2008 Silver S-line Audi A6 Quattro on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Audi follows suit with TDI stop-sale

Yesterday, Porsche issued a stop-sale on its Cayenne Diesel, following the news that the Volkswagen Group's 3.0-liter diesel V6 is also fitted with cheating software. Now, according to Automotive News, Audi is issuing a similar stop-sale in the US, but in the case of that brand, it affects more than just one model. Audi's stop-sale covers diesel-powered versions of the 2013-2015 Q7, as well as the 2014-2016 A6, A7, A8, and Q5. All of these models can be had with the 3.0-liter TDI V6, which up until this week's news, was not included in Volkswagen's massive diesel scandal. No recall is currently planned, according to Automotive News. Additionally, Volkswagen has yet to issue a stop-sale on its Touareg TDI, which also uses the 3.0-liter V6. The Touareg TDI can still be found on Volkswagen's consumer site, as of this writing.

The Audi Q7 doesn't want me to speed and I'm not totally okay with that

I'm a big fan of adaptive cruise control. My commute is 50 miles each way, almost all on freeways here in Michigan. If everyone drove at the same speed there'd be little need for smart cruise, but I live in reality where people camp out in the left lane and practice going from the gas to the brake for no apparent reason. Radar cruise systems let me set my max speed and just worry about steering. But Audi has gone a step further with its adaptive cruise system. And it's a step I'm not sure I'm comfortable with. Audi's system, as featured on the new Q7, has a feature that uses the forward-facing camera to read speed-limit signs, something that's becoming common in Europe and is now making its way here in the continent's luxury cars. That part's fine; it's useful information and gets nicely integrated into Audi's Virtual Cockpit screen and on the head-up display. What the car then does with that info, however, is the issue: If your set cruise speed is higher than the speed on a sign you pass, the car will drop the cruise speed down to the limit. But it's not perfect. On one stretch of highway, the Q7 picked up the speed limit posted on the parallel service road, dropping me down from a little above the limit to 30 mph. It didn't slam on the brakes, but it did confuse me at first and require intervention before the car slowed down to a crawl. This feature isn't ready for primetime. Luckily, it can be turned off or switched to a mode where it gives you a warning that the speed limit has changed (or at least that the car thinks it has) and lets you react before the set cruise speed is changed automatically. When activated, it's a safety issue. A more serious one, in my opinion, than driving a little over the speed limit, especially when it means interrupting the flow of traffic. There's nothing predictable about a car trundling along in the fast lane and then completely letting off the gas. It's not predictable for the driver behind you, and it's not something a driver expects of their own vehicle. Yes, this feature was obviously developed for people driving on the Autobahn, where speeds can drop down from unlimited to a slow crawl pretty quickly when entering a construction zone or approaching a built-up area. German roads also have more consistent signage, so the false-positive scenario I experienced might not have come up there.

Felicity Ace sinks with thousands of VWs, Porsches, Lamborghinis

The stricken ship Felicity Ace sank overnight after a week of salvage efforts ultimately proved unsuccessful. The ship, which was carrying up to 4,000 VW Group cars, went to the bottom unexpectedly while a salvage team was attempting to tow it to shore, Bloomberg reports.  "Initial reports from the local salvage team state that the vessel had sunk at around 9AM local time having suffered a list to starboard," Mitsui O.S.K. Lines transportation company (MOL), which owns the Felicity Ace, said in a statement released early Tuesday.    "The last vessel position was around 220nm off the Azores," MOL said. "The salvage crafts will remain around the area to monitor the situation. Further information will be provided as it becomes available." The ship sank after being battered by waves and listing 45 degrees to starboard, the ship’s operator said. “The weather was pretty rough out there,” Pat Adamson, a spokesperson for MOL Ship Management (Singapore), a unit of Mitsui OSK Lines Ltd., said by phone. “And then she sank, which was a surprise.” VW, Porsche, Audi, Bentley and Lamborghini-branded models were aboard the ship, which was headed to Rhode Island from GermanyÂ’s Emden port when the fire broke out on Feb. 16.  Rough seas and ongoing fires fueled by the lithium-ion batteries of EVs onboard delayed the ship's salvage and recovery operations for the better part of a week. While the likelihood of salvaging the smoke and potentially fire- and water-damaged vehicles from Felicity Ace's hold was slim to none, some had held out hope that their special-ordered vehicles might survive the mishap.  The Panama-flagged Felicity Ace was safely evacuated of its 22 crew members by the Portuguese navy after a fire started in its hold more than a week ago. The ship can carry up to 4,000 cars. European carmakers declined to discuss how many vehicles and what models were on board, but it appears to have been transporting approximately 2,500 cars, including roughly 1,100 Porsches and an undetermined number of Volkswagens.  The cars aboard were on order. Porsche customers in the United States were being contacted by their dealers, the company said. “We are already working to replace every car affected by this incident and the first new cars will be built soon,” Angus Fitton, vice president of PR at Porsche Cars North America, Inc., told The Associated Press in an email. The ship sank in water nearly 10,000 feet deep, the Portuguese Navy said.