2004 Audi S4 Base Sedan 4-door 4.2l on 2040-cars

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BMW tops Consumer Reports 2023 Brand Report Card

Feels like we wrote about Consumer Reports' 2022 Brand Report Car and 10 Top Picks a few weeks ago, but it was last April. So the mag is back with a ranked roster of 32 brands and 10 vehicles in four categories for your debating pleasure. Starting with the brands, last year's top three were Subaru, Mazda and BMW. This year, the Munich crew climbed two spots to win the prize thanks to "Superb road test scores and solid results in CR’s reliability and owner satisfaction surveys." Subaru narrowly fell to second, maintaining its four-year run in the top three. Mini, eighth last year, jumped five spots to get the last step on the podium. The rest of the top 10 were Lexus (up one spot from last year), Honda (down one spot from last year), Toyota (up three), Genesis (up 12), Mazda (down six), Audi (down three) and Kia (up eight). The magazine and testing outfit says its Brand Report Card "[reveals] which automakers are producing the most well-performing, safe, and reliable vehicles based on CRÂ’s independent testing and member surveys," and that "Brands that rise to the top tend to have the most consistent performance across their model lineups." Last year's top 10 had six automakers from Japan, three from Germany (giving Mini credit for England), none from the U.S. or South Korea, and five luxury brands. This year's list counts five makes from Japan, two from Germany because Porsche fell out of the top ten, two from South Korea, still none from the U.S., and four luxury brands. Buick again ranked as the best domestic, dropping to 12th after being 11th last year. The big mover was Lincoln, its 10-place jump up to 16th attributed to better reliability from the Corsair and Nautilus. Tesla's improved overall reliability saw it climb six spots to 17th. Dodge climbed one spot to 15th. Jeep got out of the penalty box in last to come second-to-last. Land Rover fell three places into the penalty spot.  CR's top 10 vehicle models The 10 Top Picks list is practically a new list. Only two holdovers made it to 2023, those being the Subaru Forester and Kia Telluride.

'Worldwide, every third Audi will be an SUV by 2020'

Automotive News Europe reports the new Audi manufacturing facility in San Jose Chiapa, Mexico will increase the automaker's production capacity for the Q5 SUV by 150,000 units per year. While the plant will supply every market with the exception of China, most of the production is slated to head to the US.
While speaking with ANE, Audi CEO Rupert Stradler said, "Worldwide, every third Audi will be an SUV by 2020." So far this year, 40 percent of Audi vehicles sold in the US have been light trucks, with the company's sales in that segment jumping by 53 percent. By comparison, Audi passenger car sales have increased by just one percent.
The first Q5 vehicles from the San Hose Chiapa plant will show up on dealer lots in 2016. Audi of America recently received a larger 9,000-unit allocation of Q5 models after seeing sales increase 36 percent through April compared to the same period in 2012.

New Audi Quattro concept coming to Frankfurt?

We first saw the Audi Quattro Concept at the 2010 Paris Motor Show, and since then we've been tugged this way and that by a series of rumors as to whether the car will be built or not, and whether such a car will live at the accessible or the exalted end of the cost spectrum. A report in Germany's Auto Zeitung from June restarted the fires of gossip with a report that a production version of the concept will appear at the Frankfurt Motor Show, and put it firmly in the exalted sphere.
Now, just a month from the show, Auto Bild has a similar report, sketching out an upmarket car but on a different platform. Back when we drove it, the Quattro concept was built on a spaceframe based on the RS5 platform and got its go from a 2.5-liter five-cylinder engine with 380 horsepower and 354 pound-feet of torque (the show car got 408 hp from a turbocharged five-cylinder). The June report from Auto Zeitung said this new reveal would be powered by a modified version of the twin-turbo 4.0-liter V8 from the RS7 that would put out something like 650 hp. Auto Bild, on the other hand, reports that the engine will be tuned to something like 600 hp and the new concept will ride on an "enhanced" version of the A6 platform.
Both reports agree that the car we'll see will preview Audi's new design language with "tauter, more angular lines." Lightweight and exotic materials will be used in efforts to reach a supposed target weight of 1,200 kilograms (2,640 pounds), down from a target of 2,900 pounds in earlier report. Auto Bild says that Audi still hasn't decided whether to make a production version, but if they are correct about the direction of the concept, any retail offering based on it isn't going to be cheap.