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Lexus gets top brand marks from Consumer Reports; Ford, Jeep hit hard

Consumer Reports has released its 2014 Car Brand Report Cards, with Lexus again reigning at the top and doing so with the same industry-topping score of 79 that it registered in last year's Report Cards. This year, the institute credited its lineup for being "usually quiet, comfortable, and fuel-efficient," noting it's the only brand on the list "to achieve an excellent average overall reliability score." The Car Brand Report Cars list is meant to rank the best all-around vehicles based on CR testing and reliability results tallied by subscribers it surveyed. Each brand included must have sufficient test and reliability data for at least three models, a standard which left out 11 marques including Fiat, Jaguar, Land Rover and Porsche.
This 2014 Brand Report Cars edition is the first of a new format in which sub-brands have been broken out from their parent brands, with Acura using this year to move up the leaderboard into second place with a score of 75 for its "reliable, well-finished and somewhat sporty models." The top three was rounded out by Audi, climbing from eighth to third by scoring a 74 for "well-crafted interiors, nice handling and good gas mileage." Audi scored highest in the road-test portion, its improved reliability aiding its rise. The top nine was completed by Subaru, Toyota, Mazda, Honda, Infiniti and Mercedes-Benz.
Ford and Jeep weighed in at the other end of the rankings, Jeep taking the lowest overall score in the road tests and hampered by "a mix of spotty reliability." Ford was sunk by reliability issues with its MyFord Touch infotainment system which consumers found troublesome enough to negate its cars earning "solid test scores" for being "very nice to drive." Perhaps the rumored switch from Microsoft to Blackberry's QNX for the next generation SYNC will help them out. Cadillac's score also took a hit for infotainment reasons after it was the leading US brand last year, the CUE system in the XTS dragging Cadillac to the bottom of all General Motors brands.

Audi SQ7 TDI packs 48V electric compressor, 664 lb-ft

Take a look at the new Audi SQ7 TDI. It's the first time Audi has done an S performance version of its flagship sport-ute, and packs under the hood a 4.0-liter V8 turbo diesel engine mated to an eight-speed automatic and all-wheel drive. It produces a potent 435 horsepower, and an absolutely bonkers 664 pound-feet of torque. The Audi SQ7 TDI produces a massive 664 lb-ft of torque. Impressive as it is, though, that doesn't even tell the full story. That's enough to make us forget it wasn't there in Geneva. It's also more torque than just about anything the Volkswagen Group makes – short of the Bentley Mulsanne Speed and the new Bugatti Chiron. Not even the Lamborghini Aventador SV or Bentley Continental GT Speed can touch that torque figure. Nor can competition like the Porsche Cayenne S Diesel (with its 385 hp and 627 lb-ft) or the BMW X5 M50d (381 hp and 546 lb-ft). It may not surpass the old twelve-cylinder Q7 6.0 TDI (with its 493 hp and 738 lb-ft), but still trounces the VW Touareg V10 TDI (309 hp and 553 lb-ft) – which was strong enough to tow a jet airplane, while the new SQ7 is fast enough to out-drag one (as you can see from the video below). Impressive as it is, though, that headline-grabbing torque figure doesn't tell the full story. To get there, Audi employed two conventional, sequential turbochargers and a third compressor that – in an industry first that's been a long time coming – is powered electrically. The engineers in Ingolstadt installed a beefier 48-volt electric subsystem to power the electric compressor (among other systems) and its latest valvetrain tech for the first time in a diesel. The result, Audi says, is a lack of any perceptible turbo lag – and a 0-62 time quoted at 4.8 seconds, en route to the typical electronically limited top speed of 155 miles per hour. As if that weren't enough, Audi also equipped the SQ7 TDI with an optional suspension package that coordinates the activities of three systems. There's a differential, a four-wheel steering system, and a clever electromechanical roll stabilization system that employs an electric motor (made possible once again by that 48-volt system) and a three-stage planetary gearbox to keep it all level and improve ride quality over rough surfaces. The sum total is an impressive technological tour de force on Audi's part, but one that we may just have to admire from afar.

Audi pins hopes on 2016 R18 Le Mans prototype

Down but not out, Audi is carrying forward its endurance racing program with the new R18 you see here. Unveiled on Saturday at the Audi Sport Finale end-of-season event in Munich, the new LMP1 is billed as the company's its most powerful and efficient race car yet. And it has been thoroughly redesigned to bring the Four Ring brand back to the winner's circle. Though technical details remain a closely guarded secret, Audi says that the latest evolution of the R18 (now apparently labeled sans the E-Tron Quattro) benefits from revised aero, lightweight construction, and "a modified hybrid system with lithium-ion batteries for energy storage, plus an efficiency-optimized TDI engine." That spells the end of the mechanical fly-wheel setup of the previous version, but sticks to the diesel fuel that Audi has championed instead of the gasoline favored by rivals Porsche and Toyota. With all its revisions, Ingolstadt undoubtedly hopes this latest version will perform better than the last. This past season was the worst Audi has endured since 2009. Its sister company Porsche beat it to both the drivers' and manufacturers' titles in the FIA World Endurance Championship and to the winner's circle at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. That marked the second straight year of defeat in the championship, following Toyota's domination last season, and marked only the third time Audi was defeated at Le Mans since 2000, following Bentley's win in '03 and Peugeot's in '09. In order to avoid costly inter-agency arms race, Audi and Porsche have agreed to each field two entries instead of three in both the championship and the headline race in Western France. Audi has yet to confirm its driver lineup, but Porsche has revealed its lineup consisting of defending champions Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley, and Mark Webber in one car, and Romain Dumas, Neel Jani, and Marc Lieb in the other. That leaves out the Le Mans-winning trio of Nico Hulkenberg, Nick Tandy, and Earl Bamber, with the former already counted out due to an F1 conflict. More powerful and efficient than ever before: Audi R18 celebrates world premiere in Munich - New hybrid race car for the 2016 Le Mans 24 Hours - Unchanged driver line-up in the DTM - High demand for new Audi R8 LMS GT3 sports car The brand with the four rings will be entering the 2016 motorsport season with the most powerful and efficient race car Audi has ever built.