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View Full Version : OSD, CALIFORNIA, MMMMM.....



ladalske
01-06-2004, 05:42 PM
I am thinking about buying a Volvo XC70.... OSD sounds great. Yet I am not sure of price and hidden costs. I would like to know if there is any hidden costs. Also do dealerships deal with you? Or do you have a set price and that is it. Does it really save you money in the long run???

I am buying a Volvo no matter what, but I am trying to find out if I should do OSD.

Thanks,

timid prospective buyer

coastal
01-06-2004, 06:51 PM
I'd suggest contacting William Marks at [email protected]
(http://www.flyvolvo.com). He's an OSD specialist based in California, and widely reputed to be the authority on all things OSD.

Generally speaking, from what I understand, if you have the patience for the wait OSD is THE way to go for buyers in the USA. Savings for us here in Canada are nowhere near as generous.

Hope that helps, and welcome to the site http://xc70.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

ORGramps
01-06-2004, 08:21 PM
Welcome to the Board!

We just committed today for a XC70 OSD March 12 through our dealer.  If you are interested don't wait too long as I understand that the lead time may increase as we get later inthe year.

ORGramps

imxc90
01-06-2004, 09:26 PM
</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (ladalske @ Jan. 06 2004,16:42)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">I am thinking about buying a Volvo XC70.... OSD sounds great. Yet I am not sure of price and hidden costs. I would like to know if there is any hidden costs. Also do dealerships deal with you? Or do you have a set price and that is it. Does it really save you money in the long run???

I am buying a Volvo no matter what, but I am trying to find out if I should do OSD.

Thanks,

timid prospective buyer[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
In our experience, OSD is easy. The hard part was believing it was easy. The short description on how OSD works is at http://www.stillmanvolvo.com/pages....avID=40 (http://www.stillmanvolvo.com/pages/present/volvo/notlocalized/custom/default.asp?PageID=4060&NavID=40)

Based on our experience, here are the steps:

- Determine what model you want and options

- Find an OSD person (William Marks in Fairfield, for example or Yannis Alatzas in West Chester, PA)
Note: Do not trust any salesperson on the
dealership to do this (the reason OSD is easy is
because the salesperson who specializes in
OSD takes care of the hard part and they have the
documents and contacts to resolve any problems
you might encounter)

- Go to the overseas delivery website (http://www.flyvolvo.com or http://www.stillmanvolvo.com/pages....vID=40) (http://www.stillmanvolvo.com/pages/present/volvo/notlocalized/custom/default.asp?PageID=4060&NavID=40)) - in there is the list of models/options and pricing

- Also, go to the website that has the OSD checklist (http://new.volvocars.com/overseas/Checklist.pdf)

- Find your car (http://www.flyvolvo.com or http://www.stillmanvolvo.com/pages....vID=40) (http://www.stillmanvolvo.com/pages/present/volvo/notlocalized/custom/default.asp?PageID=4060&NavID=40)) and contact William or Yannis and ask a lot of questions (to the point where you are comfortable with the answers and/or the answers make sense to you)

- Have him explain the checklist to you and other fees such as taxes and registration and what the total cost will be. Also ask him for financing stuff, if any.

- Have him explain to you the sequence of events from the time you pick the model to the time you will physically have the car

- Once you decide to use OSD, you&#39;ll tell him what model/options from the (http://www.flyvolvo.com) PDF file). Also, tell him which dealership you want the car delivered to (in our experience, William wasn&#39;t that excited to have it delivered other than in Fairfield but we didn&#39;t care since we wanted to meet him, anyway. Maybe he had a bad day at the time we called. Next time, we&#39;ll insist on it.)

- He&#39;ll send you the checklist, travel offer details/contacts, and the order form (with info you provided). He&#39;ll help you if you have any questions. Again, don&#39;t be shy - keep asking.

- You have to sign the order form and put in a &#036;2k deposit. He&#39;ll give an Airborne envelope (all paid for) to put your check and all you need to do is put it in an Airborne drop-off location. If you don&#39;t like Airborne, there are other methods to send the check to him.
(There are no hidden fees. What you sign on the order form is what you&#39;ll pay plus registration fees and taxes (we only know Calif; don&#39;t know if other states have additional fees). Other fees may be financing, if any, or if you buy anything else in addition to what is on the order form.)

