Audi | The Truth About Cars

Import Sport Sedan Comparison: Second Place: Audi A6 3.0T

By Michael Freed
October 23, 2009

After urbane styling and precise road manners made Audi a real player in the luxury sports sedan market with the late ‘90s A6, the Ingolstadt Werkmeisters took a more conservative route with the third-generation A6. It became larger, more architectural than haute couture, and softer. For 2009, though, Audi decided to give the A6 an [...]

Import Sport Sedan Comparison: Second Place: Audi A6 3.0T

Posted in Audi | Car Reviews | 84 comments

Review: 2009 Audi A6 3.0T Quattro

By Jack Baruth
August 10, 2009

The process of writing a car review often feels like creating a “Mad Lib”. TTAC readers old enough to have taken a long road trip in the pre-GameBoy era may remember Mad Libs; they are little booklets with blanks for nouns, verbs, proper names, and so on. One person comes up with the nouns and verbs, another person writes them into the blanks, and hilarity ensues. Car and Driver appears to be almost entirely written by Mad Lib nowadays, but those oh-so-seductive English big-format car rags aren’t above doing a little fill-in-the-blank action themselves.

Review: 2009 Audi A6 3.0T Quattro

rating summary and performance review: 2009 Audi A6 3.0T Quattro

Posted in Audi | Car Reviews | 70 comments

Review: 2010 Audi Q7 TDI

By Edward Niedermeyer
July 24, 2009

One of the enduring lessons of the car game is that good vehicles don't always sell well. As a car writer who took on news analysis before ever getting manufacturer-sponsored time behind the wheel, this lesson can't help but tinge my impressions of a road test. So when my first weeklong tester arrived in the form of a Q7 TDI, I felt no desire to justify Audi's decision to bring the thing to market. After all, by any reasonable analysis, the brand built by Quattro wagons should have been the primary beneficiary of America's SUV craze. Or, at least its worst enemy. Instead the Q7 showed up for the party fashionably dressed but fashionably late. And very few wanted to buy it. With the high price of luxo ute party fuel already killing the festive vibes, is switching to a new drink enough to make Audi's SUV sales party like its 1999?

Review: 2010 Audi Q7 TDI

rating summary and performance review: 2010 Audi Q7 TDI

Posted in Audi | Bailout Watch | Car Reviews | 48 comments

Review: 2010 Audi A3 2.0 TDI

By John Holt
June 29, 2009

On paper, the Audi A3 TDI is an exercise in futility. The model shares platform bits with a Golf Rabbit. It's smaller than a Jetta Sportwagen. It carries a lofty price premium; the diesel-powered A3 “boasts” the same engine that can be had across the street at the Vee-Dub for thousands less. It's not as fast, sporty or capacious as the rear wheel-drive BMW 335d. By any rational measure, the A3 TDI is an answer to a question that few Americans even thought about asking. Which is why it's better to judge the A3 TDI "in the flesh."

Review: 2010 Audi A3 2.0 TDI

rating summary and performance review: 2010 Audi A3 2.0 TDI

Posted in Audi | Car Reviews | Sales | 46 comments

Review: 2009 Audi Q5

By Michael Curwood
May 13, 2009

Audi is pitching its late-to-the-party Q5 against Lexus' recently refreshed RX350. Audi's ad men would have you believe that the Q5 buyer is making a forceful statement of individuality and taste---in contrast to the RX buyer's safe, boring, follow-the-herd mentality. It's a strange play during these times of economic certainty, but understandable. The Q5 is preaching to the choir. The majority of the Q5's buyers will come from within the brand's established audience, who consider Audi's products the automotive equivalent of an Armani suit. Which makes the Q5 yet another fine young cannibal, preying on whatever sales the Q7 may have generated and stealing business from the gotta-have-an-A4-on-stilts crowd. Hang on. Whose product line is this anyway?

