audi

HILAND, Wyo.--I've been in a lot of small towns over the years, but in even the very smallest, I've never seen a city limits line like the one I saw here.

It happened that I hit exactly 5,000 miles of driving on Road Trip 2009 in this one-store-seems-to-be-it town in central Wyoming. As the odometer rolled over to 1000.0--which in the case of the Audi Q7 TDI I'm road-testing equates to 5,000 miles since the odometer resets to 0.0 when you hit 2,000 miles--I was able to pull into a parking … Read more

SIERRA MADRE MOUNTAINS, Wyo.--When I was planning stages for Road Trip 2009, my wife told me, point blank, that if I fiddled around with either my iPhone or my iPod while I drove, at some point during the thousands of miles I'd be behind the wheel, I'd have an accident.

Fortunately, I was able to counter that argument by explaining that the Audi Q7 TDI I'd be road-testing was supposed to feature really nice integration between those devices and the car, and I promised a hands-free experience, no matter how much I drove.

After more than … Read more

A streak of insanity has been running through the automotive design world these last few years, first expressing itself with the BMW X6. This particular psychosis reached across the world to Acura, with its upcoming ZDX model, but cropped up again at BMW with the 5-Series Gran Turismo. Now this design virus has leaped over to Audi, which has chosen to take the perfectly beautiful A5 coupe and add a hatchback.

One of the first clues to the disaster is this sentence from Audi's press release, "The five-door coupe features emotional and progressive styling to fascinate with powerful … Read more

OGDEN, Utah--I love my iPhone, but usually, I try not to depend on it keeping a phone call active for that long if I'm moving around much.

But on Sunday, I had what I thought was a noteworthy session of iPhone continuity. On my Road Trip 2009 project, I was here in Ogden, Utah, nestled at the base of the Wasatch Mountains, about an hour north of Salt Lake City.

It was a stunningly beautiful day, and Ogden features hiking trails that go straight up into the canyons of these first few miles of the Wasatches. So I drove … Read more

Audi has announced that it is giving the navigation system and MMI (Multi Media Interface) operating system in the A3, TT and R8 much needed updates for the 2010 model year.

Under the hood, Audi's navigation system gets a new 600 MHz processor that allows for faster route calculations and smoother operation. Lane guidance, topographic maps, and speed limit data make the navigation system much more useful to drivers.

Audi's USB/iPod music interface remains, for the most part, unchanged and is still optional. The only new feature is that it now charges external devices, such as iPods … Read more

GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colo.--It still feels like Road Trip 2009 has just started, but I've already hit 1,000 miles. Unlike Road Trip 2008, where I hit the 1,000-mile milestone while driving along a nondescript section of forested, deep South highway, this time the odometer turned over to four figures while I was rolling slowly in the Audi Q7 TDI "clean diesel" SUV I'm road-testing down a picturesque lane full of high-priced houses with fantastic views of the Rocky Mountains.

I like to use each of the thousand-mile points along the way as an excuse … Read more

In the United States, the major east-west Interstate highways are denominated by multiples of tens: I-10 goes from Los Angeles to Jacksonville, Fla. I-40 goes from Barstow, Calif., to Wilmington, N.C. I-80 goes from San Francisco to New York.

The north-south Interstates, meanwhile, are denominated with fives. I-5 goes from the U.S.-Mexico border, through San Diego, Los Angeles, Portland, Ore., and Seattle and ends at the U.S.-Canada border. I-15 goes from from San Diego to the Canadian border near Sweetgrass, Mont. And I-95 heads north from Miami all the way to northeast Maine.

Over the … Read more

• Lexus HS 250h first impressions

• TeleAtlas starts offering photorealistic GPS nav imagery

• VW dealers will sell Garmin GPS nav devices

• Audi R8 convertible, EV on the way?

• Tesla does a recall, makes housecalls

Audi loves its R8 variants. So far, we've seen V-8 and V-10 gasoline engines and V-12 TDI concept. Now, if rumors are to be believed, Audi is poised to introduce two more variants of the R8 supercar at the International Motor Show in Frankfurt: a convertible and a zero-emissions electric version.

The convertible has been spied testing by German publication Auto Motor und Sport, so it is all but guaranteed to be unveiled sometime in the near future. However, the electric version is something of a dark horse, subject to speculation. No one knows if it will be full … Read more