Audi achieved multiple victories in the Canadian Black Book 10th annual 2017 Best Retained Value Awards, winning the “Luxury Car” prize with its sleek A7 four-door coupe, while also earning second…

Audi does well in CBB and ALG best retained value awards

Audi achieved multiple victories in the Canadian Black Book 10th annual 2017 Best Retained Value Awards, winning the "Luxury Car" prize with its sleek A7 four-door coupe, while also earning second place in the same category with the popular A5 sport coupe and convertible. Additionally, Audi's Q5 once again ran away with the "Compact Luxury SUV" segment, and TT held onto second in the "Sports Car" class. "Depreciation is the single largest expense of owning a vehicle, more than gas, maintenance or insurance," said Brian Murphy, VP Research and Editorial, Canadian Black Book. "Understanding your vehicle's retained value is extremely important for anyone researching to buy, sell or trade-in any vehicle." In other words, the real price paid for a car is the difference between the cost of purchase and what's left over when that vehicle is traded in or sold later. It's also important to understand that CBB's "2017" Best Retained Value Awards are focused on 2013 model year vehicles. Vehicle values Read Full Story
A garnet red 2017 Q5 2.0 TFSI quattro rolled off the San José Chiapa, Mexico assembly line this week; fitting that a brand new edition of Audi’s bestselling North American model was also the 8-millionth…

Audi celebrates 8-millionth vehicle with Quattro AWD

A garnet red 2017 Q5 2.0 TFSI quattro rolled off the San José Chiapa, Mexico assembly line this week; fitting that a brand new edition of Audi's bestselling North American model was also the 8-millionth vehicle to feature Quattro all-wheel drive.

Audi launched its Quattro all-wheel drive system at the 1980 Geneva International Motor Show in the now legendary Ur-quattro coupe, and since then the four-ringed Ingolstadt-based premium brand went on to win four World Rally Championship titles, six Pikes Peak Hill Climb victories, a title win in the U.S. TransAm series, two DTM (German touring car) titles, 11 national Super Touring Car Championships, and a Touring Car World Cup. More recently, in November of last year, Mattias Ekström and his private rallycross team EKS won both Driver World Champion and Team World Champion titles at the wheel of the Audi S1 EKS RX quattro in the FIA World Rallycross Championship.

Even more importantly, the fast-running, lightweight Read Full Story
The A3 didn’t get to #1 in the US and a close 2nd in Canada by accident. It’s a superb car that deserves your consideration. It’s also good value, the $32.8k base model standard with auto HID headlamps,…

2017 Audi A3 2.0 TFSI Quattro Progressiv Road Test Review

When it comes to luring in entry-level North American premium buyers, two luxury brands have planned and executed their most affordable models wisely and the others either haven't done their homework or are using the opportunity to promote their brand image rather than acquire as many new customers as possible. While building brand at the expense of profits is sometimes a good idea, success tends to breed success when attempting to attract up-and-coming urbanites.

I like using sales numbers to illustrate such points, because numbers don't lie. They don't always tell the entire story either, but they're as black and white as the digital page I'm writing this review on, and if the various leaders in charge of those yet unnamed luxury brands don't pay attention to those sales numbers, their jobs will likely get cut short sooner than later. The two winners in the Canadian entry-level luxury class are Mercedes-Benz and Audi, the former with its bestselling CLA and the latter with Read Full Story
The quintessential luxury off-road wagon has been redesigned for 2017, resulting in an altogether better Audi A4 Allroad. Its styling is bolder, cabin more refined, digital screens class leading and sole…

2017 Audi A4 Allroad 2.0 TFSI Quattro Technik Road Test Review

The name Allroad should be familiar to those who follow things automotive, as it was a forerunner amongst car-based luxury crossovers. Many tall all-wheel drive wagons with matte grey body cladding and raised ride height had been and gone before Audi's entry arrived in 1999, but all, including the '79 AMC Eagle, '80 Subaru GL AWD Wagon, '84 Toyota Tercel SR5 4WD Wagon, '85 Honda Civic 4WD Wagon, '86 Nissan Sentra 4WD Wagon, '89 Toyota Corolla "All-Trac" SR5 4x4 Wagon, and '94 Subaru Outback (fill me in on what I missed) were sold into mainstream volume market segments, whereas the four-ringed Ingolstadt brand's modified A6 Avant wagon was one of the first of such CUVs targeting premium buyers. Volvo's V70 XC Cross Country beat it to market by two years, and the two beefed up wagons have enjoyed little competition since.

After a seven-year hiatus the Allroad transitioned from the A6 Avant's mid-size E-segment to the A4 Avant's compact D-segment in 2012 as a 2013 model. We covered Read Full Story
The 7-passenger luxury SUV segment has just been moved up a significant notch with the introduction of the entirely new 2017 Audi Q7. Today on CarCostCanada we review it in top-line Technik trim complete…

2017 Audi Q7 3.0 TFSI Quattro Technik Road Test Review

With almost every mid-size SUV from volume makers offering luxuries such as fabric-wrapped pillars, multiple soft touch points, genuine woods and metals, state-of-the-art electronics and the list goes on, some even sporting driving dynamics that rival premium brands, accepted luxury marques have been forced to up their game. Some have been left behind to fight head-on with near-premium competitors while others have answered the call and delivered an entirely new level of luxury never before seen in the price class. With the advent of the 2017 Q7, Audi is now at the top of the latter list.

It was hard to improve on the Q7's styling, the new model adding more drama to the frontal design with a bigger, broader version of Audi's singleframe horseshoe grille, expected revisions to its LED lighting elements front and rear, and sharper creases to all body panels, but the outgoing model's interior mixed some extremely well made components with others that were substandard, most noticeably Read Full Story