RUMOR: Audi A4 AND Q7 DELAYED AGAIN — IF True, How Much Longer Can Audi Wait?

Maybe the success of the GL and the initial positive outlook for the new C has Audi really rethinking things. And maybe there wasn't enough distinction from the new A3 and the new A4. Interesting.

Audi are somewhat fortunate that 99+% of their shares are owned by VW. Delays like this on two of the mainstay models might cause serious worries for shareholders otherwise.

So True, and this delay will certainly trigger delays on the A6 and A8. Sounds like management could be shooken up as well if these delay efforts don't work out

Audi needs some fresh thinking in its ranks. I've owned or leased 8 Audis in the past, and I'm driving an A4 Avant now, so I am a fan. But even I'm getting bored of the same old stuff year after year. model after model. Wake up, Audi or your not going to compete for much longer. The stubby, out-of-proportion A3 is NOT your answer.

I'm on my second lease of a current generation A4 (leased one of the previous gen too), coming up a year from now. I am not going to lease a 3rd. I love Audis, but If the new model is not out, I will be going to the competition. Fortunately, Audi is good about extending leases when you commit to another.

Something is really wrong at Audi. The next TT looks like the current TT with only the most minor of nips and tucks. The current TT is Camry bland to begin with and dated as dated can be, but here comes the same old thing.

Rather they focus on that than slap them onto the bumper (Mercedes) or even worse, the hideous Nike execution Lexus is doing

Once again MattDarringer scores. The original TT was terrific and the styling, so different, so new, so edgy... its replacement... Boooooooorrrrriinnnggg! The current A4 B8 started production 8 years ago, for sale in 2007... this current car is positively ancient in comparison. Though a great car still, its just not a contender IMO. I am excited to see the next version and am sure it will impress. This is Audi's bread & butter car, it needs to be right... Now that the ATS is out, the new 3 Series last year, and the new C Class coming up soon, Audi can launch a year after the C and have the class leader. Probably not a bad strategy....

Sacrificing a whole Year in sales of your bread and butter sedan to new intense competitors is also not a very good strategy...

However, I'm sure Audi execs appreciate your optimism

Audi's U.S. sales are up for 39 consecutive months and it's global sales were up by nearly 12% in January of 2014 - Audi can clearly afford to wait.

By the way, Agent00R, this is just a re-post of the same exact article you posted a week ago (which I submitted) entitled: "2015 Audi A4 and Q7 Delayed Yet Again - Audi Bosses Want Styling and Suspension Further Tweaked"

Audi is making sure that it goes to great lengths to differentiate its new models from each other and make the new design language a lot more aggressive across its model range.

The new B9 A4 and Q7 will be the design basis for Audi's next-generation A6, A8 and Q5 models. It's worth taking an extra 6 months or a year to ensure that the aggressive, bold and differentiated design philosophy the company has been talking about for months is really shown through.

I have to chuckle at some of the posted comments. ALL car companies look like link sausages. Look at Cadillac - they have that unique headlight you can tell from anywhere. BMW - have the similar front facia and interior look; MB has that weird squashed looking front air dam. They ALL carry these these themes car to car. Even Maserati's new Ghibili.

Having 39 consecutive quarters of record sales is fabulous. KUDOS to Audi!! If you have an email to the BMW executives - please forward it to me so I can tell them to shed weight off the upcoming new 5 series from the bloated old one, get rid of the awful run flat tires and go back to being thee sports sedan everyone targeted in that segment. Then maybe I'll come back to buying another 5 series like I once loved and had.

Until then - I'm still enjoying my Audi 6er because of the interior's quality craftsmanship, it's all-wheel quattro handling and peppy engine. It's one finest piece of machinery I've driven and has gotten kudos from many magazines (I can also have my high performance tires without those dang run flates too ;-)

OK, seriously, enough with this "consecutive months" crap already. When you're still only selling half of what your major competitors are selling, the ONLY place to go is up. And January's results were only a handful of units increase, so basically, flat. The reality is, yes, Audi is growing. But is it growing at the pace that is really where it should be? No. MB and BMW also continue to see growth. From 2012 to 2013, Benz grew by 14%, BMW grew by 10%, and Audi grew by 13.5%. Put that in terms of units, that's 38k units increased for Mercedes, 28k units for BMW, and 19k units for Audi. So, as impressive as it sounds to keep saying Audi is doing this and that for "consecutive months", at the end of the day, it's really not that impressive when your competition is still outpacing you.

