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Audi and Mercedes both outsell BMW in January

There won't be any celebrations in Munich this month, as BMW was outsold by arch-nemeses Audi and Mercedes-Benz. The Bavarian company finished behind Audi in January, which took the top spot for the first time since June of last year, Bloomberg reports. Ingolstadt rode high on a 10-percent bump in sales, while Mercedes saw a larger 14 percent increase. BMW, meanwhile, only saw a modest 6.3-percent sales increase last month, thanks in large part to its struggles in China. The company's sales there increased at about half the rate of its chief competitors, with a 7.9-percent jump to Mercedes and Audi's roughly 15-percent increases. Perhaps more worrying for BMW, though, is that this could become something of a trend for the company. According to Bloomberg, issues with Chinese dealers who cancelled orders over sales targets and bonuses combined with what the publication calls aging models, could spell bad news for the German marque. "This looks like a pretty significant decline in growth compared to Mercedes and Audi," Bankhaus Metzler analyst Juergen Pieper told Bloomberg. "I think this will continue during the next few months." News Source: BloombergImage Credit: Matthias Schrader / AP Earnings/Financials Audi BMW Mercedes-Benz

24 Hours of Le Mans live update part three

We tasked surfing journalist Rory Parker to watch this year's live stream of the 2016 24 Hours of Le Mans. What follows is an experiment to experience the world's greatest endurance race from the perspective of a motorsports novice. Parker lives in Hawaii and has an associates degree in dropping f-bombs. For Part One, click here. Part Two is here. Really hoped I'd be able to grab an hour or two of sleep before the sun rose over Le Mans. Dark dark dark, couldn't figure out what was going on. Commentators struggled at times as well. But I couldn't do it. Endurance racing is just too exciting. Grabs my attention with both fists. Screams, "watch these men DRIVE!" A neighbor invited me over for drinks. Told him, "Can't do it, gotta watch Le Mans!" Maybe not exactly. I'll admit, at times my attention wandered. I did a load of laundry. Ate some snacks. Half listened to the commentary. Threw a hump at my wife. I learned that Patrick Long, driving #88, is big brother to Kevin "Spanky" Long. Spanky's a bit of a legend in the skate world. Always weird how top notch talent can run in families like that. Kind of surprised I've never heard that before. Worked for a skate mag for a years, met Spanky a handful of times. Someone must've told me that he has an older brother who drives race cars. Dash cams at night are scary. High powered headlights in the P1s reach almost 300 meters. Cars outrun that distance easy. Seems like they're just steering into the black and hoping for the best. But that can't be the case. People'd be dropping dead let and right. Very amused by how the guys in GT are like, "Dude, stop flashing your fucking lights before you pass." But the LMP's are all, "Suck a dick! I do what I want." Top three stayed neck and neck nearly all night long. As the sun gets ready to creep back over the horizon the top three are separated by only eleven and a half seconds. Toyota 5 and 6, Porsche 2. Audi 8 is two laps behind Porsche, beleaguered 7 is dealing with constant trouble eleven laps from the front. GTE Pro sees Ferrari 82 in first, Ford 68 and 69 right behind. To win you've gotta drive perfect, build perfect. Fours cars retired so far. I'm beginning to appreciate the endurance aspect a little more fully. Only really considered the drivers at first. The mental and physical stress driving these cars at these speeds at length would inflict. But keeping the damn things running is the real deal. To win you've gotta drive perfect, build perfect.

Audi shows off the Prologue Avant Concept as a plug-in hybrid

The Audi Prologue Avant Concept goes in a different direction than the Prologue coupe, in more ways than just its five-door wagon body. The coupe was first shown at the LA Auto Show with a 4.0-liter, twin-turbo V8, then went redux at CES as a hybrid with a total of 677 horsepower and 701 pound-feet of torque. The only-slightly-larger Prologue Avant sticks with the hybrid but gets the system from the Q7 E-Tron quattro, meaning a 3.0-liter, twin-turbo V6 TDI with 353 hp and a 100-kW electric motor strapped to the eight-speed transmission. Total output is 455 hp and 553 lb-ft, pure electric range is 33 miles, and 0-62 miles per hour comes in 5.1 seconds. The forward section of cabin with its screen-based Tie Fighter displays and controls comes over from the coupe, as well as the four individual seats, but the Avant lavishes attention on rear passengers in ways not possible in the two-door. They also get a screen on the pass-through center console for convenience controls, and detachable OLED screens - a la the detachable tablets in the Q7 - with which they can send information to the front occupants. As a traditional Audi avant is to a coupe relative, the Prologue Avant is all about bringing the family along on the digital highway. We'll see it at the Geneva Motor Show next week, and Audi is again talking up how the design language will migrate to production cars. It also makes noises in the press release below about near-production many of the technologies are in the concept, so it looks like there could be all sorts of Easter Eggs on the way from the Ingolstadt brand. Related Video: Sporty and elegant, versatile and connected – the Audi prologue Avant show car - New interpretation of the Avant philosophy - Groundbreaking infotainment architecture and entertainment concept - High-performance hybrid drive with 455 hp and 750 Nm (553.2 lb-ft) of torque Ingolstadt, 2015-02-25 -- A design with dynamic elegance and the latest high end technologies: The Audi prologue Avant show car with its stretched roof which the brand is presenting at the Geneva Motor Show gives a look into the future – with the new and emotion filled design language that Audi has initiated with its study in the coupe, the prologue. A glance into the future In November 2014 at the Los Angeles Motorshow, Audi presented the Audi prologue concept car, giving a look to the brand's future design language.