Audi uk trying to hide volume of approved used r8's?

[randombloke]

After audi finally added r8's to the approved used locator they seem to have "tweaked" it again so that searching for an r8 doesn't work like the rest of the used cars. now it opens up a dedicated search section where you have to select a single color and either manual or r-tronic. no multipe colours, no "all transmissions" option.

The cynic in me can't help thinking they're doing this to mask the total number of cars in their used network by only allowing people to see bitesize chunks at a time rather than an all cars list.

[AnOutsider]

What would be the purpose? To encourage new car sales?

[randombloke]

that'd be my thought - there are a lot of used r8's out there a the moment for such a niche model.

[R84ME]

That is interesting. Selecting each color, I got about 28 automatic cars. A very different search than AUDIUSA, but ours doesn't even work.

http://www.audiusa.com/audi/us/en2/C..._certified.htx

[randombloke]

autotrader.co.uk lists a whopping 111 r8's for sale starting from £55k with the fist audi dealer network car being listed there at £61,450 for a sprint blue manual with 9,450 on the clock.

[AnOutsider]

Wow.. well, I'm glad I got the car for the enjoyment and not the resale.

[rmclachlan]

True, there do seem to be a lot of them available, many very very low mileage also. Have Audi dumped their demonstrators?, or have owners got cold feet with the recession, or possibly some are selling now to make room for the forthcoming V10. In any event I suspect once these move into the used car market we may see some true enthusiasts buying them, as seems to be happening with the Gallardo. Interestingly there are more AMV8s, Gallardos, and 911s available on Auto trader than R8s.

[randombloke]

I think quite a lot of people were tempted by very high early residuals which if you got in and out fast enough meant driving the car and making either a small profit or no real loss.

Also, the whole economic situation will likely have caused a lot of rethinks in terms of where to tie money up.

Interestingly there are more AMV8s, Gallardos, and 911s available on Auto trader than R8s.

yeah, but some have been out for longer than the r8. If you restrict to 1 year old:

gallardo - 29
v8 vantage - 54
r8 - 66
911 (all types) - 136

it'd be interesting to see how that stacks up against annual new car sales volumes though as the 911 shifts good volume given its model spread in that range.

[rmclachlan]

The 1 year figures are very interesting. I suspect we are seeing the departure of the speculators from the R8 market.

[bz888]

In Australia, The Financial Crisis has hit the R8 hard. There are lot's of new and used R8s in Audi Dealers across the country. They can't get rid of them!!!

Prices have fallen by upto 33%. It's a bad situation out there...