Amid an industry push towards fixed prices, and stock shortages pushing the price of new cars through the roof, Audi says it’s dealers are willing to negotiate with customers.
A spokesperson for the brand said dealers are “open to negotiations that are tailored to each customer’s individual needs” as part of its Open Haus sale – although the spokesperson didn’t confirm exactly what sort of discounts will be on offer.
Previous iterations of the sale have also included free service packs and longer warranties, but it’s not clear if the same will be offered in 2022.
Once a core part of the new car buying process, negotiating a sharper deal has become increasingly difficult in recent years.
Audi’s luxury rival Mercedes-Benz, along with brands such as Honda, have moved to an agency model with fixed pricing. That means no haggling, and no cross-shopping between dealers to try and track down a sharper deal.
Long wait times and tight supply have also undermined negotiating power, although Audi’s luxury rival at BMW has been offering discounts on some models according to the CarExpert Sold Price Report.
Between the promise of back-and-forth between dealers and customers, and what should be strong supply in the second half of 2022, Audi is expecting its sales to jump on the back of a tough start to the year.
A spokesperson for the brand said it’s “seeing some easing of restrictions and supply limitations, which you would have seen in our deliveries in the last three months – a substantial lift since earlier this year”.
“While logistics and supply remain challenging topics that we continue to work on improving, we expect our trend of growing sales to continue throughout 2022,” the spokesperson said.
Its sales tally for the last three months (June, July, August) are its highest of the year, and go some way to making up for months like May, where the brand’s 941 sales represented a 45.4 per cent dive relative to the year prior.
The brand’s best-seller to date in 2022 is the Q3 SUV with 2821 sales, ahead of the larger Q5 SUV (2228 sales).
To date in 2022, Audi sales are down 21.1 per cent on the same point in 2021. It trails BMW (16,154 sales) and Mercedes-Benz (19,321) on the charts.
