PX Prices, Audi Cheek and a sweet moment

[MBK]

By now you probably know my RS3 has departed and as there was some interest and discussion on the PX/trade prices on the classified thread for the car I thought I'd give the full story here (rather than continue on the classified thread area). If, as I know some are, you are keeping your RS3 long term this won't matter to you one bit but if you are thinking of moving on you might be interested. Cars are just toys to me so I accept the ups and downs as part of the game.

This might not be a message you want to hear but of all the cars I've owned the RS3 has been by far the most difficult to sell. I did eventually find a motivated buyer and the car was sold within minutes but that took some effort on my part.

Audi Cheek

Lets start with Audi. There general attitude to the RS3 has been nothing short of cheek. The best offer for an Audi dealer for my car was £25k, the lowest from the dealership I bought the car from at £24k. These were some of the direct quotes from the Audi 'buyers':

"These are rare for a reason, they don't sell"

"We are scared of being stuck with the car, no one has looked twice at the one we've already got in stock"

"The high tax band, poor fuel consumption and big engine puts people off" [Grrr....high tax band really!]

"The options are worth nothing in terms of extra trade in price, you shouldn't have specced the car so highly" [It's OK I didn't...]

"To be honest we don't want the car" - Well yes indeed thank you so much Cardiff Audi, 3rd and last ever Audi I will buy from you and more generally Audi.

This was despite sitting with them while they valued the car and pulled up these PX figures on screen:

GAP: £28,045
CAP: £28,225 (mileage adjusted, under average mileage added a few £££)
? Other: £26,985 [I didn't catch the name on this one]

The Datsun dealer actually apologised to me "sorry I just don't understand what Audi are playing at with these offers" when he made the PX offer on the RS3 - you don't get that often!

Other Offers:

I've already spoken a bit about the other offers on the 20,000 mile thread. Luckily I've sold a few cars to traders before so I was able to get some independent offers. Even We Buy Any Car made a firm, viewed offer of £27,045 (plus the remaining tax refunded). All the offers were around this figure. I eventually did a little bit better but nothing spectacular.

A Sweet Moment:

I'm in the lucky position to be looking at some great replacements for the RS3 and the sweetest moment was looking at an R8 at one of the dealerships that had made cheeky comments about the RS3. We were getting all the sales la la and eventually started discussing the price.

When the sales manager I'm afraid I couldn't resist asking:

"So tell me, these R8s are they difficult to sell when the time comes because they have a high tax band, poor fuel consumption and a big engine." Stunned silence was the response, you could as good as see the penny dropping. We then had a short, loud chat about some of comments made about the RS3, valueless options and all the problems of the sports cars the showroom is full of.

I understand a lot of car sales is about ego and arrogance but I'd want to treat my customers better and if I did hold these negative views I certainly wouldn't express them. I think needless to say we're not buying an R8.

PX vs Selling:

At this point I'm £5k up so far by selling and buying with no PX, the real point of this story is you are just so much better off selling than PXing. My sale price was over 3500 more than the highest PX offer. When I was PXing no one would offer any further discount on their cars either. Going back without the RS3 to PX everyone was willing to talk sensible discounts, just on the first deal I'm doing I got an additional £1500 discount.

I will stick around the forum for a while because I think there are some great people here but it's highly unlikely I'll buy another Audi again the poor service was one thing but the lack of ability to sell their own halo brand cars ices the cake.

 

[45bvtc]

BLUEY and ME; MBK, are together for the LONG term; and I MEAN TEN (already done two) years or more.

Thanks for the offers (others out there) but BLUEY isn't for sale.

Said it before: there IS NOTHING out there I'd swap BLUEY for, and I do mean NOTHING - even if Ferrari, Porsche, and or McLaren were paying.

OK, so I/we have a TT roadster too; the balance of which is what makes BLUEY special for us.

If you've any doubt about your RS3 then go buy something seriously cheap and mundane to run alongside: too much can sometimes be too little, while too little can prove so much!

The more you run an RS3 the more blasé you'll get about the usual A to B road cars; maybe you need to address your road-car point of reference - as MBK may be about to do.

 

[MBK]

Fair points John, I'm not knocking the RS3 as a driving machine at all I loved owning and driving mine, well worth the overall cost. The Audi dealership service and attitude however leaves a lot to be desired.

I also couldn't find one car that could replace the RS3 as an all rounder so this time it's a mix and match mini fleet, each one with proven motorsport ability but beyond that they couldn't be more different.

 

[klauster]

I know colour and spec is objective but I suspect some of the issue selling your car was the colour and spec, if I was looking for an RS3 the colour, steering wheel and other red leather would put me off completely

 

[MBK]

True and as you say all subjective, bucket seats are equally divisive. I wouldn't have specced the car that way either but for sure I'm glad I didn't pay for the options. It reinforces the lesson to stay well away from the options list unless you really have to have the item. I never once noticed the red leather once I was driving the car, it's a strange thing. Plenty of high end cars about with a lot more red leather than that inside too.

Also many of the buyers didn't even see the interior they just priced the car as a standard RS3 and weren't willing to budge based on any spec/mileage etc. The excuses the dealers did give were more worrying unless you like low tax band, small engined economical cars.

