The dreaded waiting list ...

[Paul]

This is a subject that I'm sure will bring a few moans and groans ... but I'm sure it is something many of us are wondering about ... and more importantly are wondering how it is formed ... the structure of it ... and how you maintain position on it ... and how far down it you might slip if you don't jump through the required hoops!

In all honesty I don't expect Audi to come up with a definitive explanation that they will publicly state until after the Jan 12 deadline ... and I suspect they will claim all customers must have paid the additional deposit to maintain their position on the waiting list ... maintaining that any customer with an initial holding deposit ... around, lets say, £1,500 ... who doesn’t increase it to the minimum of £10,000 will slip down the waiting list and not get their car built until all customer cars have been built for those that did stump up the full £10,000 deposit.

It seems to be fairly common knowledge that Audi are only producing 400 cars for the UK market (about another 50 will be press and specialist fleet cars) ... interestingly the numbered copies of the customer order pack stops at 500, although significantly more customer packs than that will be produced and despatched by early January ... which means that in a way Audi have effectively oversold the initial UK allocation ... something I expect them to do in all countries they sell the R8 in ... in order to explain this here goes with some more of my lateral thinking, some facts and figures, and some more figures just plucked out of the air - which are the percentages in the following paragraph ... until I throw in another number at the end! …

Using the UK market as the example ... Audi have a list of the first 500 customers who put in an initial deposit to show genuine interest and as of the end of November, Audi have a follow on list with another 400+ names of customers who put down their holding deposit after the initial 500 lucky ones to get a numbered book in the customer pack ... so around 950 UK customers (or potential customers) maybe give or take 50, depending on how many additional customers put down their names after the end of November ... will have had customer packs by the first week in January ... I think it is highly likely that Audi will secure at least 400 deposits out of those 900+ people who have expressed serious interest ... even working on a list of 900 names, if 25% drop out after getting their customer pack and seeing the actual price/performance/options ... and another 33% drop out as they are not prepared to increase their deposit to £10,000 ... that would still leave 450 people at the top of the list … increase the first figure to 33% and leave the second figure at 33% and you still get 400 people at the top … I suspect the actual list to have gone well over the 900 mark after reading between the lines of an e-mail I saw, which would only make the number of people staying on the list grow even more ... if you imagine the number of people on the overall list grew to 1,000 you would get 500 using the first pair of percentages above, then 448 using the second pair of percentages, even if you made the percentages 40% and 33% you’d still end up with 402 names at the top of the list.

Whether the manner in which Audi are handling the waiting list is right is not the point I am raising here ... instead I’m just trying to point out some figures to give people something to think about ... I know Audi could have handled things better than they have done ... but I know I like the R8 enough to take a risk on the final product (that I will hopefully get to drive sometime in the second half of 2007) being something that I will actually enjoy ... however, if the motoring press love it, but I don’t ... I can always sell it! ... with good press on it, I shouldn't lose much, if anything, on it ... however, I severely doubt I will be selling it anytime soon after I get it ... the engine alone will, imho, make it worth having

[wayno]

It seems to be fairly common knowledge that Audi are only producing 400 cars for the UK market (about another 50 will be press and specialist fleet cars) ... interestingly the numbered copies of the customer order pack stops at 500, although significantly more customer packs than that will be produced and despatched by early January ... which means that in a way Audi have effectively oversold the initial UK allocation ... something I expect them to do in all countries they sell the R8 in ... in order to explain this here goes with some more of my lateral thinking, some facts and figures, and some more figures just plucked out of the air - which are the percentages in the following paragraph ... until I throw in another number at the end! …

Sorry to throw a spanner in the works, but my book is numbered 725 out of 1,000 !

Wayno

[Paul]

Sorry to throw a spanner in the works, but my book is numbered 725 out of 1,000 !

Wayno

... I'll have to go read the e-mail again then ... however, it seems my imaginairy thought ... was not wrong ...

I suspect the actual list to have gone well over the 900 mark after reading between the lines of an e-mail I saw, which would only make the number of people staying on the list grow even more ... if you imagine the number of people on the overall list grew to 1,000

It seems books 1 to 500 are numbered "n/500" and books 501 to 1000 are numbered "n/1000" where "n" is the number allocated to your pack by Audi.

