January 23, 20242 yr Wife and I are looking at getting a new car and wanted to really treat ourselves with some extra money we came into and after renting an Audi in November I was smitten. I was curious if any of you good lads have/have owned one and thus have opinions on the brand. I'm just not a big BMW or Benz guy so I don't think I'll be looking at those. The Genesis looks pretty nice though too.
January 23, 20242 yr 12 minutes ago, hovertical said: some extra money we came into This is gross. 12 minutes ago, hovertical said: curious if any of you good lads Oh so I'm sure this doesn't include me. 12 minutes ago, hovertical said: The Genesis looks pretty nice though too. It sure is! Man I remember spending so much time playing the original Sonic the Hedgehog!
January 23, 20242 yr Well, I’m not a mechanic nor an Audi owner, so my words here shouldn’t really mean anything to you. I would just say based on reputation alone.. Audi’s are generally considered cool and sleek cars, fun to drive and cool to own. Everything is great, until it’s time for service.. then can be a fun surprise on costs. But hey, if you go in with the understanding and put in the consideration the budget for maintenance or if you buy one new or slightly pre owned with a solid warranty then it might be a great purchase and if the idea of owning one makes you feel inspired and excited than I say why not! Again I’m just some random guy on the internet so my words here should mean absolutely nothing to you of course! 😂 One fun general car resource I would like to share is the Car Wizard guy/channel on YouTube. Of course there are a lot of excellent car channels on YT. Car Wizard is my favorite. Dude just knows his stuff and is very straightforward and honest with his opinion on different car brands. Usually when I want an extra opinion on a car brand I will type in like “Car Wizard Toyota” or “Car Wizard Chevy” etc. Here’s his opinion on which Audi models he would recommend and not recommend. It’s manly talking about pre owned models but might be useful. Again it’s just one mechanic opinion so don’t have to watch it. Just wanted to share that resource for the forum in case in might be useful for anyone.
January 23, 20242 yr Author 9 hours ago, SilverBullet said: How's the water gasket on an Audi? Bigger than yours
January 23, 20242 yr Author 9 hours ago, SirFishFan said: Well, I’m not a mechanic nor an Audi owner, so my words here shouldn’t really mean anything to you. I would just say based on reputation alone.. Audi’s are generally considered cool and sleek cars, fun to drive and cool to own. Everything is great, until it’s time for service.. then can be a fun surprise on costs. But hey, if you go in with the understanding and put in the consideration the budget for maintenance or if you buy one new or slightly pre owned with a solid warranty then it might be a great purchase and if the idea of owning one makes you feel inspired and excited than I say why not! Again I’m just some random guy on the internet so my words here should mean absolutely nothing to you of course! 😂 One fun general car resource I would like to share is the Car Wizard guy/channel on YouTube. Of course there are a lot of excellent car channels on YT. Car Wizard is my favorite. Dude just knows his stuff and is very straightforward and honest with his opinion on different car brands. Usually when I want an extra opinion on a car brand I will type in like “Car Wizard Toyota” or “Car Wizard Chevy” etc. Here’s his opinion on which Audi models he would recommend and not recommend. It’s manly talking about pre owned models but might be useful. Again it’s just one mechanic opinion so don’t have to watch it. Just wanted to share that resource for the forum in case in might be useful for anyone. Oh believe me ive seen the prices for repairs on many Audi forums but we would def be getting the bumper to bumper warranty extended out to the max of ten years to ameliorate that issue. At least when we went to go test drive the dealer assumed we were dirt poor and left us mostly alone unlike the stalker we've met at the Kia place who I've now blocked TWICE on two different numbers but is texting me from a third.
January 23, 20242 yr 2 hours ago, hovertical said: Oh believe me ive seen the prices for repairs on many Audi forums but we would def be getting the bumper to bumper warranty extended out to the max of ten years to ameliorate that issue. At least when we went to go test drive the dealer assumed we were dirt poor and left us mostly alone unlike the stalker we've met at the Kia place who I've now blocked TWICE on two different numbers but is texting me from a third. Crazy how pushy they can be.
