2011 Audi 5.2l on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Audi celebrates 25 years of TDI

Nope, the diesel engine never really did go out of style for Audi. Now, the German automaker has released a video reminding the world of its persistence with the oil-burners and is commemorating the Silver Anniversary of Audi's first commitment to turbodiesels in 1989. And, yes, there are some road racers shown in the clip, so some of those bad boys actually move pretty well. Audi engineers on camera admitted to some of the early TDI engines being "slow" but still valuable for their torque and, obviously, their fuel economy relative to gas-powered engines. A bunch of tinkering later, though, and Audi says its diesels can be a legitimate "part of a performance car" and has even overcome the issue of noisiness that's often associated with diesels. The automaker made some news in these parts a few years back when its Audi A3 TDI won the 2010 Green Car of the Year at the annual LA Auto Show in late 2009, and the model even succeeded a fellow diesel (the Volkswagen Jetta TDI) to boot. Granted, diesel sales aren't nearly as popular in the US as they are in Europe. Still, Audi last year boosted its diesel sales in the US by 40 percent to 10,076, which was about a tenth of what sister company Volkswagen sold in diesels last year in the States. And things have looked even rosier this year for Audi's TDI sales. Through June, Audi diesel sales have almost quadrupled from a year earlier to more than 8,100 units. Check out the 150-second video on Audi's 25-years of TDI production below.

Audi prepping A5 Sportback for US market

Audi is prepping one of its European-market models for the US market. No, it's not the RS3. Or the RS6. Or even an RS model at all. Sorry. Instead, just be happy we might be finally seeing the handsome A5 Sportback on American roads. Automotive News is citing Audi of America boss Scott Keogh, who hinted that a third A5 body style would be offered in the very near future. And since there are only three A5 body styles – coupe, convertible, and Sportback – and Americans can already buy the first two, the five-door variant is almost certainly what he was referring to. "I feel confident that there will be another variant of the A5 that will be a real home run," Keogh told AN during the US launch for the new A4. Keogh then went on to make the same argument we made above, that Audi only has one more A5 body to sell over here. Audi sells the Sportback with a number of powertrains in Europe, including gas, diesel, and S performance varieties, but we'd expect the US-spec model to mimic the new A4. That means the only choice facing owners would be whether they went for front- or Quattro all-wheel drive. According to Automotive News, we can expect some kind of announcement on the A5 Sportback ahead of the second quarter of 2017, when it's expected to go on sale. We're impatient, though, so we reached out to Audi for confirmation. As soon as they respond, we'll update this post. Related Video:

Audi A3-based people mover in the works

We have yet another announcement of yet another new Audi, including yet another obligatory quote from Audi research and development chief Wolfgang Dürheimer that there's room for it in the Audi range. On the sidelines of reports about the diesel-hybrid sports car, derived from the R18 endurance racer, there have been remarks about a possible MPV. Now Auto Express reports that said MPV "is on the way" and will be based on the A3 Sportback.
Previous speculation has posited either a six- or seven-seat people carrier; if the AE report is to be believed then five seats is the number that's been settled on. Planned to rest on a stretched version of the A3 platform, its wheelbase would be nearly eight inches longer than that of the A3 Sportback and it would compete against the Mercedes-Benz B-Class and the production version of the BMW Concept Active Tourer.
Audi is not going to dally about it, either, with a concept said to be ready for debut next year. Should it come, it would mean the A3 range comes pretty close to hitting for the cycle.