 11/1/2006 1:57:50 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: -2   

"Yet another German car fan upset with me for promoting a healthy environment of civilized discussions of ALL car brands, and not just the crappy ones from Germany."

ROFL! Spare me!

Hipocrite...

— S4cabriofox (View Profile)

Posted on 11/1/2006 10:23:00 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: -1   

let me guess you are an Audi salesman. Read the thread before you reply.

— rocker (View Profile)

Posted on 11/1/2006 2:34:59 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 2   

dickbag

— rocker (View Profile)

Posted on 11/1/2006 2:35:20 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 4   

jtgct - you're an idiot... let me summarize Audi's "progress" in the US for you...

NEW YORK (Fortune) -- The U.S. luxury car market has been a bonanza for Mercedes and BMW as they have motored from one sales record to another. But the third German luxury brand, Audi, keeps making detours. Despite its backing by corporate parent Volkswagen (Charts), pioneering engineering developments like all-wheel drive and a strong performance elsewhere around the world, its stop-and-go efforts have caused it to get lost in the shuffle. Audi has lost money in the U.S. for years.

The automaker has missed opportunity upon opportunity in the U.S. As long ago as 1975, it sold more than 50,000 cars here but 25 years later it had only gotten to 65,000. Lexus, by comparison, didn't get started until 1989 and today is selling around 300,000 vehicles a year. Audi has suffered revolving door management, inconsistent marketing and inattention to customer needs. While Lexus gets nearly half its sales from SUVs, Audi didn't get around to selling one, the Q7, until this year.

if you still don't believe me - here is the article... dumbass

http://money.cnn.com/2006/10/13/autos/pluggedin_Taylor_Audi.fortune/index.htm

also, i never said audi can't sell worldwide - just that it can't sell in the most important market - the US...

— snatch (View Profile)

Posted on 11/1/2006 2:49:08 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 3   

one last thing, it's idiots like you [jt] that lead people to choose another brand... the arrogance to think that people are "dumb" for not picking your brand... instead of trying to change the customer - why not try changing the marketing strategy??

— snatch (View Profile)

Posted on 11/1/2006 2:52:28 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 4   

I'll say it again, I love snatch

— rocker (View Profile)

Posted on 11/1/2006 3:11:42 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

Hey Audi-lovers, I'll be the first to point out the Audi's sales decline of 3.4% was better than BMW's sales decline of 4.6%.

So there you go, Audi did better than BMW this month
:-)

Maybe it was the R8 announcement?

— nybimmer (View Profile)

Posted on 11/1/2006 3:52:13 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 3   

I hope that 1 of you is a female. Or rocker u a F**GOT

— BMW_DRVR (View Profile)

Posted on 11/1/2006 3:57:43 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

itgct, so lexus is not selling overseas! They relaunched the brand in South Africa july this year, and guess what? they only offer the GS300 & IS250 so far and Lexus is breaking sales records never seen before.

— KeyserSoze (View Profile)

Posted on 11/1/2006 3:58:02 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 5   

I m stationed here by the UN and i have been here for 2 years, in a country where BMW,MB & AUDI's are as common as corrolla's, but less than three months Lexus is rocking up the show imagine when they go to markets where they have no presence yet.

— KeyserSoze (View Profile)

Posted on 11/1/2006 4:06:55 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 3   

If were a diehard Audi fan I would love news like this. I like car companies that are successful, but not to the point of seeing the same damn things at every intersection.

— answer (View Profile)

Posted on 11/1/2006 4:28:37 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

I don't think this makes much of an impact on my life.

Wow, so Audis aren't selling as well this month as they were last month.

That doesn't keep me from loving mine.

— S4cabriofox (View Profile)

Posted on 11/1/2006 5:20:05 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 0   

you never know, audi could not care much about the US market.
i'm serious, they make very little profit there (weak dollar, low car prices), they don't build there, they have to ship everything over there, americans don't like them, why bother? stick with the rest of the world, it's easier.

