2004 - Audi A4 on 2040-cars

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A car writer's year in new vehicles [w/video]

Christmas is only a week away. The New Year is just around the corner. As 2014 draws to a close, I'm not the only one taking stock of the year that's we're almost shut of. Depending on who you are or what you do, the end of the year can bring to mind tax bills, school semesters or scheduling dental appointments. For me, for the last eight or nine years, at least a small part of this transitory time is occupied with recalling the cars I've driven over the preceding 12 months. Since I started writing about and reviewing cars in 2006, I've done an uneven job of tracking every vehicle I've been in, each year. Last year I made a resolution to be better about it, and the result is a spreadsheet with model names, dates, notes and some basic facts and figures. Armed with this basic data and a yen for year-end stories, I figured it would be interesting to parse the figures and quantify my year in cars in a way I'd never done before. The results are, well, they're a little bizarre, honestly. And I think they'll affect how I approach this gig in 2015. {C} My tally for the year is 68 cars, as of this writing. Before the calendar flips to 2015 it'll be as high as 73. Let me give you a tiny bit of background about how automotive journalists typically get cars to test. There are basically two pools of vehicles I drive on a regular basis: media fleet vehicles and those available on "first drive" programs. The latter group is pretty self-explanatory. Journalists are gathered in one location (sometimes local, sometimes far-flung) with a new model(s), there's usually a day of driving, then we report back to you with our impressions. Media fleet vehicles are different. These are distributed to publications and individual journalists far and wide, and the test period goes from a few days to a week or more. Whereas first drives almost always result in a piece of review content, fleet loans only sometimes do. Other times they serve to give context about brands, segments, technology and the like, to editors and writers. So, adding up the loans I've had out of the press fleet and things I've driven at events, my tally for the year is 68 cars, as of this writing. Before the calendar flips to 2015, it'll be as high as 73. At one of the buff books like Car and Driver or Motor Trend, reviewers might rotate through five cars a week, or more. I know that number sounds high, but as best I can tell, it's pretty average for the full-time professionals in this business.

Audi kicks off A3 celebrity-fest marketing campaign with Dues

Audi is desperate to appeal to young people with its new 2015 A3 sedan. It's planning launch parties around the country to present the new model to these younger buyers, and its latest tactic is a series of videos starring celebrities the company considers trailblazers to further captivate youthful buyers.
The advertising campaign starts with a spot titled Dues starring comedian Ricky Gervais, chef David Chang, photo journalist Lynsey Addario, comedian Kristen Schaal, boxer Claressa Shields, artist collective Cyrcle, and church choir Voices of Destiny. It's being followed up with seven, minute-long online documentaries called Uncompromised Portraits about the folks featured in the new ad. Audi believes that they are all trailblazers who have forged their own way, and it's all supposed to fit with the A3's slogan of "Stay Uncompromised."
Dues will play during the NCAA March Madness tournament. Audi is also running two, 30-second commercials during the games to highlight the sedan's technology and two, 15-second ads to promote its Quattro all-wheel-drive system.

Autoblog Podcast #376

Episode #376 of the Autoblog podcast is here, and this week, Dan Roth, Chris Paukert and Brandon Turkus talk about the New York Auto Show, internet criticism of the Ram Runner, and the 2014 Ward's 10 Best Interiors. We start with what's in the garage and finish up with some of your questions, and for those of you who hung with us live on our UStream channel, thanks for taking the time. Check out the new rundown below with times for topics, and you can follow along down below with our Q&A. Thanks for listening! Autoblog Podcast #376: The video meant to be presented here is no longer available. Sorry for the inconvenience. Topics: New York Auto Show preview Ram Runner criticism Ward's 10 Best interiors for 2014 In the Autoblog Garage: 2014 Chevrolet Camaro 2SS 2014 Chevrolet Camaro 1SS 1LE 2014 Audi Q7 TDI Hosts: Dan Roth, Chris Paukert, Brandon Turkus Runtime: 01:37:18 Rundown: Intro and Garage - 00:00 New York Auto Show - 24:07 Ram Runner - 45:57 Ward's 10 Best Interiors - 57:00 Q&A - 01:14:02 Get the podcast: [UStream] Listen live on Mondays at 10 PM Eastern at UStream [iTunes] Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes [RSS] Add the Autoblog Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator [MP3] Download the MP3 directly Feedback: Email: Podcast at Autoblog dot com Review the show in iTunes Auto News Podcasts New York Auto Show Audi Chevrolet Off-Road Vehicles chevy camaro 1le wards 10 best interiors