Audi Q7 S-line Package 3.6 V6 Excellentcondition on 2040-cars

Auto blog

2018 Audi A8 spied with light camo, lots of Prologue touches

It's been a big week for Audi A8 news. First tech boss Dr. Stefan Knirsch hinted at a range-topping rival to the Mercedes-Maybach S600, and just yesterday CEO Rupert Stadler confirmed that the next-gen car would be the first Audi with autonomous driving systems. Now we have our first pictures of the new large sedan, which will be based on the VW Group's MSB platform. As expected, the 2018 A8 will take cues directly from the Audi Prologue concept, a large coupe that was first shown at the 2015 LA Auto Show. This new A8 is completely devoid of cladding, giving us a great look at its production-ready shape. We can see the Q7's strong influence on the design, especially in front. The fascia is home to a wide hexagonal grille and aggressively canted headlights. The taillights will likely be a similar shape to the Q7's, but the LED pattern is dramatically different – we can almost see individual elements on this A8, whereas the Q7 is more of a light-ribbon design. Overall, this is an attractive if somewhat anonymous look. Our spies couldn't capture any shots of the cabin, but we do expect it to resemble the concept interior Audi showed earlier this year at CES, which featured an evolved version of the Virtual Cockpit system called Virtual Dashboard. Not surprisingly, it looks like there's going to be a lot of room in the back seats. While Rupert Stadler confirmed the next A8 will debut in 2017, he didn't go as far as saying which auto show to expect it at. At this point, Geneva seems like a prime candidate. Related Video:

Trump reportedly says he wants to wipe German cars off the U.S. map

BERLIN/FRANKFURT — A report that U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to pursue German carmakers until there are no Mercedes-Benz rolling down New York's Fifth Avenue dented shares in the luxury car manufacturers on Thursday. An excerpt from German magazine Wirtschaftswoche's article, which cited several unnamed European and U.S. diplomats but did not include any direct quotes, could not be independently verified, while a U.S. Embassy spokesman in Berlin referred questions to Washington. The news and current affairs magazine said Trump had told French President Emmanuel Macron in April that he aimed to push German carmakers out of the United States altogether. Macron's administration in Paris declined to comment on the report. The Trump administration last week opened a so-called Section 232 trade investigation into vehicle imports, which could result in a 25 percent tariff on cars on the same "national security" grounds Washington used to impose metals duties in March. This could destroy exports by German carmakers, which control 90 percent of the U.S. premium market and are the biggest European Union exporters of cars to the United States. BMW owns Rolls-Royce, while Daimler has Mercedes-Benz, and Volkswagen controls Bentley, Bugatti, Porsche and Audi. Daimler, BMW and Audi declined comment. Porsche was not immediately available for comment. BMW shares were trading 0.5 percent lower at 0939 GMT, while Daimler and VW's shares were down 1 percent and 1.6 percent respectively, underperforming Germany's blue-chip DAX. Trump has railed against German carmakers before. And in early 2017, in an interview with German newspaper Bild, he said he would impose 35 percent tariffs on imported cars. At the time, the president called Germany a great car producer but said that the business relationship with the United States was an unfair one-way street. Germany's auto industry association VDA says its members exported 657,000 vehicles to North America last year, with total exports of vehicle components, cars, engines, as well as second-hand vehicles totaling 31.2 billion euros in 2016. Imports from the United States to Germany amounted to 7.4 billion euros, meaning a trade deficit of 23.8 billion euros the VDA's latest available figures show. However, German brands also have huge factories in the United States, where they built 804,000 cars last year, VDA said, providing jobs for U.S. workers. Berlin has reacted angrily to the U.S.

VW confirms Audi's emissions test transmission anomalies

Just a week after reports that the California Air Resources Board (CARB) found an emissions cheat in some Audi automatic transmission software programs, parent company Volkswagen has come clean. As reported by Reuters, VW's response to an article by Munich's Sueddeutsche Zeitung stated that the adaptive shift functionality can "lead to incorrect and non-reproducible results." Adaptive shift programs alter the characteristics of a vehicle's transmission to suit different driving styles. Gentle driving will result in earlier shifts and lower engine revs, while hard-charging on the pedals and steering will make the transmission more responsive and hold gears longer. That adaptation can change over time or even on a short-term basis. And it can save fuel. The difference in this case is that is seems that the Audi transmissions were specifically programmed to detect emissions test conditions. As we explained in a previous article, one of those test conditions is keeping the wheel straight. Turning more than 15 degrees shuts the test mode off. According to Reuters, the US government is trying to determine whether this classifies as an emissions cheat device, although VW, Audi, and the EPA have not commented on the record. This latest accusation is separate from the larger VW diesel emissions scandal. Related Video: Image Credit: Getty Editorial Government/Legal Green Audi Volkswagen Emissions vw diesel scandal