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2015 Audi Q3 is ready to woo America's young and upwardly mobile

You can hardly blame Audi for its decision to finally bring its Q3 compact crossover to America, even though it's been on sale in other global markets since 2012. CUVs of all stripes are red hot, and the number of players in the US entry-level premium segment is mushrooming. Rapidly growing Audi simply can't afford to be left out of the discussion in favor of vehicles like the BMW X1, Land Rover Range Rover Evoque, and even small near-luxury entries like the Buick Encore, if only because capturing these customers could result in subsequent sales of more profitable models down the road.
Audi evidently intends to attract these new, younger customers by spoiling them in decidedly unGermanic fashion: by offering lots of standard equipment. Peruse the spec sheet on base models from rivals and you'll see things like manually adjusted faux leather seats, conventional projector headlamps, and little in the way of frills. By comparison, the 2015 Q3 comes with an embarrassment of standard features, including heated and power-articulated leather seats, panoramic moonroof, Xenon headlamps with LED accents and keyless start.
First impressions of the four-cylinder, 200-horsepower Q3 revealed here at the Detroit Auto Show are very positive, with a rakish (if overly familiar) shape and a fair amount of utility with up to 48.2 cubic feet of storage with the rear seats folded. If Audi can price the Q3 similarly to the entry-level BMW X1 sDrive28i ($31,825 delivered) when it arrives this fall, we think it'll sell like hotcakes - just like its Q5 big brother.

YouTube's Super Bowl commercial buzz list dominated by automakers [w/videos]

After Sunday's big game, YouTube will be the place to watch every commercial that you missed when you left your seat for an emergency guac refill or, as we say in Cleveland, took the Browns to the Super Bowl. That makes YouTube the nation's water cooler on Monday, and it's got some preliminary stats to share in the lead up to kickoff.
As you know, Super Bowl advertisers, particularly automakers, like to endlessly tease their big budget commercials in the weeks before the game, many times revealing them outright days in advance. Because of this, YouTube can tell us which commercials have been viewed the most so far, and their top five list is all automakers.
Kaley Cuoco appears to have been a good investment for Toyota, as her ad for the RAV4 has garnered the most YouTube views - six million and counting - among Super Bowl commercials so far. Second place goes to Mercedes-Benz, though not its actual Super Bowl commercial, but rather the teaser for it. You know, the one with Kate Upton and the car washing, which is up to 5.6 million views. Third place is Audi's Prom commercial (3.3M views), fourth goes to Volkswagen's slightly controversial Get In, Get Happy ad (3.3M views), and the fifth and final spot is bookended by the teaser video for Kaley Cuoco's commercial (3.2M views). You can watch all five in order below.

Bathurst 12-hour gallery is GT3 heaven [w/video]

The 2015 Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12-Hour race was run this weekend at the Mt. Panorama Circuit in Bathurst, Australia. Race photographer Joel Strickland sent us a huge batch of photos, all of which make us salivate for the switch to GT3 rules in the United SportsCar Championship; the top seven finishers at Bathurst were of seven different makes: Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3, Audi R8-LMS Ultra, Aston Martin Vantage GT3, Bentley Continental GT3, Mercedes SLS AMG GT3, Ferrari F458 Italia and Lamborghini Gallardo. It was a sweet victory for the No. 35 car driven by the NISMO Athlete Global Team after it crashed in Saturday qualifying, and then was only in third place on the penultimate lap. The three-man driving team included two GT Academy winners, one of whom, Florian Strauss, has only been a professional race car driver for 18 months. It's the first time the GT-R has won at Panorama since the original R32 "Godzilla" took back-to-back wins in 1991 and 1992. Second place went to the No. 15 Phoenix Racing Audi R8-LMS Ultra, 2.4 seconds behind the winners, third to the Craft Bamboo Racing Aston Martin Vantage not even half a second behind the Audi. The Bentley Motorsport team, in its first Bathurst 12-Hour with two cars, had its No. 10 Continental GT3 in the lead until the penultimate lap and in second place until the final corner, but crossed the line in fourth after some rubbin'-is-racin' action from chasers. And if pictures aren't enough, as of writing you can still watch the live stream of the entire race at the Bathurst 12-Hour site. Or, if you don't have the time, at least be sure to check out the last five minutes, below. Enjoy. Featured Gallery 2015 Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12-Hour View 118 Photos Image Credit: Copyright 2015 Joel Strickland / AOL Motorsports Aston Martin Audi Bentley Nissan Coupe Racing Vehicles Videos aston martin vantage gt3