2018 Audi S5 Prestige Coupe 2d on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Consumer Reports says infotainment systems 'growing first-year reliability plague'

The Consumer Reports Annual Auto Reliability Survey (right) is out, and the top two spots look much the same as last year's list with Lexus and Toyota in first and second place, respectively. However, there are some major shakeups for 2014, with Acura plunging eight spots from third in 2013 to 11th this year, and Mazda replaces it on the lowest step of the podium. Honda and Audi round out the top five. This year's list includes six Japanese brands in the top 10, two Europeans, one America and one Korean.
Acura isn't the only one taking a tumble, though. Infiniti is the biggest loser this year by dropping 14 spots to 20th place. Other big losses come from Mercedes-Benz with an 11-place fall to 24th, and GMC, which declines 10 positions to 19th.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, it's not traditional mechanical bugs hauling down these automaker's reliability scores. Instead, pesky problems with infotainment systems are taking a series toll on the rankings. According to Consumer Reports, complaints about "in-car electronics" were the most grumbled about element in new cars. Problem areas included things like unresponsive touchscreens, issues pairing phones and multi-use controllers that refused to work right.

2013 Audi RS6 Avant hauls ass and then some

Holy moly. Despite the fact that Audi first released details on its 2013 RS6 Avant back in December, we're still just as smitten with it now as we were a couple months ago. And why wouldn't we be? This stunning piece of forbidden fruit combines two of our favorite things: fast Audis and useful wagons.
The meat and potatoes behind the RS6 Avant is its twin-turbocharged 4.0-liter V8, tuned to crank out 560 horsepower and 516 pound-feet of torque. Mated to an eight-speed automatic transmission, the all-wheel-drive wagon can scoot to 60 miles per hour in just 3.9 seconds, on its way to a top speed of 155 mph. Opting for the Dynamic package ups that v-max to 174 mph, and selecting the Dynamic Plus pack increases that even further to 190 mph.
This RS6 Avant certainly looks the part of an extreme ass-hauler, fitted with the usual RS-spec gaping air intakes, 21-inch wheels, sport exhaust and carbon fiber ceramic brakes. Combine all that goodness with dynamic ride control, an adaptive air suspension and torque-vectoring Quattro all-wheel drive, and we have no doubt that this thing will scare off every other station wagon in the parking lot. (Well, except maybe that Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG. Woof.)

Race Recap: 2013 Griffin King of the Hammers, and notes from a dry lake bed [w/video]

It was a local guy from 90 miles away who beat them all...
The image above shows 129 Ultra4 racing rigs lined up for the start of the 2013 Griffin King of the Hammers. In case you missed Part One that explains why they're there and why they might be doing the most difficult and absurd one-day off-road race in the world, check it out. After a week of races in other events and two days of qualifying for the big show, the men and women who made it in were lined up to do three laps of a course around the 140,000-acre Johnson Valley OHV area in California's San Bernardino County.