Audi

Today we went to Ingostadt to pick up our new Audi. It was quite a production and they really went above and beyond to cater to our every whim. Even little details like a bottle of water were placed in the lone cup holder, and they took our photo with the new car and presented it to us minutes later.

We started with a tour of the museum, which housed a large range of cars. My favorites are always the concept cars where there is more attention paid to details and they are more unique.

We even saw the car from the Will Smith movie iRobot. It looked very sophisticated and high tech. I can't even imagine what people would think if they saw that driving down the street. According to our dealer it's not so sophisticated underneath.

Stefan was so excited to get our car that we chose to have lunch, then pick up our car, and finally go on the factory tour.

Our names came up on the screen and we were slightly surprised to also see Bayern Munich's own Lukas Podolski and Prof. Dr. Fritz Scherer - both from Bayern Munich. It appears they were also getting new cars today.

After being taught exactly how to work the car we were allowed to drive it out of the show room and park it among a sea of Audis that others had picked up. We commented on how well ours stood out among the rest and how beautiful it was. I figure it's similar to looking at babies in a nursery and knowing yours is the most precious.

What surprised me a little bit, after going on the Porsche tour in March, was that Audi does so much with machines. Stefan and I stood in awe and wonderment of how these machines work and who exactly designs them or puts them together. One was capable of creating as much pressure as 120,000 people jumping at once. This machine is what they use to press the steel / aluminum to create various parts. They said it's similar to an earth quake and had to be stabilized 60 meters underground. The Ingostadt factory is the same size as Monaco and has as many workers as Monaco has people.

Each machine strategically punched holes into things and lifted the various heavy car parts. I was quickly reminded why I hate sci-fi things... they scare me. It's intimidating to see what people are capable of creating. It makes sense that cars are expensive after the tell you about a multibillion Euro machine. They also said it takes 4 billion euros to research and develop a new car. I can't really comprehend that.


My favorite area is inevitably the color. Our guide even said a German singer had visited and asked them to match a shade of nail polish for her car color and they happily obliged. We went with the more traditional 'lava gray', which Stefan kindly allowed me to pick.

After a long Audi filled day the car dealer called and asked us to stop by to show him the car on the way home. He gave Stefan a nice pen set. I'm sure they are hoping to make life long Audi customers out of us.

I have to say the Porsche tour was more impressive because we could see people making the cars and the production wasn't as immense. I'm sure that would make my Dad proud. Regardless, we are very happy with the new addition to our family.