2003 Audi S8 Blue With White Leather 90,000 Miles Museum/showroom Condition on 2040-cars

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Audi TT Offroad gets the green light

The TT family already has a coupe and convertible, with various engines available in each. But over the past year or so, Audi has been toying with the idea of expanding the range with another bodystyle. And now the latest report from Car confirms that Ingoldtadt has given the production go-ahead to the TT Offroad concept. Unveiled at the Beijing Motor Show last year, the yellow TT Offroad concept envisioned a high-riding five-door crossover form with trademark TT styling cues. It was preceded by the blue three-door Allroad Shooting Brake concept at the Detroit show and followed by the sleek, red five-door TT Sportbrake concept at the Paris salon later the same year, but the impracticality of both those show cars is what we understand prompted Audi to go with the Offroad concept instead. So if it's a crossover, why not badge it with the letter Q, you ask? Because Fiat, that's why. The Italian automaker owns the names Q2 and Q4, which it has used on a variety of models (particularly Alfa Romeos and Maseratis) to connote their traction system. And though the Volkswagen Group has asked nicely, Sergio Marchionne has been as reluctant to give his biggest rivals a leg up as he has been to part with Alfa Romeo, despite their repeated advances. As a result, word has it that the production version of the TT Offroad concept will be sold as the TTQ, which kinda makes us giggle, but it would at least provide a nomenclature bridge between the TT and Q families within Audi's lineup. That is, unless Audi marketing chief Luca de Meo manages to convince his former boss to part with the Q2 and/or Q4 labels. Whatever it's called, the production crossover coupe would share similar dimensions to the Q3 when it arrives in 2017, but would potentially stand even further apart from its more utilitarian counterpart than the BMW X4 does from the X3 on which it is based.

Audi A3 supplies tight, model stealing Honda, Toyota sales

It appears that there was a pent up demand for compact, front-wheel drive German luxury sedans that no one really knew about. Not only has the Mercedes CLA-Class been a success in the US with its Hungarian factory running three shifts to keep up, but the Audi A3 Sedan is doing quite well, too, after just three full months on the market.
Audi of America recently announced that the compact sedan shifted 2,452 vehicles in June and 7,735 units of the A3 since the beginning of the year. Not only are they selling; it's the people buying them that's important. According to Audi USA spokesperson John Schilling speaking to Autoblog, "A little over 25 percent of A3 buyers in April were 30 years or under." That's compared to about 18 percent for the A4, he said. Company executives also recently told Edmunds that many of those new customers are brand conquests turning in Honda or Toyota models. We gently mocked Audi when it held A3 Sedan launch parties aimed at hipsters that served craft beer and played indie music, but the marketing worked, apparently.
That said, if you're in the market for an A3, you might have not be able to get one immediately. According to Edmunds, some customers are on a waiting list for the compact luxury sedan. Although, Schilling said that's because Audi is still stocking dealers. "It's a little leaner than other models, but that's mainly because it's new and still ramping up," he said.

Audi dealer roof collapses, 20 cars crash into workshop [w/video]

The roof over a car dealership in the UK collapsed on Monday, leaving as many as 20 vehicles buried in the rubble. According to the Guardian, the incident occurred at around noon yesterday at the Audi dealership in Milton Keynes – a town of about 250,000 in Buckinghamshire that you may recognize as the home base for Red Bull Racing as well as Honda's F1 engine ship. (It's also where companies like Mercedes, Volkswagen, and Suzuki have placed their UK offices.) Workers in the service department reportedly heard a bang, then evacuated the building before the roof gave way. The section of roof that collapsed apparently serves as a multi-story parking structure at the back corner of the workshop. Firefighters responded to the scene, but fortunately no one was reported to have been injured in the incident.