2013 Audi Q7 Tdi Premium Plus Sport Utility 4-door 3.0l on 2040-cars

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Audi reveals S3 Cabriolet ahead of Geneva debut

It used to be if you wanted an Audi S3, your choices in bodystyle came down to hatchback or... hatchback. That is, in markets where the model was offered at all. But Audi has been expanding the A3 global family upon which the S3 is based, and it intends to offer the performance-minded derivative as a three-door hatch, five-door hatch, four-door sedan and - with the introduction of the version you see here - a two-door convertible.
Set to be presented in public for the first time at the Geneva Motor Show early next month, the new Audi S3 Cabriolet packs the same 2.0-liter turbo four as its fixed-roof counterparts - all 290 horsepower and 280 pound-feet of it - but ditches the extra doors and the tin top in favor of the two-door cabriolet bodystyle of the A3 Cabriolet.
The added weight of the folding fabric roof mechanism and the extra body reinforcement required means that the S3 cabrio takes half a second more to reach 62 miles per hour from a standstill than it would take the sedan version, clocking the run at 5.4 seconds instead of 4.9. This, despite more generous use of magnesium, aluminum and high-strength steel in its construction. Top speed, as is the German custom, remains pinned at 155 mph.

Audi A3 supplies tight, model stealing Honda, Toyota sales

It appears that there was a pent up demand for compact, front-wheel drive German luxury sedans that no one really knew about. Not only has the Mercedes CLA-Class been a success in the US with its Hungarian factory running three shifts to keep up, but the Audi A3 Sedan is doing quite well, too, after just three full months on the market.
Audi of America recently announced that the compact sedan shifted 2,452 vehicles in June and 7,735 units of the A3 since the beginning of the year. Not only are they selling; it's the people buying them that's important. According to Audi USA spokesperson John Schilling speaking to Autoblog, "A little over 25 percent of A3 buyers in April were 30 years or under." That's compared to about 18 percent for the A4, he said. Company executives also recently told Edmunds that many of those new customers are brand conquests turning in Honda or Toyota models. We gently mocked Audi when it held A3 Sedan launch parties aimed at hipsters that served craft beer and played indie music, but the marketing worked, apparently.
That said, if you're in the market for an A3, you might have not be able to get one immediately. According to Edmunds, some customers are on a waiting list for the compact luxury sedan. Although, Schilling said that's because Audi is still stocking dealers. "It's a little leaner than other models, but that's mainly because it's new and still ramping up," he said.

2014 Audi Q5 TDI

I've struggled with diesel technology. It's not that I have a problem with it or dislike it, but rather that I don't particularly understand what stops its wider-spread adoption. Sure, memories of rust-prone, smoky, sluggish and uneconomical Oldsmobile diesels aren't exactly easy to erase from the collective memory of the North American motoring public, but I'd think that a few years into the latest crop of clean diesels, there'd be wider adoption - or at least consumer consideration - by now.
Part of the issue is the still limited number of segments that diesels are available in. The Volkswagen Golf/Jetta TDI is finally getting a challenger in the form of the Chevrolet Cruze Diesel, and the BMW 328d is bringing something new to the entry-level sports sedan, but there are still a huge group of segments where diesel-power has no representation.
The small, luxury crossover realm is not one of those. It has the Mercedes-Benz GLK250 Bluetec, a stylish crossover with a silky-smooth 2.1-liter, turbodiesel four-cylinder that can return the kind of fuel economy that makes people take notice. And while the GLK250 is quite good, economy will only spread the diesel's appeal so far. People need to experience the seat-flattening torque that these mills can produce, and for that, we most humbly recommend the new 2014 Audi Q5 TDI.