I suspect it gives you an indication of what part of the list you are on ... although not where on the list you are ... I'm as certain that I can be that at least one person who had a deposit down before me ... has a higher number than I do in the 1 to 500 range ... my pack is numbered 376/500 ... all we need now is for someone who had a deposit down before December 2005 to come forward and tell us if their pack is numbered after 376.

[wayno]

... I'll have to go read the e-mail again then ... however, it seems my imaginairy thought ... was not wrong ...
It seems books 1 to 500 are numbered "n/500" and books 501 to 1000 are numbered "n/1000" where "n" is the number allocated to your pack by Audi.

I suspect it gives you an indication of what part of the list you are on ... although not where on the list you are ... I'm as certain that I can be that at least one person who had a deposit down before me ... has a higher number than I do in the 1 to 500 range ... my pack is numbered 376/500 ... all we need now is for someone who had a deposit down before December 2005 to come forward and tell us if their pack is numbered after 376.

Having seen the fiasco and bad will that Audi managed to create over the (original )TT and the subsequent pricing of the S line version, I would doubt that they are capable of allocating books in a numerical order to tally with the order number. More likely is that the books were dished put in batches to dealers- i.e my dealer is M25 Audi , and I'd guess they got one batch of books ( maybe 30?) that they then allocated out to branch level. Remember this is not Porsche we're discussing but a mass market car producer who happens to have created a "must have" car, and so far seems ( as a Porsche dealer said) "out of their depth" when dealing with the people who want to buy it.

Wayno

[Paul]

Wayno ... when did you put down your ... initial holding deposit ...

[wayno]

Wayno ... when did you put down your ... initial holding deposit ...

Paul, I'm away at the moment, and don't have the paperwork with me, but I put an initial deposit down (£3,000) the day after reading the EVO cover story on the car- maybe early October? and topped up my deposit to £10k when asked middle of December.

Hope tha helps.

W

[R8 England]

Paul,

My book is 468 (or 486 - can't remember which), and my deposit went down in August 2004............

I guess books were produced as a numbered series, and then randomly issued.

Greg

[jeanplilley]

Paul,

My book is 468 (or 486 - can't remember which), and my deposit went down in August 2004............

I guess books were produced as a numbered series, and then randomly issued.

Greg

As far as I can work out the numbers can mean nothing. Greg's order surely must be one of the very earliest (I cant access the thread which had order dates on it) but his number is 468. My order went in slightly earlier than my initial deposit which was Oct 2004 and my dealer assures me I will get the first car in my area which does not totally reassure me as , on a national level, I would be expecting to get one of the first cars - shortly after Greg. Yet I have not even received the pack and do not have a number at all although I did get an invite to the launch. My dealer says this is **** up and confusion at Audi HQ and not to worry. Audi are not doing themselves any favours at present.
John

[Paul]

Audi are not doing themselves any favours at present.

You're not wrong ... Audi UK, or at least an R8 team head ... should be compiling a national waiting list for the R8.

The list ... imho ... should be ordered in the following manner:
1. The date the customer first registered interest with Audi for the R8.
2. The date the customer specified their order if equal on point 1 above.
3. The date the customer last became an Audi customer if equal on points 1 and 2 above.
That should ... imho ... be it.

Then once the list is formed Audi UK ... or at least an R8 team head ... contact each customer directly ... it's the least they could do ... telling them where they are on the waiting list ... and forecast when the UK R8s are due to be built ... i.e. UK cars 1 to 50 scheduled for delivery in May 2007, cars 51 to 100 in June 2007, meaning cars 351 to 400 arriving in December, based on 50 cars a month coming to the UK from May onwards ... or 80 a month if they only start arriving in June.

I'd be more than happy for Audi to use a combined view of the date of point 1 above coupled with the date the customer raised their deposit to £10,000 ... to form the waiting list ... but, I don't think that should be the case ... even though it might move me up the list a little ...

[jeanplilley]

Seems eminently reasonable apart from one thing which I posted earlier - nobody from audi has asked me for an extra 10K deposit.