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The 2017 Audi A6 is the great luxury sedan we forgot about

The current Audi A6 is getting old. This generation was first sold as a 2012, got a mild facelift for 2016, and is likely to be replaced for 2018 or 2019. So 2017 may be its last year, but it's still my favorite mid-size Germano luxury thing. I just had to be reminded of its existence. BMW and Mercedes-Benz have been making big noises in this segment recently, with a new 5 Series on the way and the recently launched E-Class, and that apparently distracted me enough from the A6. There's also the fact the Audi is starting to look a bit anonymous on the road. It's still handsome, sure, but it doesn't stand out like the related A7. The 2016 refresh did just enough to keep it looking contemporary, though, and for 2017 all A6s come standard with the S Line appearance package. That helps. What struck me about the A6 was that it doesn't feel dated inside. Everything is laid out nicely, it's just comfortable, and you can see out of it. The one I drove had the beautiful layered walnut trim – it looks like pin-striped wood. (And no, it wasn't painted this bright blue, although you can get that on a special-order car if you pay $3,900 for Exclusive paint.) There are no huge screens inside, and the A6 won't get Audi's Virtual Cockpit until the next generation, but I didn't miss any of that. All of the excitement of Virtual Cockpit's beautiful reconfigurable screens, and I had forgotten that the display between the gauges it replaces had a perfectly pleasant Google Maps view already. It's the same basic functionality as Virtual Cockpit here, you just can't press a button to minimize the real-life gauges. And I'm fine having actual gauges. I was somewhat surprised, however, to see Apple CarPlay pop up when I plugged in my phone. (It's included for 2017 as part of the Audi smartphone interface, which comes with the Premium Plus trim and above.) Using CarPlay is a bit weird without a touchscreen, just like it is on other Audis and Mercedes products, but the nice thing about CarPlay is that you really don't need to interact with it much, since there isn't much to interact with. Oddly, the touchpad on the center console doesn't work to navigate from CarPlay tile to tile. I got over that pretty quickly and just turned the dial when necessary. There's also a feeling that nothing's missing when you drive it, that Audi couldn't really add much to improve the experience. The car is incredibly smooth and comfortable going down the road.

Jaguar I-Pace named World Car of the Year

NEW YORK — The Jaguar I-Pace has been named World Car of the Year, an award meant to honor the most significant new car introduction and conferred by an international jury of automotive journalist judges. The group announced the winners of additional awards at the New York Auto Show, with the Audi A7 named World Luxury Car of the Year, the McLaren 720S recognized as World Performance Car of the Year, and the Suzuki Jimny named World Urban Car. The I-Pace additionally took home two other awards: World Car Design of the Year and World Green Car of the Year. The WCOTY team of 86 jurors hail from 24 countries, and the organization is independent and not tied to any publication. This is the 15th year for the awards. For this year's World Car of the Year award the top three finalists were the I-Pace, the Audi E-Tron, and the Volvo S60/V60. Previous WCOTY winners were the Volvo XC60 in 2018 and the Jaguar F-Pace in 2017. View 74 Photos

Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, and Audi announce Takata recalls

Daimler, Volkswagen, and Audi will recall nearly 1.7 million total vehicles in the US to replace their Takata airbag inflators. The Japanese parts supplier and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced in late January that several automakers would need to fix around five million more vehicles, and the various companies have been releasing the details since then. Daimler has a recall for 841,000 vehicles in the US, including 705,000 from Mercedes-Benz and 136,000 from the company's van division. Reuters reports the affected models consist of 2005-2014 examples of the SLK-Class, C-Class, E-Class, M-Class, GL-Class, R-Class, and SLS-Class. The vans comprise the 2007-2014 models of the Dodge, Freightliner, and Mercedes Sprinter. Autoblog reached out to Mercedes USA to confirm these details, and we're awaiting a reply. Daimler expects the repair campaign to cost 340 million euros ($382 million at current rates). The company will book the costs as part of its financial year 2015 results, and net profit for that year will fall to 8.7 billion euros ($9.8 billion). Volkswagen's recall covers 680,000 vehicles in the US to replace their driver side airbags. The affected models have Takata's SDI and PSDI-5 inflators, which could rupture in an crash, but the automaker isn't aware of any explosions for these parts in its products. This campaign includes: 2006-2010 Passat Sedan and Wagon (German Production) 2012-2014 Eos 2010-2014 Golf 2010-2014 Jetta SportWagen 2012-2014 Passat (U.S. Production) 2009-2014 CC There are also 170,000 Audi vehicles with the SDI and PSDI-5 inflators in the US, but there are no reports of the parts rupturing in the company's models. The affected products are: 2005-2013 A3 2006-2009 A4 Cabrio 2009-2012 Q5 2010-2011 A5 Cabrio VW and Audi are still working to identify the specific VINs for these vehicles. Afterwards, they will notify affected owners. Ford, Mazda, and Honda already announced details for their new round of Takata repairs. VW and Audi also recalled a small number of Tiguans and Q5s to replace their side airbag inflators from the Japanese company. NHTSA still expects BMW and Saab to detail expanded safety campaigns.