Dealership recommendation

[JMan604]

Hi Guys!

I decided that im deadset in purchasing an S4 this weekend. Where did you guys buy your S4's and how negotiable are they at the moment? (ie. invoice price).

Thanks in advance!

[oc-drop]

some folks might not expect this but give a call to Audi Newport .. they were pretty competitive when I was shopping a few years ago . They're a Power/Autonation dealership.

[skiracerblah]

You can try Keyes Audi which is the highest volume Audi dealer in USA. Ask for Sarsi-Sales Mgr so they can bypass paying commissions to the regular sales guys. Tell him Simon whom bought a black S4 at year end 2010 referred you.

Also, check out Costco Car buying service since they were offering $1K over invoice at certain dealerships back in December 2010.

[pjunk1]

go online and start blasting audi dealerships via email. correspond til you find a dealership willing to work with you on the price. you can always use one quote against the other. basically, you're dealing with the internet/fleet department which makes deals much differently than regular sales department.

i got a ridiculous deal at commonwealth audi in santa ana. so ridiculous i thought they were messing with me and the deal would change when i got down there but it was completely straight, no surprises and they gave me a great deal on my trade-in which i thought was where they were going to re-coop. i would recommend my sales guy but he has gone to MB dealership since.

good luck, be smart about it and you'll be driving a sweet car soon.

[oc-drop]

hey pjunk, you're talking about Derek aren't you? He was the internet fleet manager, and friend... he got me my CPO B7 for zero down :D

[JMan604]

great replies and I've already made some calls however due to my luck, they were not in today. I will follow up tomorrow.

Thanks guys!

[youS4]

Off the top of my head, there are two SoCal dealerships that are active on Audizine: Audi Mission Viejo (Brian@AudiMV) and Walter's Audi (Aud1). I'd say include these two in your research because they know where you're coming from (forums = aggressive).

[pjunk1]

hey pjunk, you're talking about Derek aren't you? He was the internet fleet manager, and friend... he got me my CPO B7 for zero down :D

yup. derek is the man! very honest, knowledgeable, pleasant to talk to and straight forward. best car purchase experience i've ever had...by a long shot. i would definitely buy a car from him again.

if you can, tell him paul that bought the silver A3 about a year ago said hi.

[JMan604]

Keyes Audi is willing to sell me the car at invoice + $1000.

Will follow up with the rest of the leads.

[youS4]

Keyes Audi is willing to sell me the car at invoice + $1000.

Will follow up with the rest of the leads.

Keep trying [:)] I got bored and looked at what dealerships are currently offering right now, and found one for Invoice + $300 with no e-mailing, calling, etc. TrueCar.com (http://www.truecar.com/) is your friend [:D] and the dealership was Penske Audi in West Covina, CA. BE AWARE though...when I was dealership hunting back in December '10, the Internet Manager would not return any of my e-mails or phone calls, and the SA that finally helped me was a total tool (he tried to convince me that S4's were only made in automatics [o_o]).

[JMan604]

That is hilarious cuz' we're in the same shoe. Someone at penske called & left a message on sunday. I then give her a call back the same day, no answer, straight to voicemail, told her to call me back. Tuesday, I called and left another message. no call back. Yesterday afternoon, I called the dealership and asked for her, the guy on the other line said there was no one by that name that works there!

I guess their internet department works with Penske MB? I don't know how they can sell cars. Maybe that's why they have more than 10+ s4's sitting in the lot.


Keep trying [:)] I got bored and looked at what dealerships are currently offering right now, and found one for Invoice + $300 with no e-mailing, calling, etc. TrueCar.com (http://www.truecar.com/) is your friend [:D] and the dealership was Penske Audi in West Covina, CA. BE AWARE though...when I was dealership hunting back in December '10, the Internet Manager would not return any of my e-mails or phone calls, and the SA that finally helped me was a total tool (he tried to convince me that S4's were only made in automatics [o_o]).

[raudit]

Talk to wice at Audi mission viejo. He's a good guy. He will, I'm sure, match any deal you have already found if not beat it. I would love to help more than that but I work at a vw dealer, not Audi. Mission viejo is a good dealership on the sales side. Their inventory is a bit light though.

[youS4]

That is hilarious cuz' we're in the same shoe. Someone at penske called & left a message on sunday. I then give her a call back the same day, no answer, straight to voicemail, told her to call me back. Tuesday, I called and left another message. no call back. Yesterday afternoon, I called the dealership and asked for her, the guy on the other line said there was no one by that name that works there!

