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Control your Audi with your Apple TV, if you want to

Not to dash your hopes right up top, but this isn't a way to remotely drive an R8 from the comfort of your living room, or even summon it from the garage. Also, you'll need the new fourth-generation Apple TV (and a real TV hooked up to it) as well as a 2017 A4 or Q7. What Audi is offering is basically a version of the Audi MMI connect app distilled for the streaming media box. Things you can do include locking and unlocking the car, setting it to heat up or cool down before you hop in, and viewing the status of the car. (No screenshot was available from Audi, so you're looking at the iPhone version of the app up top. Just imagine it larger and more horizontal.) Who's it for? People who have the latest Apple TV, a new Audi, and would rather control the latter with the former on a big screen than a smartphone. In other words, we're not sure. We do wager that there's a decent amount of overlap between Audi drivers and tech early adopters, so someone will get excited by this. And since the new Apple TV is based on iOS, it probably wasn't too tough to port the iPhone version of the app over. Like a lot of what we're seeing at CES this week, this is likely a small step in the direction of increasing connectivity between all of the digital stuff in our lives and our cars. We'll get more excited when the family flatscreen turns into a live window of what your car is looking at. But also terrified.

KBB: VW diesel prices have dropped 16%

There are a lot of post-scandal theories and metrics concerning Volkswagen's performance during the diesel emissions scandal, although none of them has created a clear picture of where things are headed. Kelley Blue Book has a few more to add to the spreadsheet, though, finding that average auction prices for VW diesels and Internet shoppers perusing them have both gone down in the past four weeks on KBB.com. Auction prices on the site are down an average of 16 percent for VW oil burners, which compares to a decline of 2.9 percent for gas-powered VWs. Shoppers are still on the lookout, though, even if the numbers are slightly reduced. Overall, "new-car shopping activity" for the small-capacity VW diesel offerings is down 2.4 percent, a number held partly in check by searches for the Jetta SportWagen being up by 3.7 percent. Shoppers are looking harder at the Audi A3 diesel, too, its activity up 1.6 percent. The Golf, though, is down 3.7 percent and the Golf SportWagen down 6.2 percent. Shoppers leaving the diesel fold aren't necessarily going for high-mileage options, either, KBB saying that the Ford Fusion and Honda Civic are quick alternatives to the Jetta TDI, while the Mercedes CLA and BMW 2 Series are getting new looks from those interested in the Audi A3 diesel. You can read the full release from KBB below. VOLKSWAGEN DIESEL VEHICLE PRICES DECLINE NEARLY 16 PERCENT, ACCORDING TO KELLEY BLUE BOOK DATA New-Car Shopping Activity Also Impacted by Recent Emissions Issue IRVINE, Calif., October 21, 2015 – Kelley Blue Book www.kbb.com, the only vehicle valuation and information source trusted and relied upon by both consumers and the automotive industry, today reports that average auction prices, along with new-car shopping activity on KBB.com, for Volkswagen diesel vehicles have declined four weeks after the diesel emissions issue was announced. The average auction price for Volkswagen diesel models dropped by nearly 16 percent since the news broke of the emissions crisis.[1] The average auction price for the brand's gasoline-powered vehicles declined by 2.9 percent.1 On KBB.com, Volkswagen new-car shopping activity for affected TDI models has decreased on average by 2.4 percent. "According to Kelley Blue Book Field Analysts, some auctions are still holding off on selling the affected Volkswagen inventory," said Tim Fleming, analyst for Kelley Blue Book.

2015 Audi Q3 is ready to woo America's young and upwardly mobile

You can hardly blame Audi for its decision to finally bring its Q3 compact crossover to America, even though it's been on sale in other global markets since 2012. CUVs of all stripes are red hot, and the number of players in the US entry-level premium segment is mushrooming. Rapidly growing Audi simply can't afford to be left out of the discussion in favor of vehicles like the BMW X1, Land Rover Range Rover Evoque, and even small near-luxury entries like the Buick Encore, if only because capturing these customers could result in subsequent sales of more profitable models down the road.
Audi evidently intends to attract these new, younger customers by spoiling them in decidedly unGermanic fashion: by offering lots of standard equipment. Peruse the spec sheet on base models from rivals and you'll see things like manually adjusted faux leather seats, conventional projector headlamps, and little in the way of frills. By comparison, the 2015 Q3 comes with an embarrassment of standard features, including heated and power-articulated leather seats, panoramic moonroof, Xenon headlamps with LED accents and keyless start.
First impressions of the four-cylinder, 200-horsepower Q3 revealed here at the Detroit Auto Show are very positive, with a rakish (if overly familiar) shape and a fair amount of utility with up to 48.2 cubic feet of storage with the rear seats folded. If Audi can price the Q3 similarly to the entry-level BMW X1 sDrive28i ($31,825 delivered) when it arrives this fall, we think it'll sell like hotcakes - just like its Q5 big brother.