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Audi-only rental car company expands

With the lines and occasional hassle, getting a rental car after a long flight can be daunting, even if you already have a reservation. Now, a company called Silvercar is trying to inject some luxury and modern, high-tech features into the process to make it less of a chore. The business recently expanded to O'Hare International Airport to offer visitors to Chicago a fleet exclusively comprised of silver Audi A4s. Silvercar is based in Austin, TX, and is being run by Luke Schneider, a former chief technology officer at ZipCar. He told Crain's Chicago Business that the rental industry "hasn't innovated in 30 to 40 years." Silvercar's big innovation is in the booking process. Like ordering practically anything today, it's all done through a smartphone app. Customers then scan a QR code on the Audi's windshield to get going. At the end of the rental, the bill is emailed to you. Prices start around $59 a day on weekends and $89 during the week, according to Crain's. Because they're all A4s with GPS and Wi-Fi, everyone gets the same car. In the world of ridesharing companies like Uber and Lyft, rental cars might seem passe, but according to Crain's, the rental market at O'Hare alone amounts to over $300 million a year. Silvercar's location there isn't at the actual airport, though. Instead, a shuttle picks up customers to take them to the company's site nearby. The business is working on a national rollout to 10 airports by the end of June, including major locations like LAX and Denver. Related Video: The video meant to be presented here is no longer available. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Audi TT RS shows its meaner face in new spy shots

When it launched, the original Audi TT RS was considered quite a sharp combination, melding a 360-horsepower turbocharged engine and all-wheel drive into a rather lithe, little coupe. Audi is ready to revive that great idea and is preparing for a return on the automaker's latest platform. Thanks to these new spy shots from near the Nurburgring, we can at least get a good idea aesthetically of what's in store for this future member of the RS family. There's absolutely nothing subtle about the front end, and the camouflage does little to hide the larger intakes at each corner. In profile, you can also spot larger brake discs peeking out from behind the wheels, and the side sills appear slightly thicker than the current TTS. The rear is all business, as well, with a lower apron and two big oval exhausts. The new TT RS reportedly arrives in 2016, at least in Europe, and a debut is possible at the Geneva Motor Show in March. The coupe would then potentially come to the US later in the calendar for the 2017 model year. Unlike the last TT here, which got a manual transmission, rumors suggest that the latest one would only offer a seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox. There's not likely to be any disappointment about the power, though, because it supposedly grows to about 400 hp thanks to an upgraded 2.5-liter turbocharged five-cylinder. Related Video:

German prosecutors have recorded calls between VW bigwigs talking dieselgate

It's barely possible to believe how poorly Volkswagen continues to handle dieselgate. Depending on which day you catch the news, the German carmaker embodies the corporate venality of "Michael Clayton," the comic blundering of the Coen Brothers' "Burn After Reading," and the every-man-for-himself vengeance of "Reservoir Dogs." Today is Tarantino day, with news that German prosecutors have recordings of phone calls between former Audi and Porsche development boss Wolfgang Hatz, ex-Volkswagen Group executive Matthias Muller, and current Porsche executives Oliver Blume and Michael Steiner. Hatz made the calls to the trio in November 2015, two months after Volkswagen admitted its diesel-particulate sins to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Hatz was still employed at the time, and in his company car. Who recorded the calls? His wife. Hatz and his missus apparently saw the storm coming and started stacking defenses early. Hatz's wife, who can be heard encouraging Hatz during at least one call, sent the recordings to Hatz's attorney from her mobile phone. According to a Google translation of the German newspaper Handelsblatt's report, she included the note, "Here is a very long, but quite informative conversation on the current situation with useful formulations." The report in Handelsblatt said that in Germany it is generally "not allowed" to record a conversation and pass it on to a third party. We don't know how the authorities will handle this matter, since prosecutors found the recordings in e-mail attachments on Mrs. Hatz's mobile phone. Remember, when the diesel scandal broke, VW spent months saying that only a small number of low-level personnel were behind it, and all of the higher-ups had been blindsided. Ex-CEO Martin Winterkorn claimed to be "stunned that misconduct on such a scale was possible in the Volkswagen Group." Winterkorn successor Matthias Muller said, "according to current information, a few developers interfered in the engine management." Former VW USA honcho Michael Horn told a congressional committee that "a couple of software engineers" programmed the software for reasons no one could understand. In the recorded conversations, Hatz apparently called Muller to find out how VW planned to treat him.