Audi is on a roll. In April, the four ringed brand outsold BMW on a global basis. Today, Audi CEO Rupert Stadler promised at the annual shareholders meeting back home in bucolic Ingolstadt that Audi may reach its goal of selling 1.5 million cars per year earlier than planned. The reason: Unabated demand in China, the U.S. and Russia.
In the first four months of the year, Audi’s global deliveries rose 11.7 percent to 471,300 units. Audi sold 1.3 million autos in 2011. It had targeted 2015 as the year to sell more than 1.5 million. (“1.5 in 15” – get it?)
“The way things look at the moment, we may be able to reach this target earlier,” Stadler told his shareholders today, while Reuters was talking notes.
With double-digit growth in China and America, 1.5 in 15 would sound downright timid, nein?
Yup, just bought a brand new one last month, go Ingolstadt, althought the engine stammt aus Ungarn, Quattro, eight speed, what more do you need!
Congrats on the purchase. Just make sure you dump it before your warranty runs out.
It helps to have a manual Audi, and always look for a parking spot where you can roll forward and bump-start it when it won’t start (again and again and….). At least this is what I did with my B7 S4. Thankfully the lease ended and I am back with BMW- never had a problem. YMMV.
At 65,000 miles my A3 (manual) is running great without any problems.
Audi has mastered the art of mainstreaming luxury cars. most of what they sell comes with one engine, one transmission, and is available in a wide variety of the color grey. Do they make things that aren’t grey automatic sedans and SUV’s? sure they do, but be prepared to special order and wait half a year to get it.
I own three audis, they’ve all been great cars, but the narrowing of the product line to eliminate stick shifts, wagons, color, and originality has not pleased me in the least.
None of those restrictions apply outside of North America …
huh? that describes China perfectly just change grey for black.
@daveainchina, everyone is choosing a black automatic sedan, or that’s the only colour and model available? It’s a big difference.
This is so right. I was looking at a Q5 last year, and was told I had to get on the list and take whatever configuration was delivered.
Sundowner –
I agree with your assessment of the streamlining, but considering their sales volume in North America I can hardly blame them for following this path.
Audi has stated clearly that they only want to increase sales in a profitable manner. Part of that means streamlining the product offerings. My hope is that in the not-too-distant future they will open up the gates a bit and allow in more of the product you can purchase in Europe. Hell, I’d be happy even if that required a special order.
As for delivery times, they’ve gotten much better in the past year: right now the lead time for a special order is about 12 weeks, so while not great, it’s reasonable, especially if it means tailoring the vehicle to my tastes.
I really enjoy non mainstream products. I guess this is the reason I love Infiniti and Audi so much. My dream car (sedan) used to be a 91 Q45 then it switched to a 06 Q45 and now its an 2013 S8. Unfortunately I cant really afford 110k+ for a car. Thats more than the first two houses that I have owned and about a forth of the one I live in now. Maybe used in three years with a extended warranty. I will be looking to replace my CX9. But that a big step up.
I say it’s aesthetics working in their favor. The other thing is BMW. We bought an A5 for my wife’s car. Salesman had to be told 4 times that she wanted one with a manual transmission btw.
The sheet metal is gorgeous, but there are lots of things I like that BMW offers in their now boring looking cars with boring headlights, boring interiors, etc.
The main issue with BMW was dealer maintenance costs. Had no issues until 2008 when the dealership apparently decide to make up for lagging sales with aggressive service practices. A near divorce was had over reprogramming costs of the computer and their inability to be honest about why it’s so expensive. That one is a design flaw compounded by poor policy.
Then we had damage from hitting a Coyote. Dealer’s estimate for repair was ridiculous, and the insurance rep, the body shop, and I could all tell they were just making stuff up.
Still, could have bought another BMW. I trust a BMW inline six, but their other engines I see as reverse lotteries like any other German engine. And then there was no reason not to look at Audi.
This is long enough, but I could give a long list of weaknesses that may end Audi’s rise.
What’s the big deal about Audis anyway? A part of me doesn’t understand why this brand is even alive, let alone thriving. In a more sane (and fair?) universe, *Lancia* would be in Audi’s current position right now, and Audi in Lancia’s.
The last real Lancia was the Gamma, and it was a disaster for buyers. Other than that, Lancia has 40 years of being overpriced Fiats. Audi has made lots of awful cars, but not really as bad post-buyout Lancias. Obviously Lancia didn’t figure out how to survive on their own building real Lancias anyway. At the end of the day, VW did a much better job of brand management than Fiat did. Same goes for Fiat’s handling of Alfa-Romeo, really.
