2008 Audi A4 2dr Cabriolet Cvt 2.0t Fronttrak on 2040-cars

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VW has received several tentative bids for Ducati

Italy's Benetton family is vying with motorbike firms and buyout funds for control of Italian motorcycle brand Ducati, which is being sold by Germany's Volkswagen, sources involved in the process told Reuters. Volkswagen, whose Audi division controls Ducati, has received several tentative bids with the Benetton family's investment vehicle Edizione Holding valuing the Monster motorbike maker at $1.2 billion, one of the sources said. As well as Edizione Holding, U.S. buyout fund Bain Capital, which owns a stake in Ski-Doo snowmobiles maker BRB, and two Indian motorbike firms, Eicher Motors and Bajaj Auto, have also bid for Ducati, the sources said. Indian carmaker Eicher controls Royal Enfield, a motorcycle brand established in 1893 which ranks as one of the oldest. Strategic bidders also include U.S. automotive firm Polaris Industries, which earlier this year said it would wind down its struggling Victory Motorcycle brand. A shortlist of bidders for a second stage of the auction could be selected as soon as Saturday, two of the sources said. Volkswagen adviser Evercore has a long list of bidders including private equity funds such as Ducati's previous owner Investindustrial, CVC Capital Partners, Advent and PAI, all hoping to outbid industry players, the sources said. If it gets to the second round, Edizione Holding could seek to form a consortium with a financial investor, two of the sources said, in a bid to secure control of Ducati, whose racers have won the Superbike world championship 14 times, with Carl Fogarty and Troy Bayliss its most successful riders. Audi, Edizione Holding, Investindustrial, Advent and PAI declined to comment, while the other interested groups were not immediately available for comment. PRICING CHALLENGES For some buyout funds, Ducati's valuation of up to $1.4 billion – which sources said is based on a multiple of more than 10 times its core earnings of roughly 100 million euros – is a tall order as they lack the synergies that some motorbike makers could achieve. But Investindustrial founder Andrea Bonomi, who sold Ducati to Audi for about 860 million euros in 2012, is serious about a comeback, one of the sources said. China's Loncin Motor was among a group of industry players that initially showed interest in Ducati, alongside Harley-Davidson. The latter has, however, decided against making a bid due to Ducati's price tag, while it could not be established if Loncin Motor had carried on bidding.

Sunday Drive: Taking a gaze into the automotive crystal ball

Mankind has long been fascinated by the future. So it makes sense that this past week's top stories were all about cars, trucks, and SUVs that won't be hitting the market until the 2019 model year. And right at the top of the list is the Ram 1500. We've come to know Ram as the truck maker that styles its pickups with cues cribbed from big rigs, but that look has slowly evolved over time into something uniquely its own. The next Ram 1500 continues this trend, with a newly refined look that we can't wait to see in person. Up next is the 2019 Chevy Silverado. Pickup trucks have been, continue to be, and will remain the best-selling vehicles in America. And General Motors is a leader in the field, with two distinct offerings with which to entice buyers, one from the bread-and-butter Chevrolet brand and one wearing the slightly more upscale GMC badge. The Chevy looks to get LED lighting elements for 2019, which ought to keep the truck from looking dated when compared to the Ford F-150 and the previously mentioned Ram 1500. From there we move past pickup trucks and into SUVs and sedans. The 2019 Jeep Cherokee looks to get toned down a bit with its next refresh, and the '19 BMW 3 Series continues its slow evolutionary journey at the top of its aspirational sales pedestal. Finally, spy shots give way to official production reveals for the 2019 Audi A7 and Polestar 1. This pair of European luxury cars won't compete with one another – one is a rakish hatchback and the other a sports coupe – any further than for the eyeballs of our readers, but both proved popular enough to merit inclusion in our weekly roundup. As always, tune in to Autoblog next week for a front-row seat to all the happenings worth following in the automotive industry. 2019 Ram 1500 spotted without the classic crosshairs 2019 Chevy Silverado spied with new LED accents 2019 Jeep Cherokee reveals a much more normal face 2019 BMW 3 Series spy shots reveal production lights, new interior details 2019 Audi A7 revealed: More torque, refined styling Polestar 1 First Look | The 600 horsepower hybrid Scandinavian Green Audi BMW Chevrolet Jeep RAM Volvo Truck Hatchback SUV Future Vehicles Hybrid Luxury Performance Sedan sunday drive polestar 1

2017 Audi A4 Deep Dive

Unchanged. Plain. Boring. These words have been used to describe the new 2017 Audi A4, but they all miss the point entirely. Yes, the design of the new A4 is evolutionary, rather than a ground-up restyling. But as they say in ancient High German, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Of course, if you're at all interested in the 2017 Audi A4, you've probably read all about it in the official press release a few days ago. So we'll cut to the chase and tell you the bits you don't already know: the American-market details. We spent a day at Audi headquarters in Ingolstadt last week finding out the latest and poking around the A4 in the metal. The new A4 is wider, longer, and roomier than before. The lines are crisper and sharper, but yes, the proportions have remained very similar. That was done on purpose, thoughtfully. Not out of laziness. Stand any two sequential generations of Porsche 911 next to each other and you'll find they are rather similar. And yes, people do complain about that. But they also complain about the property tax rate on their third home in Monaco. That familiar-looking body gets a shockingly low coefficient of drag of just 0.23. The improvements in drag come from fine-tuning details down to the placement of the side mirror (now on the door, rather than the triangular window panel) and the contouring of the inner edge of the side mirror, which gets little vortex generating bumps to improve the turbulent airflow in that area, reducing drag. Attention to detail and refinement of a successful design – not boring, lazy repetition. Another notable departure in the styling of the new A4 is equally subtle, but even more significant from a precision manufacturing perspective: the hood has no cut lines on its upper surface. Instead, the hood now wraps around the tops of the fenders, the cut line integrating with the sharp crease that runs down the entire body side. The creation of this cut line requires extremely tight manufacturing tolerances to enable the precise alignment of the hood and fender gap with the stamped-in crease in the door panel; misalignment would be obvious and catastrophic to the clean, simple design's flow. Now, let's rip off this Band-Aid: no, we won't be getting the Avant. Why? Because no one buys it, vociferous vocalizations on the Internet aside.