It would be a great announcement to start the Beijing Auto Show, opening to the media in the world’s largest car market on April 23. Audi has its eyes on another date in the calendar: On April 18, a day before VW’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Hamburg, Audi should announce the purchase of Italy’s motorcycle maker Ducati, sources tell Reuters.

The story has been around for a while, but a due diligence check takes time. Audi’s auditors did not find any hidden skeletons, reports the wire service. Other papers, such as the Corriere de la Sera, and Germany’s Handelsblatt agree.

Ducati would round out Volkswagen’s brand portfolio nicely. It would have everything from heavy trucks, even ship engines, to screaming superbikes. It also would flip the bird at Audi’s Bavarian rival BMW.

Record new car sales are not the news one does expect from Europe. But those are the news from Germany.

One by one, German automakers – with the notable exception of Opel – are reporting unheard-of numbers. Let’s have a look. (Read More…)

Rumors of Audi starting U.S. production have been floating around for a while. Tennesseans in Chattanooga had hoped  Audi would move in with Volkswagen. These hopes have been dashed over the weekend. Germany’s Spiegel reports that Audi will get its own plant in Mexico. (Read More…)

Horns are a fixture of Indian driving. Rather than being used to signal anger like in the United States, horns are used for almost everything on Indian roads – one study found that major intersections in Calcutta have one horn honk every three seconds.

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“We decided not to take it,” said Audi of America CEO Johan de Nysschen, regarding the Audi A3 hatchback. The Detroit Bureau quotes Audi’s head man in the USA stating that not only will we not get an A3 hatch, the sedan version won’t share a single body panel with the Euro two-box version.

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The Audi Q3 may not have much visual impact, but this is an extremely important car for the Volkswagen Group. As the first car to be built on the new MQB modular platform, the A3 is literally the next generation of car for the entire consortium.

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Audi fanboys who want emissions-free motoring will be sorely disappointed; the pilot program to try out an A3 E-Tron, will be limited to Audi personnel in Denver, Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and San Francisco.

For between 12 and 18 months, employees will evaluate the A3 e-tron, before an electric A3, based on the next-generation car, debuts in 2014. Unlike BMW and Mini, customers won’t be providing data to Audi to help develop the car, like with the test programs involving the Mini E and BMW 1ActiveE.

The European malaise seems to have selective impact on European automakers. Audi announced record results today. Audi reported an operating profit of €5.35 billion ($7.16 billion) in 2011, and wants to have even better results this year. (Read More…)

From London’s Telegraph to Fox News, from Autoblog to Autoguide, the story this week is that the Chinese will turn against foreign carmakers by mandating that the Chinese government only buys Chinese cars. Why was TTAC not writing it? I learned to ignore that story. I have lived in China since 2005, and just about every year, there was an announcement that the Chinese government will from now on only buy Chinese. It never happened. Despite the annual announcements, foreign brands still account for 80 percent of the Chinese government motor pool. But maybe it’s different this time? (Read More…)

Hongqi CA750f.

It’s one of those Tuesday afternoons here in Beijing. The air is barely breathable, and somewhere, a hammer drill is duking it out with a concrete ceiling. Time for another installment of Tycho’s Illustrated History Of Chinese Cars.  Today we have a very interesting Chinese car. It’s a 1983 Dodge 600 sedan, dressed-up as a Hongqi CA750F. How did it get into China? (Read More…)

A  4.2L V8 making 450 horsepower and 317 lb-ft of torque. A 7-speed dual clutch gearbox. 0-60 in 4.7 seconds. Want to know more about the 2013 Audi RS4 Avant? Hit the jump to get down to the nitty-gritty.

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Despite being falsely accused by members of the B&B of hating wagons, I will formally declare that I adore them – I’m just a realist about their sales prospects in the United States. The 2013 Audi RS4 Avant forces me to confront the dissonance over lusting after such a car, while knowing that it would be a non-starter in North America for all but the most eccentric rich dudes, ala the Mercedes E63 Wagon.

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John writes:

Hey Sajeev,

Since you requested goofy questions for Piston Slap, I’ve got one:

A friend of mine told me that her dad had a Subaru (I don’t know what particular model). He had one of the tires blow out, and even though he knew he should either replace all four tires, or have the new one shaved down to match the other three, he decided to risk it and just use the one new tire as is. Consequently, the all wheel drive system got messed up due to the ever so slight mismatch in tire diameters. Is this for real? I’ve never heard anything like that before. (Read More…)

Volkswagen unveiled their most important new platform, dubbed MQB (a German acronym for “Modular Transverse Matrix”). The MQB will underpin everything from the Up! to the next (European) Passat, and all points in between.

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You think success in India hinges on cheap little cars? Audi thinks overpriced big cars can be good business also. If IBN’s sources are correctly informed, and if the Crores Rupees converter I found on the net is correctly programmed, Audio wants to sell 1 million dollar A8s to the Indians. (Read More…)