"At its core, the film is about a struggle between old and new power. In precisely that fashion, Audi represents the rise of a new force in luxury." God I hate hype. I don't blame Scott Keogh, Audi's chief marketing officer, for trying to build some anticipation for Audi's Godfather-themed Superbowl ad. If their ad– which will only air twice— doesn't cost them the better part of $10m, it won't cost them a pfennig. But c'mon guys. It's a TV ad, not a Francis Ford Coppola meisterwerk or the Declaration of Independence. Try as I might, I can't think how Audi is about to "redefine luxury." I find it hard enough to define luxury, never mind come up with a new concept for the term. As far as I'm concerned, Audi can claim to build luxury cars by dint of the brand's peerless interiors– and that's about it. (I want you should do me a favor. Do not speak here of the brand's reputation for building unreliable automobiles. I don't want its mother to see it that way.) And you know what? It's enough. Really. He who builds the world's best interior wins. Ipso facto. 'Cause other than Quattro, I see little else that elevates the Audi brand above Lexus, Mercedes or BMW. So why not just tell the world you build the world's most comfortable carcoon and call it good? Why not reaffirm your brand values rather than redefine them? The word I'm looking for here is… hubris. Or is it hype? Same thing.
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Come on… nobody is talking about a 90hp turbo. The 1.4 NON-turbo in the Euro Astra has 90 hp. This is the typical engine for moms who drive in the city most of the time, don’t rack up enough miles/year to justify the added cost of a diesel and don’t mind going slower if the car is cheaper to buy.
The 90hp 1.3 Astra diesel gets 4.3 l/100km (55 mpg US). There’s your 50+ mpg Astra.
Your riffing on recharge possibilities for the tesla made me think of the perfect answer. big pole on the back like a bumper car, and then string electrical lines over the streets so you charge it while you drive. How exciting.
Audi also has the DSG transmission, a current strangehold on P1-class endurance racing, and a more-than-respectable production-class racing program.
What does racing have to do with luxury cars? I have no idea. But, every luxury car brand makes race cars and none of them have been as successful as Audi for the last 10 years.
Robert, why are you always rushing Justin off the phone? I don’t know about anyone else, but I don’t mind the podcast going on an extra minute or two, although I do respect that you try to keep it around 10 minutes.
ZCline: I can’t speak for Mr. Farago, but I’m betting it’s the same reason that the editorials and reviews are 800 words and not 880.
ZCline:
BrianE has hit the nail on the head. It’s a slippery slope with time. You agree to go over by a bit and one day you’ll wake up as Autoblog and have a 39 minute blabfest.
So, does 93 or even 220 miles in a Tesla Roadster mean that I can sit in LA traffic for 4 hours with the AC blasted and still drive that distance? Or is it 1.5 – 4 hours total drive time?
Two related points on the podcast.
1. Your understanding of Canadian politics is not off the mark at all.
2. In Canada, they have plugs at many parking garages already (for block and battery heaters). It would be a simple matter to put in plugs for electric cars if they only need 110 or 220 with standard adapters. A card reader and power meter could combine to charge you for your charge.
Well, I’m not sure about the 350Z in the US, but the 350Z used to have 280HP, now 313 HP and will have 330HP in a couple of months…
For continuous improvement of existing models though, I think you have to go to BMW…
Even Toyota doesn’t really “update” their models, they just make a new one every 4/5 years.
Not to point out the obvious, but you know who invented a system for the wireless transmission of electricity? Yeah it was some guy named Tesla.
Oh and you know why it failed? Because there was no way to meter the usage of individual customers.