— Rupert (View Profile)

Posted on 11/1/2006 5:44:44 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 4   

I can't imagine Audi is too upset about this number. Their sales are down roughly by the amount of TT and Allroad sales. That's a risk you take when you wait too long getting your product to market. That's one thing I've never been particularly crazy about with Audi. They create a new car, unveil it and then it takes a year and a half before we get it. The enthusiasm weres off a bit.

However, something I would be concerned about at Audi USA is the Q7. It's not that it's not doing well. 1,500 cars a month for Audi in the U.S. is respectable. These buyers appear to be existing Audi customers and not converts. Since the Q7's introduction, sales of the A4/A6 have slipped considerablly and almost always close to the amount of Q7's sold. I'ld imagine that Audi wanted these numbers to be in addition to existing numbers not in conjunction with.

If they want to be considered a viable alternative to BMW/Merc/Lexus in terms of sales then it's about time they start mimicing their advertising stratagies. In the U.S. if you want to succeed you have to be aggressive. They are not going to convert the American public by word of mouth.

That being said, I'm sure Auid will acheive another sales groeth record this year (I think 10 or 11 years in a row). I guess they don't need any advice from me.

— iown1 (View Profile)

Posted on 11/1/2006 5:49:56 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

iown1:

Audi does need your advice. Their prices are too high; their vehicles should have higher specs - include more options; and the leases may need to be subsidized until Audi can get to critical mass.

I think they need a plan to double sales in three years, or they should get out of the US market and simple badge their vehicles as VWs and let the VW dealers get some additional income.

The Audi franchise is not valuable in the US, and the dealers as well as prior Audi management teams are to blame.

— MercBasher (View Profile)

Posted on 11/1/2006 6:33:38 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 2   

Audi's are priced 4% less than BMW and Mercedes, so as far as Audi goes, you get more for your money comparedt Benz or Bimmer. Additionally, you get a car that not everyone and their grandmother owns.

— smshnick (View Profile)

Posted on 11/1/2006 6:46:04 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

Audi's are priced 4% less than BMW and Mercedes, so as far as Audi goes, you get more for your money compared to Benz or Bimmer. Additionally, you get a car that not everyone and their grandmother owns.

— smshnick (View Profile)

Posted on 11/1/2006 6:46:18 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

I think it will eventually come down to exposure. The one advantage that I see Audi having over the other luxury car makers is, ironically, their relatively low sales figures. Things are quite often cyclical. No one could have predicted that BMW would sell more cars than Merc in the U.S. but that's exactlly what happened. And then Lexus comes along and sells more than both. People like new and different things. With their quickly expanding product line up this could be the time for Audi's U.S. sales to take off. Hopefully they'll save some money for advertising. And if they have a lick of sense they'll fire whoever did that dumb add about the patents. When VW did those aggressive adds with the crashes I kept thinking, "Why didn't Audi do something like that?" They were very effective.

Another approach I would take is focusing on their interiors. I know it's cliche to say how nice they are. We all now that. However I'm not so sure anyone else does. I would do an entire commercial focusing on the inside of the car. Especially with the Audi Exclusive package and the B&O stereo. People eat that shit up. Do you know how many people would love to say their car has a B&O sound system. It doesn't matter if it's the best sound system or not. It sounds cool. And IMHO I think that's one advantage AUDI has over the other brands... They're cool.

— iown1 (View Profile)

Posted on 11/1/2006 7:33:46 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 3   

Audi will be fine. BMW has had lower sales for the past 3 or 4 months. But it does look like the Q7 is taking away A6 sales.

— chewy (View Profile)

Posted on 11/1/2006 7:49:59 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 0   

yea, audi will be fine they will sell about 82,000 cars this year. I remember when the VW CEO Piecheter set a goal of 100,000 audi sales for 2004, ha ha it is 2006, come back to reality.

— Larry (View Profile)

Posted on 11/1/2006 10:10:17 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

In my opinion, there is nothing wrong with being an audi fan, and sales should not have an effect on how much you like your car. i like BMW long before they were as popular as they are today, like BMW 633csi, etc. But, audi fans on this website claim Audi is the greatest thing since sliced bread, better than Mercedes and they are not.