 

[klauster]

Strange, most RS3s I have seen have sold quite quickly.... I'm keeping mine for a few years yet

 

[DAYTONA 500]

Your right what you say Mark the dealer just treats a car as a unit and is only intersted in what profit it's going to return .I think you should start a new thread "guess my new car /cars", I'm going to miss your unbiased in depth write-ups which myself and no doubt others have enjoyed reading,you've told it as it is throughout the highs and lows of RS3 ownership.

 

[T-800]

 

[dbm]

Unfortunately, my experience of Audi p/x is very hit and miss. My local Audi dealership made an insulting offer against my TTS which I had originally bought from them and they had serviced it all it's life. I ended up buying my car from Cambridge who offered me a much more reasonable p/x on the car.

Options are always a lose-lose proposition. The dealer will never add on value due to an optional extra but will take money off if you are missing 'essential' extras like sat-nav or whatever seems advantageous to them. They will, of course, add money on to the forecourt price for those same extras as soon as they buy the car from you...

It's always best to sell privately but I must admit I have mostly p/x'ed as the money has never been make or break on the car changes I've done so far. The plan for the RS3 is for my wife to inherit it when the time comes for a change, so at least it will stay in the family for years to come!

 

[monkeyboy_marcus]

...I'm going to miss your unbiased in depth write-ups which myself and no doubt others have enjoyed reading,you've told it as it is throughout the highs and lows of RS3 ownership.

I agree - it has been a pleasure reading your entertaining and thought-provoking write ups. You're a legend.

I part-exed the VW Scirocco to get the RS3 and got a terrible deal plus an insignificant discount, so wouldn't ever do that again, not that I'm planning on giving up the RS3, especially given the probable return now that we've done in excess of 22k miles together.

Not particularly enjoyed the Audi experience though in terms of dealerships etc. Pretty ****-poor technicians, bad customer service etc.

So Caterham seven 620R for the track and what for the road?

 

[Dave Hedgehog]

it has pretty much been like this since the begining of time by any dealer, what you are buying is the most desirable thing on the planet, what you are selling is worthless crap, their just taking the p1ss

it has pretty much always been better to sell privatly

rule one when dealing with stealers, be prepared to walk away, i drove 60 miles to find a dealer who took me seriously and wouldnt give me any BS on my RS3, they offered me more on my R32 px than wbac and a decent discount. so let them know you are serious but prepared to walk if they play games, you will walk a lot but you normally find someone who wants a deal (they still earn well out of it after all)

 

[tee-bee]

You would think with the loyalty of staying with the marque they'll make an extra effort to entice you.. or even give a generous discount if buying a new Audi..

Guess with Audi being the top selling luxury marque in the UK, sales personnel are becoming more arrogant!

 

[klauster]

Audi have a lot of work to do, their network is full of crap dealerships and their sales workforce could use a rocket or two!

 

[MBK]

I think you should start a new thread "guess my new car /cars", I'm going to miss your unbiased in depth write-ups which myself and no doubt others have enjoyed reading,you've told it as it is throughout the highs and lows of RS3 ownership.

Thanks Ben, appreciate the comments I've enjoyed doing the write ups all part of the car experience for me. They are just toys in my world as we are way beyond just transport needs.

I'm happy to start a guess the car thread but I think it might be quite short and you'll guess pretty quickly!

 

[DAYTONA 500]

Start that thread Mark, i don't think it would be short as once the car/cars have been guessed I'm sure it will carry on into an interesting discussion. :thumbsup:

 

[MBK]

Your wish is indeed my command!

 

[DAYTONA 500]

it has pretty much been like this since the begining of time by any dealer, what you are buying is the most desirable thing on the planet, what you are selling is worthless crap, their just taking the p1ss

it has pretty much always been better to sell privatly

rule one when dealing with stealers, be prepared to walk away, i drove 60 miles to find a dealer who took me seriously and wouldnt give me any BS on my RS3, they offered me more on my R32 px than wbac and a decent discount. so let them know you are serious but prepared to walk if they play games, you will walk a lot but you normally find someone who wants a deal (they still earn well out of it after all)

Your right there Dave car salesmen would commit the act of daylight robbery if you let them ,a bit like these folk from days of old{even the words are fitting}.

 

[Dave Hedgehog]

Audi have a lot of work to do, their network is full of crap dealerships and their sales workforce could use a rocket or two!

Many places do seem to have an old school dodgy second hand sales technique, i wonder if the brand grew faster than than some of the sales teams

their pricing is very odd thou, it will cost me (approx) £1200 to lease an RS6 but i can get an M5 for £600 (all incl VAT) and have seen a few for as low as £510 ppm all in

guess what i am not buying

 

[fanshu]

Totally agreed, and even from a viewer in Hong Kong, your writing is very useful and good for all RS3 owners:thumbsup:

 

[tee-bee]

Picked up my RS3 yesterday from Audi Slough for a service.

The Audi personnel were complimenting how rare the RS3s are.

I told them on a forum member thinking of trading in their RS3 for a R8 and mentioned the poor experience he encountered with the Audi sales staff.

They were gobsmacked.. and attempted to change the topic of conversation.

Meanwhile, saw the RSQ3, RS5 and RS4 in the showroom.. really do have the hots for the RS4...