Premium Plus Navigation Cold Weather Package 20" Double Spoke Wheels Pan on 2040-cars

Auto blog

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.

1984 Audi Sport Quattro expected to hammer at nearly half a million dollars

The highest prices paid at automobile auctions continue to be claimed by European sports cars, with names like Ferrari and Bugatti forever topping the lists. But what we have here is not quite a sports car. It's more of a hot hatch, but its still expected to fetch between $350,000 and $475,000 when it goes up for auction next month in Arizona. That's because this is no ordinary hot hatch... it's the prototypical hot hatch: the legendary Audi Sport Quattro, one of the most maniacal and dominant homologated rally machines ever devised. Shorter in wheelbase and dartier of handling than the Ur-Quattro that came before it, the later Sport Quattro was built to comply to with the FIA's legendary Group B regulations. That meant that it competed with the likes of the Lancia 037, Ford RS200 and Ferrari 288 GTO – beating them all in the World Rally Championship one after another – but also had to be built in limited quantities and sold to the public. And so Audi and its nascent Quattro GmbH skunkworks division built 214 road-going examples of the Sport Quattro, and this could very well be the most immaculate example in existence. It was previously owned by noted collector Yoshikuni Okamoto of Kobe, Japan, and with barely more than 5,000 miles on the odometer, recently underwent an exhaustive service at Audi of Fairfield, CT – one of the company's largest dealerships – and though the Sport Quattro was never offered for sale in the US, this one is now fully registered for use on American roads and comes in impeccable condition despite its 30 years of age. The gavel drops during the RM Auctions event at the Arizona Biltmore on January 15-16, 2015. Even the low end of the pre-auction estimate is nearly double the $184,860 which Sports Car Market reports Bonhams sold an '85 Audi Sport Quattro in September 2013. Featured Gallery 1984 Audi Sport Quattro: RM Arizona 2015 View 21 Photos News Source: RM AuctionsImage Credit: Erik Fuller/RM Audi Auctions Hatchback Performance rm audi sport quattro

Top Gear names BMW i8 Car of the Year, Corvette, Ferrari, Mercedes also win big

The lads at Top Gear have released their listing of the finest cars of the past year, handing the ultimate honor to BMW's revolutionary i8 plug-in-hybrid supercar. "The i8 is a milestone in the annals of automotive history and a glorious statement for an exciting and positive future. The i8 delivers - and then some," the British mag wrote. The i8, though, was far from the only hybridized car to take victories. James May and Richard Hammond both highlighted hybrids as their personal cars of the year, with May saluting the Ferrari LaFerrari and the Hamster, unsurprisingly, heaping praise on the Porsche 918 Spyder. Jeremy Clarkson, meanwhile, opted to shock many by selecting not only an American car as his best of 2014, but giving the honor to of all things, a Corvette. Clarkson wasn't the only person to honor the USA's iconic sports car, with the new, 650-horsepower Z06 variant being named TG's Muscle Car of the Year. Other big winners include Mercedes-Benz, which TG honored for S-Class Coupe (Luxury Car of the Year), the new AMG GT (Sports Car of the Year) and the not-for-US C-Class Estate (Family Car of the Year). The 458 Italia Speciale A snagged a second win for Ferrari. The best of the rest include the Citroen C4 Cactus, Renault Twingo, Volkswagen Golf R, Lamborghini Huracan and Audi TT. Take a look below for the celebratory press blast from BMW. The BMW i8 wins Top Gear Car of the Year The BMW i8 has been named as Top Gear magazine's global Car of the Year 2014. The plug-in hybrid performance vehicle beat off some stiff competition from a host of other premium and luxury manufacturers to win the overall award. The editorial team of Top Gear commended the BMW i8 for its breadth of abilities. Its 1.5-litre three-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine combined with an electric motor gives searing acceleration and driver enjoyment but all wrapped in a package that takes BMW's EfficientDynamics philosophy to the extreme courtesy of CO2 emissions less than 49g/km and a 135mpg combined cycle figure. Charlie Turner, Editor in Chief at Top Gear magazine, said: "The BMW is a milestone in the annals of automotive history and a glorious statement for an exciting and positive future. The i8 delivers – and then some. It's the kind of car we should celebrate, a beautiful vision of the future, delivered now.