Weissland also addressed concerns over how far and how quickly leasing has fallen at Audi as well as other premium brands as rising interest rates make leasing less attractive. Previously, well over half of Audi’s sales were leases, which have now fallen to 24 percent, year to date, an Audi spokeswoman later confirmed.
Like other luxury brands, Audi uses subvented leasing as a way to ensure that customers build a close relationship with their dealer and return at frequent intervals for new vehicles, giving dealers a ready supply of well-maintained off-lease inventory than can be sold as more-lucrative certified pre-owned vehicles.
He said dealers’ main concern continues to be with adequate supply from the factory, but that lease penetration is also a concern. Weissland said the factory and Audi dealers must work to “make sure the customer stays connected to the brand” regardless of how or whether they finance their purchase.
Weissland said Audi has been moving away from “a pure volume focus” to “focus more on quality, customer retention and all those things that make a customer happy and to fulfill the requirements that the customer wants. By doing that, putting more attention to that, hopefully we can increase our loyalty rates, our retention, and keep that customer in the family.”
If the customer “is happy, happy with the product, happy with the brand, happy with the service at the dealership,” Weissland asked, “why should he leave and go somewhere else?”
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