Audi R8 5.2l Titanium Package Enhanced Leather Package, $175,050.00 Msrp on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Audi first to bring LTE to the car later this year

It appears Audi will be the first to market with in-car LTE service later this year. We knew that BMW was working on LTE integration last year with its ConnectedDrive, and we've been told that, by the end of 2015, most General Motors products will have it, but LTE can be ordered on the S3 Sportback (pictured) as soon as July. Other models in the A3 line-up will add the option in November.
Inserting an LTE-enabled SIM card into the Audi's MMI navigation will make the S3 a WLAN hotspot that can quickly shuffle high-definition content from the cloud to the cockpit. It will also bolster Audi Connect services like Google Earth, Facebook and Twitter, e-mail, and streaming internet radio.
We've been told that we'll be offered the LTE option when the 2015 A3 sedan gets here in the spring of 2014. Since the service requires you to provide a SIM card, we expect that costs and data caps will be a matter between you and the service provider; speaking of which, Audi hasn't announced yet who that provider will be on this side of the Atlantic. The press release below has more details.

Despite premium carmakers going downmarket, luxury auto sales stick at 10-11%

According to research conducted by global information company IHS Automotive, the leporine birthing of new models by luxury manufacturers over the past six years hasn't increased their market share in the US. Even as car sales reached 15.6 million units, IHS says what's happened instead is that luxury buyers are merely moving from one brand to another, moving from larger luxury vehicles into hot segments like compact luxury crossovers or leaving the market at the same rate as other buyers enter.
Whether broken out by makes or by segment, market share has rollercoastered inside a narrow band from 10.5 to 11.5 percent since "at least" 2008. Closer investigation reveals the shifting boundaries in the aspirational pond, with brands like Mercedes-Benz and Audi gaining territory as Lexus and Lincoln lost it, and Saab and Hummer were buried, dead, under it. One neat note is that Tesla has gone from a share of zip to .12 percent.
The subcompact and compact crossover segments show growth, with those little high-riders jumping from .3 percent to 1.16 percent of overall industry sales. Their rise, though, is concomitant with the decline of four other segments: compact and midsize cars and fullsize cars and SUVs. We think the next few years that will tell if the small-car expansion can overcome the large-car retraction, with a phalanx of smaller offerings like the CLA only recently hitting the market and others like the GLA, Macan and Q1 doing so in the near future.

Honda, Audi sweep European tin-top championships

Despite his win at the Japanese Grand Prix this weekend, Sebastian Vettel still has another race or two to go before he can claim his fourth consecutive World Championship in Formula 1. Back in Europe, however, this weekend saw several championship titles decided in a variety of tin-top racing series.
In the British Touring Car Championship, Gordon Shedden won the final round at Brands Hatch this weekend, but that wasn't enough to defend his title. Instead, the ultimate glory went to Andrew Jordan, also driving a Honda Civic, coming in ninth place to take a seven-point victory over Shedden in the final standings. Little wonder then that Honda took the constructors' championship and the Honda Yuasa Racing team took the teams' title. Four-time BTCC champion and Fifth Gear co-host Jason Plato, now driving for MG, landed third in the standings.
While Honda dominated the British championship, it was Audi that reigned supreme in mainland Europe. In the Superstars International Series - Italy's touring-car championship - Gianni Morbidelli drove the Audi RS5 to his fifth title, finishing the season's final race in a calculated third place behind the BMW racecars of Giovanni Berton and Max Mugelli. It's the second consecutive win for the RS5 in the Superstars series (Johan Kristoffersson won the title last year), and the second this year following Mike Rockenfeller's title in the RS5 DTM.