And finally in our series of Teutonic luxo-barges: the boys from Stuttgart. For long, Daimler used to look down their noses at the boorish upstarts from BMW, and even more so at – ach du mein Lieber – Audi.

Daimler better get used to looking up. Despite record sales in May, Mercedes-Benz takes the #3 step on the podium, both in May and YTD. The race is close, but Mercedes is getting a bit short-winded.  In May, the starred brand delivered a total of 108,766 passenger vehicles to customers worldwide, up 7.3 percent. YTD, the tally stands 490,021 units, up 10.5 percent. Read More >

Audi isn’t the only German premium brand to report stellar numbers in May. The Bavarian competition, 89km down south from Audi’s Ingolstadt, didn’t sit on their thumbs either. The BMW Group increased its May sales by 22.1 percent to 147,563 BMW, MINI and Rolls Royce brand vehicles. That’s an all-time sales high for the month of May. Year-to-date, the number stands at 667,511 units for a growth of 20.7 percent, BMW says in an emailed statement. What they don’t say is even more outstanding … Read More >

Powered by new models, especially the Q5, Q7, the A1 and the new A6, Audi is on a seemingly unstoppable tear throughout the world. In May, Audi sold 113,400 units, 19.5 percent more than in May 2010. Year-to-date, Volkswagen’s premium brand is up 17.5 percent to 535,400 units. China has eclipsed Germany as Audi’s most important market. In Germany, Audi is up 18.4 percent, in China an amazing 44.6 percent. Sales are also up solidly in the other BRIC markets. Read More >

One year after debuting the closed version of the R8 GT in Paris, Audi will show the mess-up-your-significant-other’s-hair model at the Frankfurt IAA this fall. The Audi R8 Spyder GT will be sold as a limited series of only 333. It should be available in early 2012 at your friendly Audi dealer in Europe for 207.800 Euro ($303,886 usual disclaimers apply.) Hit the jump for pictures …. Read More >

In the merry month of May, Germans celebrated their new-found love for das Auto. Europe’s largest auto market grew 22 percent year-on-year and 14.4 percent month-on-month. That according to just released statistics by the German Kraftfahrtbundesamt. Read More >

The ominous Hydrogen Year 2015 is popping up again.  Last year, Byung Ki Ahn, general manager of Hyundai-Kia’s Fuel Cell Group said: “There are already agreements between car makers such as ourselves and legislators in Europe, North America and Japan to build up to the mass production of fuel cell cars by 2015.” Going  through the many files produced in Brussels, you find that in Europe “car manufacturers are getting ready for the commercial production of hydrogen vehicles by 2015.” Read More >

So… does this look like a BMW to you? Blame the camo if you must, but this forthcoming BMW-branded “0-Series” looks like it’s shaping up to appear as mundane as anything BMW has ever slapped a roundel on. Which makes sense, I suppose, given that it’s going to be the most mundane BMW-branded car yet built, constructed as it is on the next-gen MINI’s transverse, front-drive platform. Even BMW’s forthcoming i3 sports a freakier, funkier high-roof baby hatch look… and despite our initial fears, it’s apparently rear-drive as well. On the other hand, we’ve been here before with Mercedes… and they pulled a surprisingly sexy design out of a humble, front-drive mule. Here’s hoping BMW can pull off some equally adept styling magic, otherwise we’re looking at the BMW Cimmaron right here…

Are Audi’s Mad Men missing Bertel’s services? They must be, as the Detroit Free Press reports that Eminem’s licensing firm has filed a motion in German court seeking to ban this advertisement. Joel Martin, manager of Eight Mile Style, tells the Freep that Audi did not license the Eminem song “Lose Yourself,” adding

It’s stunning. What makes it extraordinary is the similarity to the way Chrysler is using (the song). We saw it and said, “This has got to be a joke.”

At this point Audi’s only statement on the matter comes from its US operations, which simply notes that the A6 Avant will not be marketed here. “This has got to be a joke,” sure seems to sum the situation up…

After tedious negotiations, and only after an arbitrator was brought in, GM’s Opel finally has a deal for its Bochum plant in Germany. As planned, 1,800 jobs will be cut. The deal will cost GM dearly. Read More >

How about a Volkswagen Golf with the insane, mindbending power of  235 horses under the hood? Want one? Then better stop reading. Book a flight to Klagenfurt (that’s KLU in airport-speak, your travel agent probably has never heard of it) and go like right now. There will probably be a stopover in Vienna. Then head to Reifnitz, Wörthersee and just follow the noise. From tomorrow, June 1 through June 4^th, the bucolic town in Austria will host the world’s biggest Golf GTI Meet.

There will be two anniversaries to be celebrated. The Golf GTI Meet turns 30. And the Golf GTI has just turned 35. To celebrate the double anniversary, Volkswagen lays on the Golf GTI Edition 35, at 235 hp “the most powerful GTI ever,” says Volkswagen. Read More >

Volkswagen is thinking about moving production of its Tiguan trucklet to North America. Plans for the move are being discussed by Wolfsburg management, the German magazine Wirtschaftswoche reports. Read More >

Yesterday, Volkswagen finally inaugurated its new plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee and ended the 23 year hiatus since its New Stanton, Pennsylvania factory was closed in 1988. At the Chattanooga plant, more than 2,000 employees will be able to produce up to 150,000 vehicles per year. Read More >

Today, Volkswagen officially showed its new, well, “perfected” Tiguan to the press. VeeDub unabashedly calls it an “SUV with design parallels to the larger Touareg.” Unlike its larger sibling, the Tiguan can be driven guilt-free: With a 2.0 TDI engine, the SUV needs only 5.3 liters per 100 km. Which converts to a non-EPA mileage of 44.4 mpg. Not bad for a trucklet. Volkswagen humbly calls it “one of the most fuel-efficient SUVs in the world.” Gallery after the jump … Read More >

If you are a large company in Germany, there is no government agency that you fear more than the Bundeskartellamt. It’s the anti-monopoly police. Being audited by the Finanzamt, the German equivalent of the IRS, is considered paradise compared to being in the cross-hairs of the Monopol-Polizei. Europe’s large oil companies are in the cross hairs and are just about to be shot. Read More >

Explaining the many features of a car has always been a challenge. Manuals remain largely unread. When I was at Volkswagen, someone had the brilliant idea of making interactive CD-ROMs. I protested: “So that car stops with a cryptic trouble light, and now the poor customer is supposed to go home, find the CD, pop it into the computer and check what that light means?” My protests fell on deaf ears, and the CDs were made. Now, someone at Audi had a better idea … Read More >