- After about 1 week, you should get a confirmation letter with a &quot;delivery date&quot;. If you don&#39;t hear in 1 week, call William or Yannis.

- If you take the travel offer, contact the Volvo Corp travel (this is in the travel offer packet he would have given you with the order form, etc). Book your travel - Volvo Corp Travel requires you provide them with your order confirmation number and &quot;delivery date&quot;.

- Make sure you contact the Factory Delivery Center in Gothenburg to confirm your delivery date so they can set up the appointment for when you get/see/sign the paperwork for your car at the FDC. Bring a copy of your order form (the FDC does not have it - they use a different list). Use your order form as your check list to inspect the car.

- Upon arrival, you&#39;ll be picked up at the airport to your hotel (and if you&#39;re in Gothenburg for departure, you can call the FDC to have them send you transportation from your hotel to the airport - all free - just ask&#33; )

- At the FDC, they&#39;ll give all the paper work including the date when your car is expected to be at the dealership for you to pick up

- Apparently, traveling is not required to do OSD (ask William or Yannis if you prefer not to travel - but the travel deal is too good to pass up)

- Approx. 30 days before you pick up the car at the dealership, you have to pay for the car in full (less &#036;2k deposit) + registration, taxes, and whatever else they talk you into buying at the dealership. Again, you can do this in person, Airborne, check, bank transfer, etc (William or Yannis can tell you all the options).

- When the car arrives, William or Yannis will call you (in our case, we just called 2-3 times to get a heads-up)

- At the dealership, inspect the car. They should also show/explain how everything works (well, most of it - ..think this is a law in Calif.)

Other Notes:
- OSD savings is approx. 8-10% off MSRP
- OSD has travel offers (Volvo has the best travel deal)
- Buying via OSD may take a while (we waited 6 months for our XC90; on the other hand, another couple at the FDC ordered their XC70 only 3 weeks prior to traveling. However, there are pre-built cars that may have all the stuff you want and there&#39;s really no wait for those. William or Yannis should be able to tell you the wait time.)
- Read this forum and also Swedespeed forum (http://forums.swedespeed.com/zeromain?id=3) for information on OSD and people&#39;s experiences - the information here are invaluable&#33;
- Gothenburg is a beautiful city; Sweden&#39;s currency is Swedish Kronos not Euros (in early Oct. 2003, the conversion was 8 Swedish Kronos to US&#036;1.00 so your money goes a long way).

Hope this helps. Good luck.

silverstar
01-07-2004, 12:17 AM
Nice post imxc90,

I think that post should be very helpful to anyone considering the OSD program.

Almost all the important info one needs to know in a single post. Well done

The process and steps that imxc90 posted seems like a lot of work but is actually painless. I 2nd the motion that Gothenburg and it&#39;s surrounding area is beautiful especially in June &amp; July.

bigtomhammer
01-07-2004, 06:39 AM
</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (imxc90 @ Jan. 06 2004,22:26)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Apparently, traveling is not required to do OSD (ask William or Yannis if you prefer not to travel - but the travel deal is too good to pass up)[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
Good write up but this line bothers me. &nbsp;I believe that there was only one time (Sept 11) that travel wasn&#39;t required. &nbsp;Volvo makes their money on the shipment of the car when importing it into the US since it is considered a &quot;used car&quot; once you drive it. &nbsp;That is why you have to go and drive the car to take advantage of the OSD deal. &nbsp;Even if you drive it around the block, you have taken delievery and now it is a used car.

bigtomhammer
01-07-2004, 06:47 AM
</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (ladalske @ Jan. 06 2004,18:42)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">I am thinking about buying a Volvo XC70.... OSD sounds great. Yet I am not sure of price and hidden costs. I would like to know if there is any hidden costs. Also do dealerships deal with you? Or do you have a set price and that is it. Does it really save you money in the long run???

I am buying a Volvo no matter what, but I am trying to find out if I should do OSD.

Thanks,

timid prospective buyer[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
Congrats on thinking about OSD. My wife and I loved it. http://xc70.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/thumbs-up.gif There are no &quot;hidden costs&quot; just really the price of the extra hotel stay (Volvo provides 1 nights stay the the Radisson if you take possession in Gothenburg). And according to your tickets, you are required to stay a Saturday evening even though the factory is only open Mon-Fri.

