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2014 Audi S3 Cabriolet

Drivers are either droptop people or they're not. As most usually aren't - at least as far as the willingness to buy one is concerned - all convertibles tend to remain strictly niche cars. Thus, automakers must ask a noticeably higher price for them.
The Audi S3 Cabriolet is about as niche as you can get in the open daylight of mainstream automaking. Of course, the S3 cab doesn't really need to sell in big volumes; it exists because it's an easy and not too costly bit of flair for the company. In the US, this model would probably base out at around $44,000 if it were to join our fleet, which is problematic, as I'll soon explore.
In what may be a sign that Audi is essentially okay with all this, it had me up to central Sweden to twist around on the snow and ice in the open S3. The grounds ended up offering precious little ice and snow, so I drove the two-door ragtop on dusty, thawing Scandinavian roads. This was a blessing really, since ice driving in a cabrio - even a Quattro one - doesn't really reveal much of anything about such a car in its typical day-to-day life.

Audi CEO Stadler gets 5-year contract extension

Audi CEO Rupert Stadler will keep his seat at the top thanks to a contract extension. Volkswagen didn't divulge the length of the new contract, but German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung said the term is five years. Stadler took over the current position in 2007 when current VW CEO Martin Winterkorn left it. That year the brand sold 93,506 in the US and 964,151 in total worldwide; last year it sold 158,061 in the US and 1,575,480 in total worldwide.
Even though the brand has managed only about half the US sales of its two main rivals, it led the charge globally through the first two months of this year. Over the next few years we'll see its US efforts increase with a $30.3-billion investment, 11 new models and the opening of its first North American plant. And right now it can make hay with its World Car of the Year award winner, the A3.
In addition to Stadler, VW sales boss Christian Klingler is said to have received a five-year contract extension, and VW China head Jochem Heizmann has earned another two years on the job.

Audi unveils A3 Sportback G-Tron with bi-fuel power, 808-mile range

By this time next year, the Audi A3 Sportback will be offered with a variety fuel-efficient powertrains ranging from diesel to the all-electric E-Tron, but perhaps the most interesting is the all-new G-Tron model, which uses Audi's innovative carbon-natural compressed natural gas called e-gas. Previously called A3 TCNG, we first heard about this technology last year, but now Audi has confirmed that this low-emission, sustainable-fuel will debut by the end of this year on the A3 Sportback G-Tron.
To create this e-gas, a plant in Werlte, Germany uses electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. As hydrogen fuel cell vehicles become more popular, Audi says that this process could also be used to produce hydrogen fuel, but to create CNG, it mixes the hydrogen with carbon dioxide to create "synthetic methane." Since it is identical to the CNG available today, Audi's e-gas can be shipped and stored using the existing CNG infrastructure. Making the whole process even greener, Audi obtains the CO2 for this process from a nearby biogas plant, which would otherwise be released into the atmosphere.
Differentiated from the regular versions of the A3, the G-Tron features a pair of tanks under the rear cargo floor holding 15.43 pounds of CNG, which can power the car for almost 250 miles. What's more, the A3's conventional gasoline tank is still in place, giving the car an addition 560 miles of range. In total, that means the A3 G-Tron has a driving range of more than 800 miles. To run on both CNG and gas, Audi made changes to the car's 1.4-liter four-cylinder engine (including the turbo, cylinder head and fuel injection system) and catalytic converter.