January 23, 20242 yr Don't know if you're purchasing or leasing... Purchasing, I wouldn't touch any luxury car without an extended warranty. Leasing....eh, you have full coverage (and often maintenance too) for 3 years (or whatever your lease term is), so you don't have to worry so much about long-term repair issues.
January 23, 20242 yr 47 minutes ago, rmc523 said: Crazy how pushy they can be. I hate shopping at places where people work on commission for this reason
January 23, 20242 yr Just now, Admin said: I hate shopping at places where people work on commission for this reason Yeah, if anything, that tactic makes me NOT want to purchase from them. I like the "hi folks, welcome, I'm so-and-so, if you have any questions, let me know" approach. Luckily, I'm brand loyal, and my family has used the same pair of salesmen forever, so when we buy a new car, we order it, it comes in, we show up and sign the paperwork and leave. So much better than the BS of sitting around doing the back and forth.
January 23, 20242 yr 2 minutes ago, rmc523 said: the BS of sitting around doing the back and forth. I hate this so much I can't even do it. I'm in my 40s and I still took my dad to help me buy my last car.
January 23, 20242 yr 4 minutes ago, rmc523 said: BS of sitting around doing the back and forth. "Let me check with my manager" Guy then disappears for like 10 mins and comes back with the lower offer. I wish I could sit down and say "Let's not waste each other's time, what's the best offer?" but that never would work.
January 23, 20242 yr There is a place here that has salespeople not on commission and they dont really do the haggling thing, their prices are what they are (on the auto or truck). The haggling is on all the other crap in the end LOL Car buying is such a pain in the ass. My general rule of thumb, have financing already lined up, know what any interest rate and term will be in your back pocket. I will generally get GAP insurance and almost nothing else cause everything else is insanely overpriced and not needed (at least if you have a quality vehicle) I also will only be buying Toyota (got dumb and went Honda and Honda of America want to hide things and not accept responsibility for known issues, so fuck em). Note: This was also verified (the Honda not caring) from their former service manager who popped up at Volvo (I think their cars have funny issues that shouldnt happen and are stupid expensive to fix but hey its a luxury Volvo)! Anyway, I've had Toyota, great quality vehicle. I assume Lexus is the same since its the exact same guts as a Toyota. I'm just too cheap to buy a Lexus because for me a vehicle is a tool to accomplish whatever I need to. I mean shit happens at times, but with my Toyotas the only things I've had to do is normal maintenance. Last one had 440k miles and everything was essentially original that should be (i.e. everything that doesnt wear out like tires, shocks, struts, oil et al). Of course I finally cracked the engine block at 440k miles but part of me wonders if it was from when I almost had my car go meet the fishies driving over a water bridge that had holes in it that I didnt see. Thanks Department of Transportation!
January 23, 20242 yr Why are car prices still even a negotiable thing? Seems like such a foreign concept. It should be this is the price and that's it, like all other products are. It's weird to me that I can be at a red light with the exact same car next to me and the price each of us paid is likely so different, yet it's the same product.
