2001 Audi A6 Quattro Avant Wagon 4-door 2.8l on 2040-cars

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2016 Audi RS 7 Performance Quick Spin

Audi's roster of Sevens – the A7, S7, and RS 7 – gets a new and overachieving member with the new RS 7 Performance. The big story is that it ups the RS 7's 560 horsepower to 605. And while the advertised torque rating of 517 pound-feet doesn't change, Audi says the car will actually produce 553 lb-ft during moments of overboost. Hunkered-down with 21-inch wheels filling the wheel wells, the RS 7 Performance has a top speed of 190 miles per hour, and runs to 60 mph in 3.6 seconds – our informal stopwatch tests suggest that may even be conservative. We drove the RS 7 Performance in Florida, which included an eventful lap around Daytona International Speedway's road course, just prior to the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona. More about that in a moment. Driving Notes The RS 7 Performance is pretty rough-riding at its softest, a problem only on bad pavement and roads with dips. It isn't punishing, but it never lets you forget this is a performance luxury car, in that order. The eight-speed Tiptronic automatic transmission is a sweetheart, never confused and always standing by to maximize the 4.0-liter, twin-turbocharged V8's muscle. It would have been nice to be able to dial in a little extra exhaust sound – what you can hear makes you want more. The RS sport seats, with optional Valcona leather and Alcantara inlays and steering wheel cover, are excellent. There's a reason why Audi is a template for automotive interior designers. Rear seat room is a little tight but tolerable. As for that lap at Daytona: We were only given one, so we went for it, and hit 164 mph on the back stretch before having to wade deep into the ABS for the bus stop turn. The engine was still pulling hard – we have little doubt the advertised 190 mph top speed is accurate. While the big ceramic brakes did their job, we weren't given a cool-down lap, and the combination of 4,500 pounds and 164 mph seemed to have set the front brakes on fire. No, really. It took a spritz of water to drown them out. We were told that it isn't unusual for ceramic brakes, the first time they hit 800 degrees, to burn out some impurities. Afterwards, the brakes worked fine, but we sure got a lot of attention from the IMSA Rolex crew on pit road. The RS 7 Performance is a viceless car, one we'd cheerfully drive for a very long time.

Audi A3-based people mover in the works

We have yet another announcement of yet another new Audi, including yet another obligatory quote from Audi research and development chief Wolfgang Dürheimer that there's room for it in the Audi range. On the sidelines of reports about the diesel-hybrid sports car, derived from the R18 endurance racer, there have been remarks about a possible MPV. Now Auto Express reports that said MPV "is on the way" and will be based on the A3 Sportback.
Previous speculation has posited either a six- or seven-seat people carrier; if the AE report is to be believed then five seats is the number that's been settled on. Planned to rest on a stretched version of the A3 platform, its wheelbase would be nearly eight inches longer than that of the A3 Sportback and it would compete against the Mercedes-Benz B-Class and the production version of the BMW Concept Active Tourer.
Audi is not going to dally about it, either, with a concept said to be ready for debut next year. Should it come, it would mean the A3 range comes pretty close to hitting for the cycle.

Toyota, Lexus dominate KBB's Best Resale Value Awards

Toyota and Lexus stormed the 2014 Kelley Blue Book Best Resale Value Awards, winning a combined 18 categories including best brand and best luxury brand. This marks the third year in a row that both automakers have won the Brand and Luxury Brand resale value awards. In all, Toyota won 11 categories and Lexus won seven.
Honda made a good showing, as well, winning two segments (Accord Plug-In Hybrid and Civic Si) and putting one car on the top-10 Best Resale Value list (CR-V). Chevrolet did even better, winning two segments (with the V6 Camaro and the Corvette) and placing three cars on the top-10-overall list (again, the Camaro and Corvette, plus the Silverado 1500).
The other winners came from Jeep, Dodge, Infiniti, Subaru and Audi. To give you a clearer picture of the Toyota and Lexus domination, their 18 mentions represents more than half of the 34 awards (including the top-10-overall list).