2000 Audi A4 Quattro Base Sedan 4-door 2.8l on 2040-cars

Auto blog

2015 Audi S8

You've gotta hand it to the Audi A8. Last year, Mercedes-Benz launched the truly stunning S-Class, putting the rest of the high-dollar luxury flagship class on notice. With the brand-new S-Class turning heads and garnering all sorts of praise from the automotive press, classmates like the BMW 7 Series, Jaguar XJ and Audi A8 started to look, well, old. But Audi didn't see fit to just let its big sedan carry on and let the Mercedes take the cake.
So when Audi refreshed its A8 line for the 2015 model year with only minor updates, I kind of shrugged it off as just a quick way to keep the big sedan fresh until an all-new, hopefully S-Class-trumping version arrives. But then I drove the S8 pictured above, and I'm no longer so sure the Merc's shadow is as big and imposing as it once was.
Spoiler alert: the Audi S8 is simply fantastic.

Why Audi is staking its future on electric SUVs

This much we know: SUVs and crossovers sell like hotcakes. The body style has become such a juggernaut that for the first time in recorded history, sport utes beat out sedans this year to score the biggest slice of the luxury pie. Love 'em or hate 'em, SUVs are here to stay, and carmakers are investing more than ever in the segment. Sport utility vehicles also played a bigger role than you might think in making Audi relevant in the US, and based on what we learned during a sit-down with Audi of America president Scott Keogh at the Paris Motor Show, their role is only going to continue to grow at the automaker. Last year, the brand sold 202,202 cars in the States, capping off 60 consecutive months of record sales. But it's not enough to focus on traditional SUVs like the Q5, which was launched on the heels of the global economic meltdown in a tiny small segment of around 160,000 vehicles and has since ballooned to over 400,000 units. The Q5 has scored 80 percent of its buyers from conquest, and a new plant in Puebla, Mexico, promises to churn even more units to the US and the world. Still, tackling the future head-on can be like wrestling an eel – an elusive, almost impossible-to-execute challenge – and Audi is betting a huge part of that success will be the production version of the E-Tron Quattro Concept that debuted last year in Frankfurt. Internally referred to as the C Bev, this battery-powered SUV claims a 311-mile range, and might as well be nicknamed the Tesla Model X Killer. "If you look at where this car migrated from," Keogh says, "it started as a European-ish city car, and then it migrated into a sedan-ish sportback-y type thing, and then we pushed very aggressively to make it an SUV." Keogh says the vehicle will hit showrooms "after 2018." The SUV layout naturally lends itself to batteries, but it also boils down to a simple bureaucratic advantage: "We get [government CO2 and fuel economy] credits for volume," says Keogh. "It's not just enough for a car to be there, it's got to be a car that a lot of people want to buy." Sized between a Q5 and a Q7, the E-Tron Quattro resides in a target-rich environment, a 600,000 - 700,000 unit segment. Add Audi's goals of electrifying 25 percent of its lineup by 2025, and a high volume, medium/large SUV simply makes sense.

Audi R8 bids adieu with the 570-hp Competition in LA

Audi is saying auf Wiedersehen to the first-gen R8 at the Los Angeles Auto Show in the best way possible - the even more powerful, limited edition 2015 R8 Competition. This might be the vehicle's swansong, but it's going out with a bang.
Audi is sending just 60 of these supercars to the US, and the heart and soul is a beefed up version of the 5.2-liter V10 from the V10 Plus model. The mill now makes 570 horsepower, a 20-hp boost, and is mated to a seven-speed, dual-clutch S Tronic gearbox. Audi claims that the potent package shoots the Competition to 60 miles per hour in 3.2 seconds and to a max speed of 199 mph.
The extra ponies might be enough for some, but Audi really wants to make the Competition something special. Matte carbon fiber pieces replace areas around the car, including the rear spoiler, side slides, front spoiler, rear diffuser and center console. For contrast, the wheels and exhaust pipes are painted in high-gloss black. Ceramic brake discs should be a useful aid with deceleration, too.