January 23, 20242 yr 33 minutes ago, SilverBullet said: Why are car prices still even a negotiable thing? Seems like such a foreign concept. It should be this is the price and that's it, like all other products are. It's weird to me that I can be at a red light with the exact same car next to me and the price each of us paid is likely so different, yet it's the same product. Dealer franchise laws. Brands aren't legally allowed to directly sell to consumers, so they set a MSRP (manufacturer's suggested retail price), but it's just that - only suggested - dealers can sell above via markups (which we've seen a lot recently with production issues) or below bye eating into their own margins (they pay invoice pricing at lower rates than they charge, of course). They've tried to change this - especially with EVs - but the dealer groups lobby against it. Since Tesla (and other new EV brands like Rivian, etc) was new, they were granted exemptions to dealer franchise laws, so their price is what it is because they've been allowed to sell directly to the consumer as the manufacturer. But traditional/older brands are locked into dealer franchise laws and are having real difficulty trying to change that model with the EV models. Edited January 23, 20242 yr by rmc523
January 23, 20242 yr Author 1 hour ago, Admin said: "Let me check with my manager" Guy then disappears for like 10 mins and comes back with the lower offer. I wish I could sit down and say "Let's not waste each other's time, what's the best offer?" but that never would work. So the worst experience I've had was while test driving a Kia Telluride (yes, looking at a lower cost option than the Audi as well). Started out fine. We pulled into the lot, the guy just handed us the keys and had us go wherever without him vulturing over us in the back seat so the wife and I could openly and freely discuss everything without someone chiming in. But we got back and this dude still had our driver's licenses which he held while we went on the test drive (so yeah, Kia wants you out there driving without a license on you haha). Anyway, he had "forgotten" the licenses inside so we went inside the building and he said hang on a sec i'll go get them. Dude came back with the infamous punnet square looking financing thing showing expected monthly payments on a variety of loans. Just went straight into his spiel and didn't give us our licenses back. I was looking at these prices and was sitting there thinking - these are nearly the monthly Audi payments.. and that Audi is almost twice as much as this Telluride..so I asked what apr% these rates were that he was trying to sell us on and dude legit says "oh, i cant say but don't worry, we wouldn't try to fool you with something wild like 15%". I then asked how much the extended warranty would be and he told me "oh you don't even need one with us because we have the best warranty in the biz. 10 years 100k miles!" i asked if that was bumper to bumper and was told "Well, no, that covers the powertrain (Engine basically)" so i asked what their bumper to bumper warranty was for and it was the same as literally everywhere else we've gone which is 4yrs 50k miles. I then asked for him to tell me how much their extended warranty is and he would only say "you'll get that info after you pay for the car and finance will provide it to you." I flat out said i'm not buying anything unless i know the full cost. Dude wouldn't budge on that though. Had to remind him again to please just go get our drivers licenses so we could leave. he gets up, leaves, comes back instead with his boss who also then tries to pitch buying the car to us instead of just giving our drivers licenses back. Finally get our licenses back, go home and this fucker is literally calling (voicemail) me about 90 min later asking if we had more questions and if we wanted to come back any buy it before it gets sold as "they're flying off the lot". next morning...he starts texting me with the same thing. i said he didn't answer the question i had about the ext. warranty so no, we had no other questions and i have his contact info if i need anything else. i block him. he texts from a 2nd number. i block him he's now texting from THIRD number.
January 23, 20242 yr 1 minute ago, hovertical said: So the worst experience I've had was while test driving a Kia Telluride (yes, looking at a lower cost option than the Audi as well). Started out fine. We pulled into the lot, the guy just handed us the keys and had us go wherever without him vulturing over us in the back seat so the wife and I could openly and freely discuss everything without someone chiming in. But we got back and this dude still had our driver's licenses which he held while we went on the test drive (so yeah, Kia wants you out there driving without a license on you haha). Anyway, he had "forgotten" the licenses inside so we went inside the building and he said hang on a sec i'll go get them. Dude came back with the infamous punnet square looking financing thing showing expected monthly payments on a variety of loans. Just went straight into his spiel and didn't give us our licenses back. I was looking at these prices and was sitting there thinking - these are nearly the monthly Audi payments.. and that Audi is almost twice as much as this Telluride..so I asked what apr% these rates were that he was trying to sell us on and dude legit says "oh, i cant say but don't worry, we wouldn't try to fool you with something wild like 15%". I then asked how much the extended warranty would be and he told me "oh you don't even need one with us because we have the best warranty in the biz. 10 years 100k miles!" i asked if that was bumper to bumper and was told "Well, no, that covers the powertrain (Engine basically)" so i asked what their bumper to bumper warranty was for and it