2007 Audi A3 S-line on 2040-cars

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A car writer's year in new vehicles [w/video]

Christmas is only a week away. The New Year is just around the corner. As 2014 draws to a close, I'm not the only one taking stock of the year that's we're almost shut of. Depending on who you are or what you do, the end of the year can bring to mind tax bills, school semesters or scheduling dental appointments. For me, for the last eight or nine years, at least a small part of this transitory time is occupied with recalling the cars I've driven over the preceding 12 months. Since I started writing about and reviewing cars in 2006, I've done an uneven job of tracking every vehicle I've been in, each year. Last year I made a resolution to be better about it, and the result is a spreadsheet with model names, dates, notes and some basic facts and figures. Armed with this basic data and a yen for year-end stories, I figured it would be interesting to parse the figures and quantify my year in cars in a way I'd never done before. The results are, well, they're a little bizarre, honestly. And I think they'll affect how I approach this gig in 2015. {C} My tally for the year is 68 cars, as of this writing. Before the calendar flips to 2015 it'll be as high as 73. Let me give you a tiny bit of background about how automotive journalists typically get cars to test. There are basically two pools of vehicles I drive on a regular basis: media fleet vehicles and those available on "first drive" programs. The latter group is pretty self-explanatory. Journalists are gathered in one location (sometimes local, sometimes far-flung) with a new model(s), there's usually a day of driving, then we report back to you with our impressions. Media fleet vehicles are different. These are distributed to publications and individual journalists far and wide, and the test period goes from a few days to a week or more. Whereas first drives almost always result in a piece of review content, fleet loans only sometimes do. Other times they serve to give context about brands, segments, technology and the like, to editors and writers. So, adding up the loans I've had out of the press fleet and things I've driven at events, my tally for the year is 68 cars, as of this writing. Before the calendar flips to 2015, it'll be as high as 73. At one of the buff books like Car and Driver or Motor Trend, reviewers might rotate through five cars a week, or more. I know that number sounds high, but as best I can tell, it's pretty average for the full-time professionals in this business.

Audi S5 spied

We only recently saw the next-gen Audi A5 testing for the first time with its sleeker design covered in camouflage. Now, here's a well-concealed glimpse at of the higher-performance S5 for comparison against the standard coupe. With so much swirling camouflage picking out the differences between the two models isn't easy, but there are a few tweaks to notice. The intakes on the front fascia are just a little bigger, hinting at the increase in power. The brakes also appear to be larger, especially when comparing them at the rear. Of course, the most obvious changes are the dual exhausts poking out each corner of the speculative S5. While more power is assured for the S5 over the A5, the exact powerplant isn't officially known yet. Rumors suggest Audi using a tuned version of the supercharged 3.0-liter V6 making between 340 horsepower and 350 hp, at least for the S4. The switch to the MLB Evo platform means less weight to haul around no matter what's under the hood, though. The next-gen A4 should provide some more hints about the future of the lineup when it launches at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September, and the coupes are expected to join the lineup later.

2013 Audi Allroad

Reincarnated With A Smaller And Less Passionate Soul
Mention the name "Allroad" to most automotive enthusiasts, and it's likely to conjure up images of the Audi A6 Allroad Quattro, first introduced in 1999. That car-like alternative to a sport utility vehicle was based on the German automaker's A6 Avant wagon. But unlike its luxurious road-going sibling, the Allroad was an on- and off-road variant fitted with an advanced height-adjustable air suspension for additional ground clearance, rugged tires on oversized wheels to improve off-pavement grip and unpainted flared fenders and bumpers to protect it from rugged use. That original A6 Allroad arrived with Audi's powerful twin-turbo 2.7-liter V6, more to offset its increased weight than to boost performance, and was eventually offered with a 4.2-liter V8 before it was discontinued in 2005.
Fast forward eight years, and Audi has introduced its replacement - now based on the smaller A4 Avant wagon.