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Audi

Review: 2008 Audi A5

One of the prettiest coupes around, the 2008 Audi A5 comes in with excellent handling, thanks to the standard Quattro all-wheel-drive system. Its 3.2-liter engine produces adequate power, but you'll have to step up to the Audi S5 for real fun. Our test car came with a smooth-shifting six-speed manual transmission in lieu of the available six-speed automatic.

We also had all the goodies in the cabin, including an excellent sounding Bang & Olufsen audio system and the Audi Music Interface, which let us connect a crazy variety of music devices to the car. We're also very … Read more

MIT Wii game aims to put visually impaired on level playing field

If some researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Singapore-based Gambit Game Lab have anything to say about it, gamers with serious vision problems won't have to take a backseat to their 20/20 friends anymore.

On Tuesday, the lab unveiled AudiOdyssey, a game for the Nintendo Wii that is based solely around sound and tasks players with mimicking a DJ trying to create a catchy beat that people can dance to.

The idea is that players--those with or without vision problems--can use the Wii's motion-sensitive controllers to get a rhythm going and then build more complex … Read more

Photos: Prototype concept cars

While some concept cars look as if they come from a future that never will be, others represent cars that will actually go into production. We've gathered the most realistic concept cars from the last auto show season to see how the near future will look.

Click here for photos of concept cars that could or will enter production.

Audi promises electric car within 10 years

Audi is joining other German automakers in the effort to eliminate exhaust emissions, promising to bring an electric model to market in the next 10 years.

Rupert Stadler, Audi's chairman and chief executive, said in an interview with German weekly Welt am Sonntag published Sunday that he expects battery technology to dominate in the coming five to 10 years.

"By then we will offer cars without exhaust emissions," Reuters quoted Stadler as saying. "Electric cars offer great opportunities, which we have already seized on."

Reducing vehicle emissions is a chief concern for automakers in Germany. … Read more

Audi launching sport version of TT this year

Following the sport versions of Audi's larger cars, such as the S4, S5, and S8, the diminutive TT gets its own sports version, the TTS. Audi announced today that the 2009 TTS would launch in late 2008. We got a preview of this car at the 2008 Detroit auto show, and came away baffled by its engine specs. We were highly impressed by the 2008 Audi TT Coupe and Convertible, when equipped with the 3.2-liter V-6 and Quattro all-wheel-drive, but Audi specified a 2-liter turbocharged four cylinder for the TTS. Stats published with Audi's announcement today clear … Read more

Photos: Performance testing at Laguna Seca

On the second day of the 2008 Western Automotive Journalists Media Days, we drove a variety of different cars at Laguna Seca. This famous track employs a number of technical turns, not to mention a quarter-mile straightaway, for testing handling and acceleration.

Click here for photos of production cars tested on the track at Laguna Seca.

Photos: Track testing Audi's finest

You'd never hear us complaining about our job here at CNET Car Tech, but there are times during the course of our reviews that we find ourselves wishing we could drive our test cars a bit more, well, illegally (all in the interests of thorough automotive journalism, you understand). Yesterday, our prayers were answered at an event hosted by the Western Automotive Journalist association at Laguna Seca raceway in California. One of the first things we sought to find out was whether Audi's Quattro system worked as well on the track as it had on the roads. We … Read more

Photos: 2009 Audi Q5

Aiming squarely at the BMW X3 and the recently-announced Mercedes GLK, Audi unveiled its own car-based SUV this week in the shape of the Q5 crossover. With a sleeker design than the lumbering Q7 and an drivetrain designed to walk the line between performance and economy, the Q5 is Ingolstadt's contribution to the red-hot crossover market. Audi is also using the new model as a showcase for some of its latest cabin tech, including the third generation of its MMI interface and a hard-drive based media and navigation system. Check out our images right here.

Review: 2008 Audi R8

Audi previously impressed us with its handling technology in the Audi TT, but even that car feels a bit staid when compared with the 2008 Audi R8. The R8 holds the pavement as only a low-slung car with all-wheel-drive and massive tires can. Then Audi throws in its magnetic damping technology to keep the suspension tuned for whatever kind of road you are driving on and puts the engine in the middle to balance the car. All of this combines to let us take the R8 around corners at speeds we wouldn't think possible.

For cabin tech, the R8 … Read more