Originally Posted by
Anthony
That's the norm with new models. They never lease well right out the gate. The A3 didn't when it was first released, same with the A5 and S5. It has to do with a number of factors, most notably the residual.
On top of that, cars just aren't leasing as favorably as they once were. The banks would rather get a customer into a loan than a lease, and manufacturers are seeing excessive amounts of used cars on their lots. The economy is putting a serious damper on the entire market. Less so for the European brands, but nonetheless, lenders are still wary.
Audi will no doubt lose some business to the other makes offering better lease deals on cars that were released before their all-new new A4 model (such as the newish Mercedes C Class and BMW's 3 Series), but as long as the extreme demand is there for what's a very tight supply of vehicles, it will bother AoA very little.
You're right, as far as Audi is concerned. However, when BMW released the new 3 series the leases were excellent, pretty much what the previous model year was at. BMW knows how to work leases and that's why 50% of their sales are leases.
Audi plays much to cautiously. That's fine for them, but it hurts their sales.
The A3 was a new type of car for Audi and as such was untested in the market. That's why the leases weren't that great. The A4 is a completely different business model. It's a known commodity. The A4 had been doing very well since the B7 resdesign with increasing sales and improved residuals. That's why leasing the B7 was more competitive with BMW.
The residuals look to be pretty good, but the money factors are way off considering how cheap it is to borrow money right now.
The Euro to dollar could be blamed, but BMW and MB are also part of the Euro market and their leases are better.
The prices are very high for the new A4, if you go option crazy. The fancy technology on the B8 sounds impressive, but the cost of those things is overly optimistic, at least to me they are.
Also, the new A4 is supposed to be a better competitor to the 3 series by offering better performance compared to the 3 series. It is a VERY bad idea to bring the A4 to the US with such a delayed intro for the manuals.
And, the much anticipated and loved DSG is nowhere to be found.
Big mistake in my view.
I bought my 06 in May of 06, right in the middle of the model run.
My MSRP was a couple hundred shy of $40k. With NO money down, 36 months, and 15k miles per year I pay $490 per month.
I could get a 335i similarly optioned for about $50 more per month.
Anything over $525 per month for 15k per year with an MSRP of $40k-41K is too much.
I just built an A4 2.0T auto, I will be getting manual, and the MSRP is about $39k. Not bad, considering it's optioned pretty much like my current A4, and the price will probably be less as my near $40k 06 has manual trans.
So, a B8 A4 2.0T quattro manual with premium and sport pkg. should be about $38k MSRP. Granted, I won't have the Sline cosmetic features, but honestly most of the Sline is cosmetic and I prefer leather to alcantara.
No way will I pay the extra to get the Prestige setup just to pay even more for the Sline pkg. The sport pkg is very nice. A B8 A4 with sport will actually have BETTER seats than why I have now.
I do think Audi needs to add the option of a better sound system without having to buy all the other crap. And, aluminum trim should be part of the sport pkg.
I'd pay $500-$800 more for a nice upgraded audio setup and couple hundred more for the aluminum trim.
That would put my A4 at about $39k, even $39.5 for that setup would be just right and very much inline with B7 pricing, undercutting similar equipped 3 series.
BTW, a similarly equipped 335i with auto trans, premium and sport and htd seats is about $47k.
The new A4 won't run with the 335i, but it costs less and should perform well, at least I hope it does once the manuals come in and I get to test drive it.
A similarly equipped 328 is about $40,425. Again, the A4 wins in lower price and probably better performance compared to the 328i, even with the A4's "lowly" 2.0 turboFSI, HA!
If you don't go crazy with unnecessary tech the cost of a sweet new A4 is almost on target and decent value in the premium sport sedan market.
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Too bad it's probably too little too late, despite the dollar's recent gains.
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