Audi Had A TREMENDOUS 2009, Will Their Growth Remain Strong In 2010?

I like Audi's style for the most part, inside and out. I still have not warmed up to the gaping grill and large front overhang.

Well, I am 100% sure that they will continue their success cause most of their cars are very nice and at the right price. In the other hand Mercedes is doing a good administration and they are Ok "Now". BMW, I still worry about them.. cause they have to many ugly cars and expensive cars,....but the new 5 series gave me a lot of hope and if the car does well, it have the capability to give more financial stability to BMW.

Steve - since you said it, i must ask you one question: do you object to the overhang on supercars as well or just audi?

@ 1dott8,

While I don't know how Steve feels about it, I will tell you that large front overhangs on supercars make sense because they are mid-engined; as such proportions are atypical. They look (and drive) balanced when you also consider that the rear wheels are pushed all the way to the back, giving a forward-leaning look. I'm no engineering expert, but I do believe that it is advantageous that mid-engined supercars have the passenger area and engine mostly if not fully within the wheelbase (the front storage won't always hold stuff and is not big anyway).

It's a different story with sedans with a proper hood (holding the engine), passenger area and trunk. Weight distribution and handling are hardly the best when much of the hood (and weight of the engine) sits beyond the front axle, outside the wheelbase. These are some of the limitations you don't get with RWD.

As someone once mentioned on a forum I forget, FWD was simply supposed to be for cheap, affordable, smaller cars, where premium balance and handling were not the selling points. There is no reason large, premium cars like an A8 should also be FWD (imagine if a Rolls-Royce were FWD). I still say there's a reason Audi's main rivals, BMW and Mercedes, are RWD.

Admittedly, Audi improved the front overhand/axis-to-dash-ratio balance with the current A4 thanks to their MLP, but the advantage seems gone again with the new A8, for instance.

and yes, i do understand what you're saying but how many people buy these cars and track them? it's a small number. these cars (for the most part) are all daily drivers and regardless of what you or anyone else might say the average driver can't tell the difference of rear, front or all wheel drive cars. the handling on an audi (regardless of overhang) is more than adequate for the average driver who are the ones buying these cars anyway. i'm not knocking you or anyone so please don't get offended but i feel people put too much into this preference of RWD and overhang thing. audi is known for doing what audi does and bmw is known for what bmw does and so on and so forth.

I do hear you. Without a doubt, most regular buyers won't know, notice, or care. But of course, on an auto enthusiast site, you can expect finer details to be detected and analyzed.

Despite the overhang, I'd still generally choose Audi over the rivals on sheer design language because, as you stated, the marginal differences don't show in daily commute. But the looks do :)

I like Audi's. They are understated but look very attractive. It's definitely a business man's car. Not too flashy but you can tell you're driving a well built car with a well built interior.

crap car.. might as well be driving a VW or even a SKoda

Apparently the article mentions Audi as increasing market share (and profits), something its competitors were not so fortunate in accomplishing in 2009 - I guess the market does not agree with you on the "crap car" comment. Knowing you are an audi hater, it's more like a "crap comment" in this case... (for the record, all Audi's competitors are worth the money, otherwise they wouldn't be competitors.