Quattro Receives Re-brand in Australia, Now Called Audi Sport
You’d be forgiven if you thought Audi’s performance division was called “RS”. After all, the Germans have a history of using letters to describe their more powerful offerings, such as BMW M and Mercedes-AMG.
In Audi’s case, it’s a bit more complex. While the cars themselves wear S and RS badging, the performance division is actually called quattro GmbH (without the capital Q, because Audi), which is the name of the all-wheel drive system that made the brand so popular with Group B rally fans. It’s compounded by the fact normal Audi’s wear the quattro nameplate when they sport all-wheel drive, so it’s not that exclusive of a name.
In Australia, Audi is looking to fix this organizational and marketing nightmare. Enter Audi Sport.
The performance division itself, quattro, will not change its name, but the products developed by Quattro (screw it, I am using capitals) will now be marketed under the customer-friendly Audi Sport umbrella. CarAdvice reports 15 dealers will have Audi Sport-specific showroom areas by the end of the year for selling RS models and Audi’s halo car, the R8. S models will still be sold under the more plebeian Audi banner.
The additional moniker is a pilot project by Audi that could be found in other regions in the future. Considering the sub-branding success of BMW and Mercedes — the latter has completely re-engineered how it’ll name all vehicles in the future — it’s probably about time Audi did the same.
More by Mark Stevenson
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Must be an Australia only thing because Quattro is what Audi calls its AWD system everywhere else. Any Audi with AWD is a Quattro.
FFS. How hard would it to go "Here's a platform. Here's the body styles. Here's the powertrain options. Here's the wheel/tire options,here's the exterior trim options and here's the interior trim options. Go to town." You could still offer packages like base,most popular,luxury and performance for the lazy. I hate the way they build cars now, because what I want (and will always want) is a stripper with the big motor,manual and good suspension. Can I buy that from most manufacturers? Nope. And I'm pretty sure I never will in the future either.
Nice little word play on the title there for clicks.
I think the perfect solution to Audi's problems is to hire a former Fiatsler chap who is immediately available & unemployed, would like a tremendously large expense account, and needs multiple vehicles to lend out to prominent Australians.