I guess their internet department works with Penske MB? I don't know how they can sell cars. Maybe that's why they have more than 10+ s4's sitting in the lot.

The funny thing is if you look at the older dealership recommendation threads, Penske Audi was king...even as much as being a sponsor on here! But now, they are no where to be heard. My...how times have changed [:/]

[JMan604]

I've had great outcomes from all your suggestions. The best part is the decent trade in value that they are offering.

Hopefully, I can close a deal in less than a week.

[youS4]

I've had great outcomes from all your suggestions. The best part is the decent trade in value that they are offering.

Hopefully, I can close a deal in less than a week.

Any updates to this? I'm kind of curious what deal you were able to pull off, if you don't mind [>_<]

[JMan604]

S4 at invoice. I haven't set foot at the dealership yet. Im waiting for my loan approved at PenFed, they already asked for my pay stub this morning so hopefully i'll get an answer in a few hours. I want my loan to be pre-approved prior to going to the dealership so I can walk away with no problem if they switch on the trade-in amount.

[pjunk1]

S4 at invoice. I haven't set foot at the dealership yet. Im waiting for my loan approved at PenFed, they already asked for my pay stub this morning so hopefully i'll get an answer in a few hours. I want my loan to be pre-approved prior to going to the dealership so I can walk away with no problem if they switch on the trade-in amount.

awesome! great deal if you can get a S4 at invoice. congrats!!!

i paid about 1,750 under invoice but that was on a A3. no other dealers would even come close. well, basically they thought i was lying or the dealer was going to mess around when i got down there to get the car. nope. just a smoking deal and i got 2.9 financing.

i realized there are weird factors that go into what a dealer is willing to do to move a unit. i have no idea what these factors are but the more you talk to different dealers you'll figure out who is desperate to move a unit or not. out of all the dealerships i didn't like how mission viejo.

[raudit]

It is all about incentives that the factory gives to dealers. sometimes there is a volume bonus that adds up to huge money for the dealer if they hit a volume level for a certain car. other times the factory will give cash incentives to dealers to do with what they will. sometimes it is simply about customer service wanting to keep a deal together rather than letting a rival get it.

[JMan604]

Update...went with keyes audi and finally met Sarsi after talking with him for 2 weeks. He got me the last ibis white on red/black, nav, and rear diff.

The best part was I never promised to buy the car, he got the car as a dealer trade and put a sold sign on it so no one can sell it. When i drove the car and parked it. Immediately, 2 people wanted to look at it and he refused to give the keys lol. I am now a happy audi s4 owner.

[ACowabunga]

Awesome. Congrats on the car. Great service is sometimes hard to come by. Its nice to hear you were able to experience it.

Raudit: I dealt with Wice at Mission Viejo and he was a champ. We made a handshake deal on the price of my car when I ordered it and honored it when I took delivery. He kept me informed about my car every step of the way and is someone from whom I would definitely purchase another Audi.

[skiracerblah]

Update...went with keyes audi and finally met Sarsi after talking with him for 2 weeks. He got me the last ibis white on red/black, nav, and rear diff.

The best part was I never promised to buy the car, he got the car as a dealer trade and put a sold sign on it so no one can sell it. When i drove the car and parked it. Immediately, 2 people wanted to look at it and he refused to give the keys lol. I am now a happy audi s4 owner.

Sweet, did you tell him i referred you?

[JMan604]

Sweet, did you tell him i referred you?

yup I did! Everything went smoothly.

[channad]

Stay away from keys audi, they tried to bait and switch me for my S4 order, wanted me to pay out another $5k at the very last minute...this was the sales manager. They are crooks, stay away!

Most of the fleet and/or internet sales managers will do $300 -$500 over invoice. Just speak to all of them and play them off each other. Downtown LA has the largest stock of cars, and they have cars other dealers in LA don't have...

I've bought 2 A4s (2001 & 2005) from Rusnak with okay experiences, but they didn't want to give me a deal on my S4 (2008), even though my cousin bought his S4 (2000)and RS6 (2003)from them. LAME!

Bought an S4 (2008) and a Q5 (2010) from Pacific, and they were the best.

Bought another Q5 S-Line (2010) from Downtown LA, and they were okay as far as sales go, but I would recommend them for service over the other dealerships. Downtown has the largest stock of cars in Southern California.


UPDATE: oops...didn't read thread all the way, glad things worked out for you.