— Larry (View Profile)

Posted on 11/1/2006 10:22:25 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 2   

s4, 1) in regard to another audi post, i want to enlighten you the reality that audi is a member of the VW group, along with Seat, skoda, Bentley, Lamborghi, etc. VW owns audi, since the sixties when they brought the brand from Mercedes. Secondly, Audi has sold 69,000 year to date, they average about 6,000 or 7,000 sales a month, audi will not sell 10,000 cars in either Nov or Dec, they will sell maybe at the most 15,000 in the next 2 months, i guarantee you they will not sell 90,000 cars this year or next year. s4 you post so many wrong facts, why not do a little research

— Larry (View Profile)

Posted on 11/2/2006 12:00:59 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

MOST PREMIUM BRANDS SALES DOWN THIS MONTH....

Dang, some nasty and awefully childish rants going on here.

Anyway, October '06 has been a rather poor month for most luxury brands. For example BMW was down more than Audi. However overall international Audi brand sales are through the roof this year, making Audi the world's fastest growing luxury brand, well ahead of Lexus.

Looks like Audi is on track to easliy become the world's number 1 premium brand within a decade. And this is no fantasy folks, but a comprehensive and extremey aggressive long-term growth campaign that Audi initiated 2 years ago. It's getting a little boring reading ill-informed Americans bash such universally accliamed car brand such as Audi.

But alas, it's their loss. For us lucky ones that own Audi's (myself included with my recent and quite gorgeous 2007 Quartz Gray A4 quattro S-Line manual), it's a great time indeed to be an enlightened car buyer. Especially since there are only a couple more years left to Audi pricing its cars below true value in the US.

The next few months will expose the next major step for Audi, as its modular platform A5 (with even weight distribution, new engine placement, DSG on longitudunal engines, rear-biased quattro etc) debuts its next generation fleet of cars. Despite the brilliance of the new TT and R8, it'll be the state-of-the-art A5 and its Audi-exclusive platform architecture that'll truly usher in the tidal wave of cars that are lazer-focused on finally unseating BMW and Merc.

I can't wait.

— Anim8or (View Profile)

Posted on 11/2/2006 1:43:07 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 2   

OK SING ALONG KIDDIES>>>>>60 MINUTES SCREWED AUDI IN THE 80'S.... WITH BOGUS SLANDER FILLED REPORTING!

AUDI'S GOAL IS FEWER SALES WITH HIGHER MARGINS PER UNIT.

— phaetonmeister (View Profile)

Posted on 11/2/2006 6:35:46 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

rocker-
I own MB, Audi, VW......why??

— phaetonmeister (View Profile)

Posted on 11/2/2006 10:57:04 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

Iamevil.... $1500 for a a8?. hello... just turned down one at $1100 with NOTHING DOWN in New york!!!. please do not post lies.. if i was ready to sign (got the x5 instead, for my wife), he woudl have given it to me for cheaper. Its not in the same league as 7 or a s. ask all the consumers that walk away from your dealership.

— AmazingBimmer (View Profile)

Posted on 11/2/2006 7:14:52 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: -1   

Phaetonmaster.. sorry first time i have seen your name.. are you one of the 12 stupidest men (or women) in all of america to buy that piece of crap? how much shit do you get everyday when you drive to work?.. i am seriously interested form a consumer point of view

— AmazingBimmer (View Profile)

Posted on 11/2/2006 7:16:25 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: -1   

AmazingBinner,

Keep yourself in check.

The Phaeton is an over-engineered luxury saloon, not an excuse to bash someone.

— Matthew1 (View Profile)

Posted on 11/3/2006 1:11:47 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 0   

I see two reasons for sales decline. Audi's arrogant decision to cancel "The Audi Advantage" program. The Audi Advantage was designed to make to total cost surprise free. The second reason is Audi is arrogant posture. From their goal fewer sales & higher margins, to lease structures that are unrealistically high says it all. I want to buy a car - not fund their operations – If Audi thinks it costs too much for these programs, let’s see how much it will cost ~ NOT~ to have them. And after my 6 Audi in 20yrs, I might have some consumer qualifications. Oh, speaking of arrogance, they even got rid of the Customer Loyalty Program, guess times are tough.

— 4MerAudiFan (View Profile)

Posted on 11/14/2006 3:17:07 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1