You may find a dealership to &quot;deal&quot; with you but it is hard. The dealership I went through gave me 10 percent off my packages that I ordered with the car (came to about an additional 1200 dollars or so). But for the most part, they won&#39;t deal from what I have read. Also, I didn&#39;t order a XC70, I ordered a V70 AWD so maybe there was some leway in that respective. And yes, you do save money in the long run. We ended up saving about 5000 dollars in the end but the drawback is that you have to wait to get your car (usually about 4-5 months if you special order) but as other members have said, there are premade cars at the factory so the wait could be shorter. But will probabily still be 2 months or so. &nbsp;Another drawback is that you pay for the car in full 30 days before you pick it up and since the car probabily isn&#39;t made yet, alot of places won&#39;t give a loan since there is no VIN number yet. &nbsp;Unless you pay for it in your own money if you have that much saved up. &nbsp; http://xc70.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif

imxc90
01-07-2004, 08:30 AM
</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (bigtomhammer @ Jan. 07 2004,05:39)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE"></span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (imxc90 @ Jan. 06 2004,22:26)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Apparently, traveling is not required to do OSD (ask William or Yannis if you prefer not to travel - but the travel deal is too good to pass up)[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
Good write up but this line bothers me. I believe that there was only one time (Sept 11) that travel wasn&#39;t required. Volvo makes their money on the shipment of the car when importing it into the US since it is considered a &quot;used car&quot; once you drive it. That is why you have to go and drive the car to take advantage of the OSD deal. Even if you drive it around the block, you have taken delievery and now it is a used car.[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
Hmmm, good point. We were definitely told this was an option but maybe our delivery date was within an &quot;exemption&quot; period. Oh well, William or Yannis should be able to provide more info on this should anyone pass up the travel offer.

BillAileo
01-07-2004, 08:34 AM
I concur in what&#39;s already been said. &nbsp;OSD is a great deal. &nbsp;As soon as we returned my wife began asking how long she has to wait for another OSD trip to Sweden. &nbsp;

Bill

katekka
01-10-2004, 08:15 AM
I agree that OSD is a great option, and in our experience, it was hassle-free, with no unpleasant surprises. &nbsp;Though we live in S. CA., we went with Yannis. &nbsp;Shipping was to a local dealer, Westside Volvo, who are easy to work with. If you have the lead time to go through OSD, its a substantial savings and great experience.

mrb
01-11-2004, 08:33 AM
OSD is very eash &amp; hard to believe---I used my local dealer who was all fo OSD (Putnam in Burlingame, Ca). Prior to going there I used the volvo site &amp; read and read &amp; read and then used this forum and when I went in was very well versed--read the threads by &quot;spud&quot; and look at Barry&#39;s videos and you can&#39;t help but want to do it.

GrecianVolvo
01-14-2004, 06:46 PM
</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (imxc90 @ Jan. 07 2004,07:30)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE"></span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (bigtomhammer @ Jan. 07 2004,05:39)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">
Apparently, traveling is not required to do OSD (ask William or Yannis if you prefer not to travel - but the travel deal is too good to pass up)<span id='postcolor'>
Good write up but this line bothers me. I believe that there was only one time (Sept 11) that travel wasn&#39;t required. Volvo makes their money on the shipment of the car when importing it into the US since it is considered a &quot;used car&quot; once you drive it. That is why you have to go and drive the car to take advantage of the OSD deal. Even if you drive it around the block, you have taken delievery and now it is a used car.[/quote]
Hmmm, good point. We were definitely told this was an option but maybe our delivery date was within an &quot;exemption&quot; period. Oh well, William or Yannis should be able to provide more info on this should anyone pass up the travel offer.[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
YOu will definitely have to travel. &nbsp;There is a very rare occasion where Volvo has already built a certain car and they just want to unload it quickly; in that case, that car will be marked &quot;Direct Ship only&quot; and you will not have to travel (you will still get two travel vouchers which are good for 6 months. &nbsp;But that is an extremely rare occurence.

Don&#39;t be intimidated by the idea of travelling; it is fun and you will not regret it&#33;

Yannis