[skiracerblah]

yup I did! Everything went smoothly.

Awesome, enjoy the car

[youS4]

Yeah, I also had a so-so time with Keyes Audi. The Internet Manager refused to go under $1000 below MSRP. Maybe it was because this was over the phone/e-mail? Who knows...but I obviously didn't end up going with them.

Glad it worked out for you, JMan604.

[skiracerblah]

Yeah, I also had a so-so time with Keyes Audi. The Internet Manager refused to go under $1000 below MSRP. Maybe it was because this was over the phone/e-mail? Who knows...but I obviously didn't end up going with them.

Glad it worked out for you, JMan604.

I got below $1000 MSRP thru keyes, but then again i went there 2 days before year end. I'm sure they wanted to be ranked #1 in sales again in USA for 2010. I'm assuming they get some crazy incentives for achieving this goal. So, they gotta do what they gotta do to get their numbers.... Year end is always best time to bargain on a car IMO.

[Aud!]

Not a fan of keys Audi or Mercedes both very bad experiences. Don't like penske or commonwealth either had my best experience at circle Audi in long beach. Trying to remember my sales associate he has German name with a German accent. Great guy hooked me up on price and had a great stock.

[pjunk1]

for sure, some dealerships are better than others. some think that buying from them is a privilege and some just want to do what they can to make a sale. imo, i think it basically boils down to who (the salesperson) you interact with.

i remember when i bought my first audi (A4 B5) back in 1997. it was at newport beach audi. audi was their slum car since they had porsche and bentley and audi wasn't popular at all back then. i was getting no love from anyone on the sales floor and had to yell out (but not very loudly), "i want to buy a car. does anyone want to help me?" of course that got someone's attention. i drove off that night with my new A4 but i would have walked except for the fact that no other dealerships in so cal had a silver A4 2.8 at the time.

[JMan604]

for sure, some dealerships are better than others. some think that buying from them is a privilege and some just want to do what they can to make a sale. imo, i think it basically boils down to who (the salesperson) you interact with.

i remember when i bought my first audi (A4 B5) back in 1997. it was at newport beach audi. audi was their slum car since they had porsche and bentley and audi wasn't popular at all back then. i was getting no love from anyone on the sales floor and had to yell out (but not very loudly), "i want to buy a car. does anyone want to help me?" of course that got someone's attention. i drove off that night with my new A4 but i would have walked except for the fact that no other dealerships in so cal had a silver A4 2.8 at the time.

So True, I don't understand why some sales people or dealership feel that it's a previleage to buy the car from them? Cars don't magically sell themselves unless you have a monopoly on it.

I was very lucky with this process. I've spoken to keyes, commonwealth, west covina, and walter's audi. All of them are willing to sell the S4 at invoice or invoice + $200. I could have easily bought the car from any of those dealership, what boils down is buying the car with the options i wanted. Keyes easily got the car for me.

I've had my fair share of horror dealership stories. From lexus to mb's. Thank goodness my Audi experience was good. Thanks to you guys!

[Slave IV]

I think a lot of it depends on the person who ends up helping you. I went to a dealer a while ago and the salesperson was great. Checked a few other spots and went back, pretty much ready to buy. The guy who helped out before was not there and the people who were ruined the entire experience and we walked out.

Santa Monica, Pacific and the DT LA location south of the 10 seem to be the better overall dealers in the area from my experience. I didn't read the rest of the thread in case I repeated anything already mentioned.

[Tekk]

When I was shopping for my RS I was in touch with Keyes, Circle, Irvine, Rusnak, and Penske. Keyes was mediocre at best. Didn't dislike the service but they just didn't seem to care either. Circle treated me like absolutely shit. I sincerely hope the dumb sales person who initially talked to me and sent a truly snide/inappropriate email to me got fired. Sales Manager was a nice guy but he was on extreme damage control at that point. Rusnak made it seem like I had to bend to their demands (as others referred to "a privilege to buy from them" type attitude) so I said peace out to them. Then there's Penske. The Internet Sales guy, Jose I believe, was infinitely professional, knowledgeable, and overall just made the shopping experience quite enjoyable. Was open with common issues on used RS's, what to look for, reality of prices, etc. He still remember's me when I go in for service too which is pretty cool and evidence that he does take the time to remember the tons of people he meets (at least in my mind). I didn't buy from Penske as they didn't have what I was looking for at the time but the service tech, Chris, is also great. Real enthusiast and tells it to you straight.