You’re obviously right about Fiat’s brand mismanagement, but Lancia is a brand that, *properly managed*, should have had the success that Audi is experiencing now. Audi, by contrast, has no brand cachet, no raison d’être as a brand in my eyes, and therefore I’m surprised that it is so extremely successful.
VW is usually praised for its brand management, but apparently even VW is not able to make a success out of Seat, a brand that stands for absolutely nothing. So I wonder how it is able to pull it off with Audi, which in my eyes has a bit of the same problem. But I suppose I’m just one of those people who don’t *get* what Audi is about, whereas plenty of buyers do…
I agree with your comment about SEAT but that doesn`t show the VW is not good at brand management. They have made a commercial success out of all their other brands covering the full range (from cheap Skoda to exclusive Lamborghini and Bentley).
Seat is also not a complete disaster in terms of sales it is holding its own which given the European market is not a bad accomplishment. Their purpose back in the late 90’s was to be an affordable, sporty brand – kind of like Pontiac was meant to be and we know how that ended. I wouldn`t be surprised if SEAT goes away except VW’s ego won`t allow it.
mike978: I wasn’t trying to suggest that VW is bad at brand management at all (nonwithstanding being fervently opposed to VW taking over Alfa Romeo, but I digress…). My point was rather that *despite* VW’s successful brand management of almost all of its brands, its apparent magic touch doesn’t seem to be working with Seat, and I think the reason for this is due to a weakness of the Seat brand itself that not even VW is able to overcome.
Ironically, when I lived in Europe SEATs were Spanish built FIATs like the 127 and Ritmo/Strada.
It’s the Transporter movies. After watching Jason Statham perform with his Audi for 90 minutes, I want to trade in my Regal for a black A8.
Based on aesthetics alone, It doesn’t surprise me that Audi is outselling BMW. Audis are re much better-looking, BMW is still on an ugly roll.
Yup, that’s it.
“Audi is on a roll. In April, the four ringed brand outsold BMW on a global basis.
…
The reason: Unabated demand in China, the U.S. and Russia.”
Just FYI, Toyota also outsold BMW. My point is, you just can’t compare two brands of different price level and perceived status. While Audi products closely followed BMW in terms pricing in North American, they haven’t been that way in China. Audi A6 was about the first “luxury” brand midsize car produced in China and had a lower price point and status than imported Camry. Audi’s 2012 1st quarter revenue is 12.4B euro, while BMW’s is 16.2B euro for the auto segment.
BMW’s auto segment revenues also include the Mini brand (and Rolls Royce), so that’s not an apples-and-apples comparison.
I think it’s Audi’s shift toward performance and driver focused cars that has really gotten them attention and pushed them towards an even global footing with Daimler and BMW.
Think back to when Audi’s best mainstream engine was the completely gutless 2.8 V6. The early C5 A6 2.8s weren’t fun cars to drive. The Mercedes 3.2L 6 was also pretty weak, but even that engine had more oomph than the Audi, though neither could hold a candle to the 328i and 528i.
Audi had a 3.6L V8 and later the famous 4.2L that they offered in the “V8” (yes it was called the Audi V8) but as far as I can tell nobody in the US actually bought one of those. A8s have always been pretty weak sellers, but I’ve still seen plenty of D3 and D4 examples on the road. I’ve NEVER seen an Audi “V8”.
Real Torsen Quattro in the A4+ cars is still arguably superior to xDrive and 4Matic, especially when configured with their latest front and rear differential upgrades, but I think Audi is well aware that they can’t sell their cars just on AWD alone, and the days of an Audi interior being miles ahead in design and materials vs. BMW and Mercedes are also over. Look at the previous gen A8 vs. the previous gen S-class, the Audi kicks the plastic fantastic Benz into the weeds on the interior front. Not anymore. The new A8 is very nice, but then so is the S.
Audi must appeal to drivers, and they are doing that with much sportier feeling rear-biased AWD with torque vectoring in the rear and the crown gear thing in the front, the fantastic supercharged V6, and while BMW is focused on adding luxury features, runflats, and “good enough” electric steering, Audi is focused on making their cars *lighter* than the cars they are replacing, and making them better to drive. That to me spells conquest sales from Munich.
The R8 was also genius. Conventional wisdom says that halo cars don’t work (see Acura NSX, BMW Z8) but the R8 instantly elevated the level of the brand, it introduced the LED lights that the entire industry has now copied, and it got Audi’s name mentioned alongside Porsche in the press, over and over.
I don’t think the Audi of 20 years ago that offered the 2.8 V6 as the top engine offering could’ve sold the R8, and that’s probably one of the reasons why its spiritual predecessor, the Avus Quattro concept, never went anywhere. The Audi that sells V10 and now TT V8 S6s and S8s, and the 572hp RS6 can sell the R8.