Auto News & New car review

The Audi A5 and the performance-oriented Audi S5 are Audi’s first mid-size coupes in more than a decade, larger than the TT which offers a token rear seat only in coupe form. The A5 is built on a new structure that also forms the basis for the next generation A4 sedan.

A distinctive shape identifies the A5 and S5 models from virtually any angle, with flowing curves bringing some musculature to Audi’s sleek, aerodynamic forms and arresting light patterns. From dead behind there’s slight chance of mistaking it for a British GT car, but from any other angle it’s unmistakably Audi. Read the rest of this entry »

NEW YORK — Mary Anne, my wife, called it the “age extractor, a car that makes you feel younger the moment you get into it.”

But she had to bring lots of stuff to New York for an Easter week celebration. There was no way that the front-wheel-drive Audi TT 2.0 coupe, although it has been stretched and widened a bit for 2008, could hold Mary Anne’s largess. Read the rest of this entry »

Autoweek and Fourtitude were able to enjoy some seat time in the Audi R8 V12 TDI LeMans concept before its official unveiling in Geneva last week. Their drive was short (about an hour with a 50 mph speed limit imposed by Audi’s boffins), but their time at the airport adjacent to Sebring International Raceway has made an impression. Read the rest of this entry »

Buying an Audi sedan without Quattro all wheel-drive is like dating a Swedish brunette. That said, there’s nothing wrong with the right brunette, Bergman movies notwithstanding. And Audi makes and sells plenty of products where only the front wheels are driven, from economy cars to its aufwendig TT. In fact, Audi’s UK website proudly proclaims “a front-wheel-drive car is in principle more controllable and tracks better than conventional rear-wheel drive.” OK then, in advance of the all-new A4 headed our way in ‘09, let’s have a look at the Audi A4 2.0T and see if we can get past the FWD thing. Read the rest of this entry »

I really want a Mercedes Black Series AMG. It’s a practical, sharp looking car, and nothing clears my head like Saturn V quality thrust. But my spouse’s desire to share her dotage with yours truly conspires against it. So, after driving a BMW 6-Series and finding it a bit… sclerotic, I wandered over to my local Audi dealer in search of something slinkier and kinkier. And there she was: a brand new S5 coupe on the showroom floor, shooting me come hither glances. So thither I went. Ah, but did I tarry long enough to take possession of Ingolstadt’s two-door Q-ship? Read the rest of this entry »

Bankers. They’re the kind of people you expect to see driving an Audi. Or barristers. Fine, upstanding pillars of society, I’m sure you’ll agree. Trouble is, they are a little, well, boring.

That’s Audi’s problem, too. All too often thought of as the quiet reliable type that stands in the corner at parties, Audi wants to inject some added sport appeal into its latest offerings.

The most obvious attempt at this is the new corporate snout. The full-face grille first shown on the Nuvolari concept has since made its way on to the front of the new A8, A3 and next year’s A4. It works best on the A6, in our opinion, although it continues to divide opinion amongst potential punters.
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