A profit is a profit regardless of how large or small it is. I wouldn't want you on my budget team because your pessimism is like "the sky is falling" syndrome. Would they like to sell more - anybody would. Audi is generating good profits and selling a nice quantity of cars. Give them kudos; hell don't be the wart all the time. And it IS IMPRESSIVE when you consider many factors as little as 10 or 15 years ago. Car companies go through cycles and at the moment Audi is on an upswing building some nice products. BMW (as noted in my previous post) needs to go back and give consideration to the HERITAGE of the 5 series. I owned one and thought it was the best 4 door sedan on the market at the time. Not now - BMW even noted they need to do a better job on the 5er. Shed some weight, get rid of the terrible run flats (since they COST MORE, last 1/3 less miles) and with a few more tweaks and they'll be thee sedan again.

Right. And your "budget people" would be the same people running Mt Gox, who tout profit on profit, yet the true picture isn't as bright as you paint it. The use of the "consecutive months" recognition on these boards is touted as "Audi is catching up to BMW and Mercedes" when, clearly, that is not the case. As a CEO, if my CFO continually tells me that "we're catching up to the competition because we're experiencing month after month of growth", only to find out that the competition is still outpacing me, that CFO would be fired for not allowing me to create strategies to TRULY grow the company, in order to TRULY start catching the competition. You may want a "budget person". I'd want a leader.

And it's not about pessimism. It's called reality. Live in it.

Car4Life - Delaying a year is never preferred, but if your product isn't ready, would that not be better than launching a non-contender. I know that everything MB does is perfection so anything any other company does is poorly conceived. I would agree with you in that this should have been a much bigger priority and it should have been ready to go. Not everything works that way especially with some of the personnel changes made at Audi in the last 2 years .

Wrong move on all fronts, keep in mind the longer Audi delays, the more time their competitors have to work on "facelifts", not to mention the loss of new customers now entering lease agreements with Benz and Bimmer after hearing of the delay.

From a business standpoint, Audi should have launched the A4 as planned and issued a premature extensive facelift, which would have allowed them to retain more customers without sacrificing as much to the competition.

NOW, with this new delay, Expectations of the next A4 have been greatly increased, and scrutiny will be even more intense. If Audi does not deliver, it will be their fault for not properly managing expectations.

Car4Life, you're forgetting that Audi is taking its time because it knows the stakes are high and wants to deliver a true knockout. Audi certainly is capable on all fronts and Audi executives realize they have the potential to address criticisms such as lack of differentiation and lack of aggression in terms of exterior design so they are going to take their time and address these concerns instead of rushing a half-baked product to market simply to be first or near the competition's timing like Mercedes-Benz did and end up with the CLA, which is going to see its sales decline once the A3 sedan reaches dealers end of next month.

Being first can backfire and Mercedes-Benz will experience this because it rushed the CLA To market.

Cidflekken, you don't understand the way Audi is trying to achieve its sales growth. Audi is not trying to achieve its sales growth in the U.S. like BMW and Mercedes-Benz are. Audi does not offer huge discounts on its models the way BMW and Mercedes-Benz do because Audi would rather build growth in a slow and highly profitable way than a fast but less profitable way. Audi could offer huge discounts on its cars to simply increase volume but it won't because it would rather maintain its prices and achieve higher profit margins. Audi's profit margin is consistently higher than BMW and Mercedes-Benz's for a few reasons, but one main reason is it's refusal to offer huge incentives to increase sales volume.

Whatever, Nuttie. Audi's profit margins are higher because they have a high-volume non-premium brand that helps support/share costs, something which neither BMW or Mercedes has. This "slow and highly profitable way" nonsense is just an excuse. Audi has, in fact, offered very desirable deals on their cars at one time or another (as it did when i was shopping around for my last car) and it still couldn't beat BMW or MB. That's the reality.

No Cidflekken, Audi's profits are higher because it has the Volkswagen Auto Group brands (Bentley, Porsche, Lamborghini (which is owned by Audi), and Volkswagen). It is not JUST Volkswagen that Audi can rely on.

Slow and profitable way is an excuse? I don't think it's an excuse when that profit margin is the very reason why Audi is spending $30 billion through just 2018 to expand its model range, improve manufacturing facilities and boost R&D spending. More like "slow and highly profitable way" is the driver of the company's future growth.

Cidflekken, go and compare the lease payments on an Audi S5 compared to a BMW 335i coupe, or an Audi S4 vs. a 335i sedan, or an A8 vs. a 7-Series.

I guarantee you Audi will not give you the car at as rock-bottom of a price as BMW will (in terms of how much Audi or BMW will make on the vehicle over the length of its lease).

Somebody mentioned that the next TT is not enough of a change from the current one. I think this is sadly correct.The original was a flowing groundbreaking design.From the drawings this new one breaks little to no ground at all.I think Audi could have taken the Quattro concept from 2010 and grafted it on to the new MLB platform. This would have been a knockout in styling. However this did not happen due to herrr Piech. He wanted only subtle styling changes. Now we hear that since Egger is out as stylist that management now feels that styling is too agressive. I don't think this is a good omen for Audi. Of the German three it is clerly Mercedes that has really taken some positive styling leaps.