was the same as literally everywhere else we've gone which is 4yrs 50k miles. I then asked for him to tell me how much their extended warranty is and he would only say "you'll get that info after you pay for the car and finance will provide it to you." I flat out said i'm not buying anything unless i know the full cost. Dude wouldn't budge on that though. Had to remind him again to please just go get our drivers licenses so we could leave. he gets up, leaves, comes back instead with his boss who also then tries to pitch buying the car to us instead of just giving our drivers licenses back. Finally get our licenses back, go home and this fucker is literally calling (voicemail) me about 90 min later asking if we had more questions and if we wanted to come back any buy it before it gets sold as "they're flying off the lot". next morning...he starts texting me with the same thing. i said he didn't answer the question i had about the ext. warranty so no, we had no other questions and i have his contact info if i need anything else. i block him. he texts from a 2nd number. i block him he's now texting from THIRD number. Well this is harassment at this point
January 23, 20242 yr 4 minutes ago, hovertical said: So the worst experience I've had was while test driving a Kia Telluride (yes, looking at a lower cost option than the Audi as well). Started out fine. We pulled into the lot, the guy just handed us the keys and had us go wherever without him vulturing over us in the back seat so the wife and I could openly and freely discuss everything without someone chiming in. But we got back and this dude still had our driver's licenses which he held while we went on the test drive (so yeah, Kia wants you out there driving without a license on you haha). Anyway, he had "forgotten" the licenses inside so we went inside the building and he said hang on a sec i'll go get them. Dude came back with the infamous punnet square looking financing thing showing expected monthly payments on a variety of loans. Just went straight into his spiel and didn't give us our licenses back. I was looking at these prices and was sitting there thinking - these are nearly the monthly Audi payments.. and that Audi is almost twice as much as this Telluride..so I asked what apr% these rates were that he was trying to sell us on and dude legit says "oh, i cant say but don't worry, we wouldn't try to fool you with something wild like 15%". I then asked how much the extended warranty would be and he told me "oh you don't even need one with us because we have the best warranty in the biz. 10 years 100k miles!" i asked if that was bumper to bumper and was told "Well, no, that covers the powertrain (Engine basically)" so i asked what their bumper to bumper warranty was for and it was the same as literally everywhere else we've gone which is 4yrs 50k miles. I then asked for him to tell me how much their extended warranty is and he would only say "you'll get that info after you pay for the car and finance will provide it to you." I flat out said i'm not buying anything unless i know the full cost. Dude wouldn't budge on that though. Had to remind him again to please just go get our drivers licenses so we could leave. he gets up, leaves, comes back instead with his boss who also then tries to pitch buying the car to us instead of just giving our drivers licenses back. Finally get our licenses back, go home and this fucker is literally calling (voicemail) me about 90 min later asking if we had more questions and if we wanted to come back any buy it before it gets sold as "they're flying off the lot". next morning...he starts texting me with the same thing. i said he didn't answer the question i had about the ext. warranty so no, we had no other questions and i have his contact info if i need anything else. i block him. he texts from a 2nd number. i block him he's now texting from THIRD number. I'd call the manager, or maybe even try to reach someone higher up in the dealer group at that point. And yes, in searching for cars recently for my SO, we found that the "regular" brands were as much as some of the luxury brands - they were saying Corollas were going for 400-500 a month, which is absurd.
January 23, 20242 yr Author 3 minutes ago, rmc523 said: I'd call the manager, or maybe even try to reach someone higher up in the dealer group at that point. And yes, in searching for cars recently for my SO, we found that the "regular" brands were as much as some of the luxury brands - they were saying Corollas were going for 400-500 a month, which is absurd. during covid, automakers bought every used car they could get their dirty little mitts on, and they ended up with this glut of used cars now. I think that in order to offset their losses on overbuying the used cases they've now started selling the used cars at new car prices while raising the new cars to former mid-range luxury car prices. That's my theory anyway but it sure seems like it when a Kia Telluride is 55k lol.
January 23, 20242 yr 5 minutes ago, hovertical said: during covid, automakers bought every used car they could get their dirty little mitts on, and they ended up with this glut of used cars now. I think that in order to offset their losses on overbuying the used cases they've now started selling the used cars at new car prices while raising the new cars to former mid-range luxury car prices. That's my theory anyway but it sure seems like it when a Kia Telluride is 55k lol. well, the automakers didn't buy used cars, that'd have been dealer groups. But yes, agreed - and then couple that with interest rates being high, vs. next to nothing, and it's a perfect storm. On the flip side, most regular cars do have tech and features that'd have been only in luxury cars not that long ago. But yes, vehicles have gotten so expensive, it's crazy.
