2004 Audi Tt Quattro Base Coupe 2-door 3.2l on 2040-cars

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Audi changes the guard at Quattro GmbH

Although it may not have the brand recognition that Mercedes-AMG does or BMW's M division, Audi's Quattro GmbH department is responsible for its most exciting products - including the RS line of performance models and the R8 supercar. For the past year and a half, Quattro GmbH has been led by Franciscus van Meel, but soon it will get a new leader.
According to reports, van Meel (46, pictured right) is being reassigned to head up the Audi R&D center in Beijing. In his place, Audi is promoting Heinz Peter Hollwerweger (60, pictured above) to the post. The move is expected to be confirmed in advance of the Geneva Motor Show, at which point we can expect Audi to claim that it was part of a planned rotation. However sources suggest that van Meel's departure came at the behest of R&D boss Ulrich Hackenberg, who was apparently unhappy with how van Meel has been handling development of the next R8 and of the R8 E-Tron project.
Why Hackenberg would have van Meel reassigned to run one of his own R&D centers is beyond us, but Hollerweger is apparently expected to be able to get the job done faster and better. Whether he'll have any major changes in store for the Quattro division and its products is another matter, but we're looking forward to finding out.

2016 Audi TT [w/video]

What came first, the metrosexual or the Audi TT? While it was close, the descriptor-turned-epithet preceded the 1995 concept car by one year. However, they were both notable cultural evolutions and they happened to work together perfectly. Hugh Grant, playing the cad Will Freeman in the 2002 film About a Boy, could not have chosen a better example of character than his silver TT.
A decade later, the original TT was still important enough that when rumors of the third-generation coupe began to surface in late 2012, the most exciting fantasy was that the 2014 coupe might "recapture some of the distinctiveness and impact" of a 16-year-old car (the TT came to market in 1998). Even speculation by dedicated Audi observers thought the brand would do something novel, even if not mimicry. The obvious takeaway: no one was going to be lighting any candles for the departed second generation. All of that is why when the first leaked image slipped onto the Internet, people began to get suspicious. When the third generation took the stage at the Geneva Motor Show, we could almost hear the digital deflation over the Ethernet, our poll results notwithstanding.
Yet it's still the TT, and in spite of having seen its interior and virtual cockpit and clocked its specs, we couldn't judge it before heading to Marbella, Spain to drive it. What we found out was while it's better than the second generation, it's still very much a TT.

Audi, Google readying infotainment partnership announcement for CES?

The merging of our smart phones and automotive infotainment systems may be about to get an even bigger boost, if a report from Forbes is to be believed. The business publication is reporting that Google and Audi may announce a partnership at next week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas that would see Google's Android OS taking control of Audi's MMI infotainment system.
The move by Google would be a direct counter to Apple's iOS in the Car initiative, the marquee feature of which allows drivers to access the company's Siri digital assistant via a car's voice controls. According to Forbes, other iOS features that have found their way into cars include functions for iMessage, as well as audio and satellite navigation systems.
Audi and Google already enjoy a working relationship, with the tech company providing data services on many of the automaker's cars, as well as lending Google Maps to the MMI system. If this report turns out to be true, fans of Android could find Audis looking a lot more appealing.