Anyone heard of a "Customs Intensive Audit"?

[sundowner]

It appears that my new Spyder may have been randomly selected by Customs in the port of Brunswick for an "Intensive Audit." I'm told that the car could be delayed in Customs for anywhere from 30 days to 45 days. I have a vision of Customs Inspectors disassembling portions of the car and then putting it back together.

Has anyone else had this experience or know what a Customs Intensive Audit really entails? Thanks.

[NVRL8R8]

WOW! That is not cool. I hope they don't take anything apart. Never heard of anything like this though. Best of luck!

[gazza1]

It appears that my new Spyder may have been randomly selected by Customs in the port of Brunswick for an "Intensive Audit." I'm told that the car could be delayed in Customs for anywhere from 30 days to 45 days. I have a vision of Customs Inspectors disassembling portions of the car and then putting it back together.

Has anyone else had this experience or know what a Customs Intensive Audit really entails? Thanks.

That's not good if true.

However don't be put off(apart from the delay) as this is how my new coupe was on the first day of landing at the dealership.

Car does not have ONE squeak including them removing some of the interior to run wires from the exhaust.

[sundowner]

That's not good if true.

However don't be put off(apart from the delay) as this is how my new coupe was on the first day of landing at the dealership.

Car does not have ONE squeak including them removing some of the interior to run wires from the exhaust.

Thanks. But, my major concern is that government employees (not Audi certified technicians) could be taking the car apart. I'm told that Audi will perform a detailed inspection (add even more time to the delay) after it is released from Customs but, this does not give me a great deal of comfort because Customs will not discuss with Audi what areas of the car it investigates.

I'm slowly coming to the realization that the months of waiting may have all been for nought. If it goes through this Intensive Audit I will most likely not accept this Spyder. I'm told I will receive additional info this coming week but, that is also what I was told last week. I understand that it is not Audi's fault and that Customs is only doing its job. But, I'm not going to spend $185k on a car that has been disassembled in any way by Government employees.

[gazza1]

My mistake..re government employees.

I wouldn't touch it either.

[sapien]

Better safe than sorry, immediately refuse the car.

[M3R8]

Sorry to hear that. Really annoying. Although my guess is that they won't be disassembling it in any way, they are just most likely going to be xraying and sniffing it from every possible angle.

They should intensely audit their own a-holes.

[FiftyPence]

I'm sure you've googled for similar cases already including this one.

Post 1 - Mid June 2009 the vehicle was with customs
Post 118 - car collected by customer 13Sep09

[sundowner]

I'm sure you've googled for similar cases already including this one.

Post 1 - Mid June 2009 the vehicle was with customs
Post 118 - car collected by customer 13Sep09

Thanks Fifty. Confirms my concern. Hopefully, I will receive an update this week.

[R8Spyderman]

US Customs & Border Protection does routine spot checks on all imports. In the case of a car, I would think they would put it through their container X-ray machine and nothing more than that. Their biggest concern is WMDs, narcotics, illegal aliens, etc. and are unlikely to take apart a car unless they have specific reasons to do so. The X-ray will disclose any hidden cache of drugs, WMDs, etc. so assuming there isn't anything suspicious seen on the X-ray, they are unlikely to examine your car any further. The only reason they say it may take so long is because they have such a backlog of containers and loose cargo shipments to examine and insufficient manpower to get to it right away, not because they propose to dismantle your car. So, I wouldn't worry about this intensive exam other than the fact that it delays you receiving your car.