2011 Audi A4 2.0t Quattro Sedan, Premium Plus, Nice, 36452 Miles on 2040-cars

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Amazon Prime now delivering right to your Audi

Amazon has come up with many ways to deliver packages to its premium Prime customers, ranging from very large boxes to drones. Now, the company is looking at delivering directly to your car. Being introduced on a very limited trial basis in Germany, Amazon is offering Audi-owning Prime customers the option to have packages delivered to their vehicle. That's a boon if you're waiting on a pricey parcel, but can't stay at home to sign for it. The first phase of the program will begin next month in the Munich area. The pilot program requires customers to give an approximate location of their vehicle during the delivery period. DHL delivery drivers – the only shipping service partnering with Amazon for Audi deliveries – will be granted one-time access to trunks, with an access code tied into the delivery. "We are working to offer Prime members a delivery location that is always available and convenient: the trunk of their car," Michael Pasch, director of Amazon Prime for the European Union, said in a Google Translated statement. "This innovation makes shopping at Amazon even easier and more flexible. It gives customers another way to receive their orders." Related Video:

Audi SQ7 TDI would make a compelling option in the US

Intrigued by the prospect of the new Audi SQ7 TDI? We are. And promising though the signs may look, we'll likely still have to wait a while before Audi confirms whether it will bring the new performance diesel crossover to North America, much less announce pricing. But based on the sticker just attached in Europe, the SQ7 looks like a compelling choice – if a difficult one to compartmentalize. Audi has priced its new top-of-the-line crossover at 89,000 euros. Adjust for taxes and exchange rates, we'd likely be looking at an MSRP of roughly $86,000 in US showrooms, if and when it gets the green light from Ingolstadt to embark on the the transatlantic voyage. That places the SQ7 above any diesel crossovers we get in the US, but significantly undercuts the large, gasoline-powered performance SUVs we do get – like the BMW X5 M ($99k), the Mercedes-AMG GLS63 ($124k), and the Porsche Cayenne GTS ($95k) or Cayenne Turbo ($115k). The diesel performance version of the Q7 has more direct competition overseas in the forms of the Porsche Cayenne S Diesel and BMW X5 M50d – but the Audi offers a bigger bang for only a little more buck (or euro) than either. Where Porsche offers 385 horsepower and 627 pound-feet of torque for ˆ87.4k, and the BMW boasts 381 hp and 545 lb-ft for ˆ85.7k, the Audi trumps both with a prodigious 435 hp and a massive 664 lb-ft for only a little more cash. The SQ7 also outperforms both by a significant margin, reaching 62 miles per hour from a standstill in a scant 4.8 seconds, versus the 5.3 achieved by both the Cayenne S Diesel and X5 M50d. That places Audi's latest in something of a category of its own, leaving its similarly priced but less potent diesel competition in its wake. And with more torque but less power, it rapidly encroaches on the levels of performance offered by the top gasoline-powered performance crossovers – whose 0-62 sprints range from 4.2 seconds (in the X5 M) to 4.6 (in the GLS 63). The question on our minds is whether Audi will bring the new SQ7 TDI to these United States. Our sources tell us the chances are good, but far from confirmed. Our hopes were further raised by its appearance in the latest Captain America movie. But it's the SQ7's performance vis-a-vis the competition – difficult as it may be to categorize – that has whetted our appetites the most.

The next-generation wearable will be your car

This year's CES has had a heavy emphasis on the class of device known as the "wearable" – think about the Apple Watch, or Fitbit, if that's helpful. These devices usually piggyback off of a smartphone's hardware or some other data connection and utilize various onboard sensors and feedback devices to interact with the wearer. In the case of the Fitbit, it's health tracking through sensors that monitor your pulse and movement; for the Apple Watch and similar devices, it's all that and some more. Manufacturers seem to be developing a consensus that vehicles should be taking on some of a wearable's functionality. As evidenced by Volvo's newly announced tie-up with the Microsoft Band 2 fitness tracking wearable, car manufacturers are starting to explore how wearable devices will help drivers. The On Call app brings voice commands, spoken into the Band 2, into the mix. It'll allow you to pass an address from your smartphone's agenda right to your Volvo's nav system, or to preheat your car. Eventually, Volvo would like your car to learn things about your routines, and communicate back to you – or even, improvise to help you wake up earlier to avoid that traffic that might make you late. Do you need to buy a device, like the $249 Band 2, and always wear it to have these sorts of interactions with your car? Despite the emphasis on wearables, CES 2016 has also given us a glimmer of a vehicle future that cuts out the wearable middleman entirely. Take Audi's new Fit Driver project. The goal is to reduce driver stress levels, prevent driver fatigue, and provide a relaxing interior environment by adjusting cabin elements like seat massage, climate control, and even the interior lighting. While it focuses on a wearable device to monitor heart rate and skin temperature, the Audi itself will use on-board sensors to examine driving style and breathing rate as well as external conditions – the weather, traffic, that sort of thing. Could the seats measure skin temperature? Could the seatbelt measure heart rate? Seems like Audi might not need the wearable at all – the car's already doing most of the work. Whether there's a device on a driver's wrist or not, manufacturers seem to be developing a consensus that vehicles should be taking on some of a wearable's functionality.