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IIHS bestows 2015 Audi A3 with Top Safety Pick+ [w/video]

There's some good news for Audi today, as the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has named the all-new A3 one of its Top Safety Pick+, the institute's highest award for safety.
While there are no shortage of cars that can handle the standard IIHS trial, the tough small overlap test needed to earn TSP+ has flummoxed more than a few vehicles from prestigious, safety minded manufacturers. In the A3's case, though, it handled the small-overlap tests well.
According to the IIHS, there wasn't much intrusion into the cabin from the impact, which simulates a 40-mile-per-hour impact on 25 percent of a car's front end. The crash test dummy was held in place, with just a low risk of injuries. You can view the crash test video below, as well as read a brief press release from the IIHS.

Next-gen Audi Q7 shows off its wares ahead of Detroit

Audi has put the Q7 on a massive diet, trimming over 700 pounds. Meet what is sure to be one of the bigger debuts at the upcoming 2015 Detroit Auto Show. The next-generation Audi Q7 has been the subject of spy shots and conjecture for quite some time. After all, it was easily the oldest vehicle in the Audi range, having hit the market way back in 2006. But with this new model, Audi has comprehensively updated its fullsizer, adding some cutting-edge tech, updating some classic engines, and taking a whole lot out. As is the theme nowadays, particularly among large crossovers and SUVs, Audi has put the Q7 on a massive diet with a mix of ultra-high-strength, hot-shaped steel and aluminum, trimming over 700 pounds of body fat and lowering the Q7's weight to just under 4,400 pounds. This was accomplished while maintaining virtually identical dimensions to the current model. While Audi USA hasn't released its info on the Q7, the Euro-spec model will continue to offer a pair of engines that should be very familiar to US consumers, with a 3.0-liter, supercharged V6 gas engine and a 3.0-liter TDI V6. The European engines, though, have had their CO2 emissions halved, while actually increasing performance (we should expect similar from the US engines). The 3.0-liter TDI has been bumped up from 240 horsepower to 272 ponies, while torque is up from 406 pound-feet to 443. The 3.0-liter TDI has been bumped up from 240 horsepower to 272 ponies, while torque is up from 406 pound-feet to 443. This extra grunt has trimmed the 0-60 time from a leisurely 7.3 seconds down to 6.3, while the fuel economy has jumped up to 41.3 US miles per gallon, converted from the European cycle (so expect the EPA numbers to be a bit lower). The supercharged 3.0-liter, meanwhile, has been amped up to match the output of its application in the S4 sport sedan, jumping from 280 hp and 295 lb-ft to 333 ponies and 325 lb-ft. Once again, the 0-60 time falls dramatically thanks to the power bump and weight loss, dropping from 7.7 seconds to a far more zippy 6.1. The most exciting news is the long-rumored arrival of the Q7 E-Tron, a plug-in hybrid that's mated to a six-cylinder diesel engine and Quattro all-wheel drive. Audi claims this world-first production powertrain will return 138.4 US miles per gallon, emit less than 50 grams of CO2 per kilometer and allow the Q7 E-Tron to travel up to 35 miles on electric power alone.

Why we can't have better headlights here in the U.S.

It wouldn't be a European auto show if we weren't teased with at least one mainstream vehicle we can't have here. At the Geneva Motor Show last week, the small but vocal contingent of shooting-brake buffs lamented that the Mazda6 wagon won't be coming to our shores, although they can take comfort in the fact that the vehicle won't get the torquey 250-horsepower 2.5-liter turbocharged gasoline engine we'll get here. Mercedes-Benz also announced a new headlight technology in Geneva that likely won't be available here anytime soon. It's just the latest in a long line of innovative and potentially lifesaving front-lighting solutions that the federal government doesn't allow in this country due to outdated standards — and a current lack of leadership at the U.S. Department of Transportation. Mercedes-Benz's new Digital Light system that debuted in Geneva uses a computer chip to activate more than a million micro-reflectors to better illuminate the road ahead. The Digital Light headlamps works with the vehicle's cameras, sensors and navigation mapping to adjust lighting for the given location and situation and to detect other road users. The Digital Light technology also serves as an extended head-up display of sorts by projecting symbols on the pavement ahead to alert drivers to, say, slippery conditions or pedestrians in the road. And it can even project lines on the road in a construction zone or through tight curves to show the driver the correct path. Digital Light will be available on Mercedes-Maybach vehicles later this year, although like any technology it's bound to trickle down to less expensive vehicles. That is, if we ever get it here in the U.S. Audi, a leader in automotive lighting, has repeatedly run into snags trying to bring state-of-the-art car headlights to the U.S. The German luxury automaker's recently introduced matrix laser headlight system, which performs many of the same trick as Mercedes-Benz's Digital Light, also isn't legal on U.S. roads. And five years after the introduction of its matrix-beam LED lighting, which illuminates more of the road without blinding oncoming motorists with brights by simultaneously operating high and low beams, Audi still can't bring that technology to the U.S. either.