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2015 Audi S8

You've gotta hand it to the Audi A8. Last year, Mercedes-Benz launched the truly stunning S-Class, putting the rest of the high-dollar luxury flagship class on notice. With the brand-new S-Class turning heads and garnering all sorts of praise from the automotive press, classmates like the BMW 7 Series, Jaguar XJ and Audi A8 started to look, well, old. But Audi didn't see fit to just let its big sedan carry on and let the Mercedes take the cake.
So when Audi refreshed its A8 line for the 2015 model year with only minor updates, I kind of shrugged it off as just a quick way to keep the big sedan fresh until an all-new, hopefully S-Class-trumping version arrives. But then I drove the S8 pictured above, and I'm no longer so sure the Merc's shadow is as big and imposing as it once was.
Spoiler alert: the Audi S8 is simply fantastic.

Tesla says Model 3 is best-selling midsize premium sedan in America

Auto sales figures are sort of fuzzy numbers, no matter how you slice them and no matter which manufacturer you're talking about. Unless you're specifically tracking vehicle registrations, automakers generally self-report the figures. So, you have to trust that they aren't doing anything too tricky. Plus, not every sale is equal, as some are logged as dealership loaners or demo models, some go to fleets (like to a rental car agency), and still others are, of course, bought by traditional customers looking for a new daily driver. With that preamble out of the way, when we saw a tweet from Tesla claiming that the all-electric Model 3 is the best-selling midsize premium sedan in America, our interest was piqued. According to Tesla, market share of the Model 3 has just surpassed the Mercedes-Benz C-Class, which had up until now led the Audi A4, BMW 3 Series, and Lexus IS as the best-selling sedan in its class. Note that the graph from Tesla below is, we think, specific to four-door models. So, is it true? Judging by the numbers we can find, including some from Bloomberg, which has a running chart to track Model 3 registrations, the answer is... probably. We don't know exactly how many Model 3 sedans Tesla is currently cranking out, but Bloomberg estimates production at about 2,560 units per week, and total sales for 2018 at 34,414. We know the number is increasing regularly, though, and Elon Musk has said most recently production sits around 500 units per day, which, on a seven-day cycle, would be 3,500 per week. We looked up Mercedes' sales figures for the month of May, 2018, and found that the German brand sold 5,419 C-Class models last month, for a total of 23,917 for the year (incidentally, that's down more than 30 percent from the year prior). While the bulk of those sales would surely be made up of sedans, it would also include a small percentage of coupes. Either way, it's likely that Tesla is currently producing and selling more Model 3s than Mercedes is C-Classes. Now, it's also worth considering if the C-Class is the only vehicle from Mercedes that directly competes with the Model 3. We'd guess customers may also cross-shop the CLA sedan with the Tesla, and if that's the case, you might decide it's worth adding in Mercedes' 2,527 CLA-Class sales last month and 9,622 so far for the year. The same argument could be made for certain versions of the BMW 2 and 4 Series.

A luxury crossover for people who like to drive | 2018 Audi Q5 First Drive

1.6 million. That's how many Q5s Audi has sold since the model's 2008 debut, making the agreeable but stylistically neutral sport-ute the best-selling premium SUV on the planet. One in four Audis sold is a Q5, which is a big part of why the German carmaker made significant improvements intended to ensure the 2018 Audi Q5 is another success story. For starters, the Q5 has swollen in size. Not by much – we're talking 1.3 inches in length, half an inch in wheelbase, and incrementally more height – but enough to boost rear legroom by 0.39 inch and add 0.31 inch to rear headroom. If you're worried that curb weight has bloated in direct proportion to the larger footprint, fear not: The 2018 model is actually up to 198 pounds lighter than the model it replaces, thanks to a carefully modulated blend of high tensile steels and aluminum in the chassis, and incremental weight savings throughout. Two turbocharged engines are available: the Q5's 2.0-liter TFSI engine producing 252 horsepower and 273 pound-feet of torque (doing the 0-to-62-mph sprint in 6.4 seconds), and the SQ5's 3.0-liter TFSI mill that turns 354 hp and 369 lb-ft (capable of whisking it to 62 mph in 5.2 seconds). The 2.0-liter meets a new seven-speed dual-clutch S tronic transmission, while the beefier 3.0-liter gets a conventional eight-speed torque-converter-equipped gearbox to handle the higher torque. Audi's new Quattro ultra setup (already seen in the A4 and Q7) offers fully variable torque distribution that helps achieve 20/27 mpg with the 2.0-liter and 18/26 mpg for the 3.0-liter. The system can de-couple the rear axle via an electronic clutch, which improves fuel economy; with 100 percent of torque directed to the front wheels during straight-line driving, the parasitic losses of running power needlessly through the rear differential are avoided, while a second clutch controls front/rear torque distribution. Audi says the ultra setup works proactively, not reactively, using torque vectoring to distribute power and anticipating changes in vehicle dynamics 500 milliseconds before the torque is redistributed. While there are numerous tech updates under the skin, the body itself is very familiar. In person, the Q5's looks are tweaked ever-so-slightly thanks primarily to a curvier, crisper character line that is so sharp, it casts its own shadow under certain lighting conditions. Inside, a Q7-like upgrade gives the cabin a more sophisticated feel.