Is Audi's Trail Of Success About To Unravel After Being The IT Brand?

"The Sonota alone probably outsells all of AUDI combined"...And your point is???

You should have read JCs take and review of the A5 convertible on one of his newspaper columns about a week ago or so, I was in stitches. 009,Chewy,4wheelsfan,and other fanboys would have choked on their on their own saliva if they read it. He basically sums the car up as the most boring car he's had to test .

You summed it up by saying " I was in stitches". I see JC as more of an entertainer/car enthusiast and not by any means a true reference for how good a car is. He seems to dismiss any car that is not tuned for the track. The truth is, cars doing 4-wheel drifts make for good ads but, most car buyers cannot even manage a car on the track. Audi has achieved an excellent balance between handling, performance, design, quality, and all weather security. That's what most buyers want to have in their daily driver, therefore Audi's recent success.

Agent00R, um buddy, Clarkson really didn't say anything really negative about the Audi. He was just doing one of his usual rants and off line tangents.

@edeus123

No kidding, but that's not the point.

The point we're focusing on is if Audi is slowly becoming a bit too stale for everyone's taste -- including hardcore enthusiasts and the average consumer. It's not entirely negative but people usually do not want a boring car in their garage.

Thanks for the head's up though, chief.

As an ex S3 owner, I feel that even though AUDI makes nice cars,my problem is that they all look the same and Their FWD drive cars make me feel like I am driving an upscale and Overpriced VW,especially in a segment where all the competiton is RWD driven.
There maybe quattro to compensate for that, but so does the competition too with their AWD offerings.

I didn't really see anything negative about Audi in that article except saying that most BMW drivers probably wouldn't switch to Audi. Audi seems to be doing well in the San Diego area which is ruled by Lexus and BMW. I've been seeing a lot more Audis racing me on my drive home. I must say I do like those LED's when looking at them in my rear view mirror ;)

When the United States ceased to become the only country on the planet and the measure of "it" became global market-share growth.

I don't get why ANYONE would take Clarkson's ramblings as gospel.At the end of the day , he's just another guy with another opinion. 99% of the time , his personal preference overrides hard data. I can appreciate his humor and wit, but its not as though the guy is a career racer .To buy(or not buy) a car off his opinion alone is just stupid.Go drive em yourself . Then make up your mind
My wife was in love with the S5, but after a drive in it, she wasn't very thrilled.Her words... " it just didn't do IT for me" so now we're back to looking at BMW's. I'm hoping that a test drive in a Cayman S will do "IT" for her. Time will tell

@TheAntiStig

You bring up a couple of good points.

1) We're not taking JC's word as "gospel," merely using it to make a point that the brand may be "losing it," so to speak.

2) No, JC's opinions are not always based on hard data but if you ONLY base things on numbers, you don't get the whole other spectrum of the auto world: perception. This is a huge part of auto purchases, if it wasn't we'd all be driving econoboxes and cars that are entry-level premiums -- ex. Audi A3 -- wouldn't exist.

BTW, good luck on your purchase -- let us know what you wind up with!

PS - your wife's point that the car didn't "...do IT for me" could be telling of what I was saying in the above piece...

TheAntiStig,

Your wife seems to be backing up Clarkson's Point. No? She liked it at first but after a closer look and drive, she realized it was nothing special. Some folks don't have to look closer to see something that's lacking. Your wife is a keeper. And you never mentioned what you actually think about the S5. Why is that?

I agree Clarkson, though funny, cannot be trusted at all.

FWIW though.. I agree the 00R's question.. I think Audi are taking the p*** now, so predictable styling wise, a now ugliness is creeping in too.

I think Georg Kacher started this questioning of Audi a month or two ago in Car magazine (UK).

I will reserve judgement on the A7 until I see one. I've seen A5 sedans in Europe on the road and they are impressive.

Audis designs are lame. It may take a while for some folks to realize that fact. I realized that Audis were bland years ago. It's funny how everyone else is now starting to realize this.

I disagree... I think that Audi has it right.

Audi has a full lineup of cars tht meet the needs of a wide range of buyers. Sure, they might be considered the "Toyota" of luxury cars (of course, I am refering to the old Toyota who could do things right), BUT they also have the R8 to show off what they can do when they want.

Its a perfect strategy and they have executed it well. Thus, I believe that it will continue to pay huge dividends with all types of buyers.

People aren't dissing the quality of the product.. just the fact that Audi are now epically failing to create anything original.. and they're flogging the Halo car idea to death with the R8.. I mean in the UK Audi advertise the R8 on TV... WHY? only to create brand awareness... so it's like "look we make the R8, and since all our cares look the same, if you buy a £15,000 A1, people will think you are cool"..

... but people aren't falling for that so much now..

Audi needs an injection of creativity..

I hate the Audi "brand", but I can respect their product... they need to do something to attract the buyers that aren't turned on by their arrogant childish bullshyt marketing and their uber conservative predictable styling... if they don't cater to broader market (by being more adventurous) then how ill they become the biggest?

Audi offers an excellent product line IMHO. But in all fairness, they are the all season tire of cars. Very good in all categories, but not the best in any one. In the sedan market, they're are faster, safer, better riding, better handling more sophisticated cars with better resale values. Design is too subjective to comment. So why then has Audi been the it brand for the last 12 months...? Heres's my guess: It is the most innocuous luxury car in the world. It offers much of the comfort of a Benz, the practicality of quattro and all in a package that draws ZERO attention to itself. Right? Even Audi fans have to agree. Nobody stops to stare at a A4/A6/A8. So that is how Audi won the hearts and dollars of the truly wealthy upper echelon of buyers a few years back who often avoid pretentious cars. Having then become the it brand amongst the ivy crowd, Audi wisely decided to push its performance image and introduced the R8, the 5 and even HEAVILY revised their time honored quattro system and unfavorable weight distrbution to closer resemble that of an all wheel drive BMW. This was about 2 years back. So combine their newer more exciting BMW like products with the image they've had as the it car for the last 3 years, and viola....Audi now appeals to the middle class and upper middle class buyers and starts taking sales off BMW.

Thing is - just like nothing diet tastes good. No car that's good in the snow is a 'great' performer on dry. Audi Quattro is to snow, like Porsche 911's rear engine is to traction. Its a unique feature, enshrined in the company's heritage and has been developed over decades by generations of engineers. You loose it, and you loose your soul. Audi has shifted weight out of the nose of its cars making them better in the dry, but worse in the wet or in snow. They can't beat BMW at their own game, despite what their marketing department says. In the end they are still a very nice blend of all things without being exceptional in any one category. PIm my opinion the most boring car if you measure power to excitement ratio is the RS5 wagon. All of that thrust and not one magazine ever raved about it...

Audi should move focus away from performance development and focus on more core values - quattro and 4 cylinder engines. This way it could position itself for the future instead of sacrificing itself for the limelight now.

Audi has never produced a superlative product, but they deserve credit for fooling the general public into thinking that they have for the last three years...

Bon chance,
DRP