Cars! Cars! Cars!

Cars! Cars! Cars! Parking Lot

When a writer begins to stray from the topic:
Today on Mother Proof: 2008 Audi A8 Reviewed. Hey, we're not throwing stones, we do it, too, but we expected more from Mother Proof. If you are dropping this kind of coin on a car, the kids ride with the nanny.

Aw, hell, damn, fart! Next-Gen Acura RL to get a V8 and RWD-biased SH-AWD. Is nothing sacred anymore? What made Acura special is that they didn't fall into the whole V8 movement. And it could have proved pretty dang smart as fuel begins its creep up to $5 by June '09. And this thing'll probably need premium. How the hell you gonna swing your double freakin' mocha latte?

Frakkin' yay! Lincoln likely to kill LT truck. Now to get Cadillac to drop the horrific EXT and we'll be on to something (sales are down 35% anyway... just drop it!)

Oh, as if this wasn't predicted a couple of years ago! (Ha! Get it? We called this sukka years ago when sales were even better than a paltry 2.25 a week or whatever the hell it is) Daimler Mulls Closing the Doors on Maybach. Why did the Maybach fail? Because it was brought over as a first-class passenger on the Queen Elizabeth II? No, despite the grand entrance, the car has no presence. So much so that decent design (again, no presence but a decent design) and moved it to Mercedes' S-Class. Boom! Maybach without the cos... Hell, S-Class is more than we can swing unless we get into Summer. Summer has presence.

Hybrids: Jah!

AutoWeek reports: Audi Ready to Bring Hybrid to U.S. Well look who's jumping on the hybrid wagon just eight years into the ride? L'il ol' Audi.

Adding a hybrid to the Q7 we see, eh? Wow, bet the environmentalists are thrilled and Toyota is quaking in its boots! We're talking 23 mpg for the Q7! Nice. There goes the threat of global warming!

How about this: add the diesel to the Q7 and hybrids to the rest of the lineup that's actually being purchased by more people? That's how to make a difference.

In Brief: Jaysus!

Edmunds reports: Audi Q7 4.2: Racking up the mileage.

So far our Audi Q7 has covered 5,498 miles at an average fuel consumption rate of 14.5 mpg. Our Q7 packs the 4.2-liter V8 so its EPA rated at 14 mpg city and 19 mpg highway, but most of our travels with the Audi has been in and around Los Angeles where its fuel use has ranged between 11.5 mpg and 14.3 mpg.

With that crap of fuel economy, how can you even get away from the pump? We bet you could rev the engine while filling up to see the gas pump's dials spin faster.

Don't get us wrong, we can appreciate big. But 11.5 mpg is just so wasteful... Even our crap (hey, it wasn't crap, it was hawesome... who's writing this anyway?) Ford F-150 Flareside did better than 11.5 mpg. Sheesh!

Audi 3.75

More Audis a-comin'! The Detroit Free Press reports: Audi to invest $15.7 billion; grow line from 22 to 40.

We're big fans of Audi but we have no idea how they are going to double the models they are selling. Unless they count the coupe and sedan as different models (we don't). And adding that sweet, sweet V-8 doesn't count, either.

But, what do we know? If Audi says they can come up with another 18 models, praise be to them.

What do you think Audi is going to introduce over the next few years (in the way of new models)?

Based on the sweet A3, our biggest gripe about the upcoming new Audis is that we won't be able to afford one. That's a snap of the 2007 Audi A3, by the way. It's schweeet!

What's Up With This?

Autoblog reports: Coming in 2009: Audi A1. This must be some PhotoChop jobbie, because the car on this page sure looks like a Sebring that we hate the looks of. If you click through a few times, you'll eventually get to this page Audi A1: Confirmed for 2009!
. On that page you'll see a car that looks like our current small fav, the Volvo C30.

Well, if nothing else Volvo should be happy that Audi is ripping off the design. Hey, Volvo, any chance you can make the V50 into a two-door? That would be cool. A real P1800 dealie.

Sorry for the lack of an image. We didn't want to rip of the Germans.

Audi Doin' The Diesel Dance!

AutoWeek reports: Audi hopes to cash in on success of R10 by offering diesel engine in TT. Go, Audi! We're pretty sure 99% of the world has no idea what the R10 is, but maybe that 1% that does will be happy the TT will have a diesel. We're just hopeful it'll use less fuel than the before.

Audi: Smooth, Round, And Delicious

AutoWeek reports: Assault of the Audis. Man, Audi is hitting homeruns lately. We like the A3, A4, A6, A8. We think they flubbed the TT, but the first iteration was so perfect, we'll cut them a bit slack. Now, AutoWeek serves up a rendition of the A7 which, if it were a person, would clearly be Alison Krauss. Beautiful, curvy, sexy. We'd like to ride in the Alis... A7.

Looks like the A7 is following in the footsteps laid by the Mercedes whatchamacallit, the "four-door coupe dealie." We can't imagine there's going to be a lot of room in that back seat, but like we said about the Mercedes: "If you're in the back seat of this kind of car, you're pretty much a loser." Anyway, Audi's designs are on a roll. We hope they end up reliable, too.

We pictured the Audi TT despite the fact we really, really wanted to show off a picture of Alison Krauss. She's just some kind of purty.