January 23, 20242 yr Author but in regard to Audi, I've never actually LOVED driving - until I got to drive one a few months ago. It's hard to describe unless you've experienced it yourself. I've typically driven Japanese and American cars my entire life - even a Lexus at one juncture BUT this was my first foray into German cars and it was sooooo different. Again, very hard to describe unless you've experienced the handling, suspension, and overall response that car offered versus anything else I've ever been behind the wheel of. I could tell just pulling out from the Enterprise lot at the airport that it handled totally different. Anyway, from everything I've read, researched, and devoured. If you want high end performance and tech you go with German-built cars. If you want something that gets you from point A to B without bothering you - you go with Japanese. (avoid American altogether lol). The German engineers like to try out new tech and tinker with stuff far more than the Japanese who typically wait a bit before introducing it to their cars, at which point, they refine it more and make it more commonplace and reliable. So that's probably why operating the Audi felt so much different. I didn't even have some crazy high end model that I was renting but it was just a spirited ride. Never though I could enjoy being in traffic or just driving down a road but it certainly did bring that fun factor to driving. In regard to lease versus buy, we'd def buy as we don't like leases and we tend to keep our vehicles 10+ years if we can. I'd get the extended warranty they offer which lets you go up to a full 10 years/120k miles as I know Audi's are just dumb pricy to repair.
January 23, 20242 yr Author oh. fun side note I've learned in my adventures. we all know that Enterprise and other rental car companies sell their used vehicles but their biggest client is actually car dealerships who buy their used cars from them and then list them as having "1 owner" - well that "one previous owner" was actually Enterprise who obviously let hundreds of people use that car. Just keep that in mind if you're considering a used car.
January 23, 20242 yr 1 hour ago, hovertical said: but in regard to Audi, I've never actually LOVED driving - until I got to drive one a few months ago. It's hard to describe unless you've experienced it yourself. I've typically driven Japanese and American cars my entire life - even a Lexus at one juncture BUT this was my first foray into German cars and it was sooooo different. Again, very hard to describe unless you've experienced the handling, suspension, and overall response that car offered versus anything else I've ever been behind the wheel of. I could tell just pulling out from the Enterprise lot at the airport that it handled totally different. Anyway, from everything I've read, researched, and devoured. If you want high end performance and tech you go with German-built cars. If you want something that gets you from point A to B without bothering you - you go with Japanese. (avoid American altogether lol). The German engineers like to try out new tech and tinker with stuff far more than the Japanese who typically wait a bit before introducing it to their cars, at which point, they refine it more and make it more commonplace and reliable. So that's probably why operating the Audi felt so much different. I didn't even have some crazy high end model that I was renting but it was just a spirited ride. Never though I could enjoy being in traffic or just driving down a road but it certainly did bring that fun factor to driving. In regard to lease versus buy, we'd def buy as we don't like leases and we tend to keep our vehicles 10+ years if we can. I'd get the extended warranty they offer which lets you go up to a full 10 years/120k miles as I know Audi's are just dumb pricy to repair. Yeah, the German cars drive really well - my mom has had a couple of BMWs over the years (currently and X7) and it's crazy the things they can do - especially for an SUV. She and my dad opted to do the factory delivery in South Carolina for her X7, and we went up there another time to do one of their driving schools - it was incredible actually getting to drive the cars on race courses and learning how to do it. I have a new appreciation for these drivers that do these long races - it really does take a lot of concentration to pilot these vehicles at these speeds - on particular stretches, we'd get up to 130, and then you have to mash the brakes to take immediate turns - those German cars handle it with ease. The Japanese cars are known for reliability, but it's not always true. Just as American cars aren't necessarily known for that. I had a Ford Flex for 13 years / 160k miles and all it had was routine maintenance....looked brand new when I sold it a couple of years ago (I have a Bronco now).
January 23, 20242 yr 1 hour ago, hovertical said: oh. fun side note I've learned in my adventures. we all know that Enterprise and other rental car companies sell their used vehicles but their biggest client is actually car dealerships who buy their used cars from them and then list them as having "1 owner" - well that "one previous owner" was actually Enterprise who obviously let hundreds of people use that car. Just keep that in mind if you're considering a used car. I didn't know that - that's definitely something to keep in mind!
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.