Review: 2009 Audi Q5

rating summary and performance review: 2009 Audi Q5

Posted in Audi | Car Reviews | 44 comments

Review: 2009 Audi A5 3.2 Quattro

By Robert Farago
April 9, 2009

Throw out your copy of WardsAuto “Interior of the Year” awards. The Audi A5 with the S Line seats is four-wheeled Hammer time: the world’s best automotive interior. Nobody can touch the way this cabin looks, works, feels and smells. OK, when you use the Audi A5’s thumbwheel to scroll through your iPod tunes, if you don’t select a new tune within the allotted time, the menu reverts to the song playing, which could be six clicks back. Other than that, I can’t think of anything wrong with the A5’s cabin. Yes, even the dreaded MMI mouse thingie has won me over. If you want a reason to admire/buy/worship/savor the Audi A5 3.2 Quattro, there you go. Otherwise, well, I have issues. For example. . .

Review: 2009 Audi A5 3.2 Quattro

rating summary and performance review: 2009 Audi A5 3.2 Quattro

Posted in Audi | Car Reviews | 43 comments

Comparo – Audi A4 3.2 quattro vs. Infiniti G37 6MT

By Frank Williams
March 16, 2009

Imagine you're looking for a $41k imported sports sedan. You want something fun to drive. Sayonara Lexus. You were traumatized by an orthodontist. Aloha to Acura's tin grin TL. You appreciate the difference between having it and flaunting it. Auf wiedersehen BMW and Mercedes. That leaves the Audi A4 3.2 Audi and Infiniti G37 6MT. Oddly enough, I recently sampled those two exact cars. Funny how these things work out.

Comparo – Audi A4 3.2 quattro vs. Infiniti G37 6MT

Posted in Audi | Car Reviews | Infiniti | 66 comments

Comparo: BMW M3 vs. Audi RS4 vs. Cadillac CTS-V vs. Lexus IS-F vs. Mercedes C63 AMG

By Mike Solowiow
February 23, 2009

M, RS, V, F, AMG. The alpha alphabet represents five manufacturers' best efforts to create something unique, exciting and memorable from their more prosaic mainstream motors. The resulting "performance tuned" sports sedans are so powerful, so capable, so versatile, that they're the ground based equivalent of the all-weather fighter jets that battle for control of the skies. While the shibboleth "there's no such thing as a bad car" applies here, there are always going to be winners and losers. And it's our job to sort the wheat from the chaff.

Comparo: BMW M3 vs. Audi RS4 vs. Cadillac CTS-V vs. Lexus IS-F vs. Mercedes C63 AMG

Capsule Review: 1998 Audi A4 (B5)

By Mike Solowiow
January 9, 2009

60 Minutes nearly killed Audi in North America. After “Unintended Acceleration in the Audi 5000” aired in 1986, Audi sales dropped from 74k sales a year in 1986 to less than 12k by 1991. Sales remained constant until 1996, when Audi debuted a car that would finally tackle the BMW 3-series and the Mercedes C-Class head on. With its still unusual all-wheel drive system, classic German styling and interiors that set the industry standard, the A4 single-handedly revived sales in North America. An Audi fan since birth (when I was driven home in an Audi Fox GTI), I viewed them from afar; Roswell’s nearest Audi dealer lay eight hours away in Dallas. So I rejoiced when I signed the paperwork to purchase the first of the 5-valve V6 powered A4 quattros. Little did I know the next year would be filled with Germanic Sturm und Drang.

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Posted in Audi | Capsule Reviews | Car Reviews | News Blog | 55 comments

2009 Audi A4 3.2 Quattro Review

By Megan Benoit
September 22, 2008

Over the last few years, the last generation Audi A4 was growing increasingly stale. Updated offerings from BMW, Lexus, Infiniti, everyone but Volvo have overtaken Ingolstadt's brot und butter model. To keep the faith-- or at least the faithful-- Audi’s engineers initiated a massive redesign of the A4. Obviously, it’s a better car. Vorsprung and all that. But can the new A4 leapfrog the luxury brat pack? Or is it more of the same? Yes.