Autos Blog

Audi A8, W12 Quattro, 2008

A friend of mine who writes car reviews found himself in a game of oneupmanship with a friend of his. My friend was given a Jaguar Super V8, 2008 to review. His friend drove an Audi A8, W12 Quattro, 2008.

The Audi won if for no other reason than the base sticker price. The Jag goes for $95,000. The Audi has a sticker price $140,000!!! Of course, that price includes

$6,300 for the Bang & Olufsen sound system

$3,200 for the 20-inch alloy wheels and summer performance tires

$2,500 for the Palace Blue exterior paint

$2,100 for the adaptive cruise control

$1,500 for the rear-seat refrigerator

$790 for solar sunroof

$200 for heated steering wheel

$1,700 for gas-guzzler tax

My friend, Bill, tells the story of when he was in China. He was being driven in a Red Flag Chinese car on a road with no speed limit. The speedometer was tick-tick-ticking to the far right at about 220kph. Thinking to himself that he was going to die if the driver lost control he looked out the window to keep himself distracted. Suddenly, an Audi went flying by. Perhaps it was a predecessor to this 6.0 liter, 12-valve, 450 horsepower 2008 Quattro.

Oh, to own an Audi.

Tags: a8

Pontiac G8, 2008

It seems that Pontiac hasn’t rolled out a full-size, rear-wheel drive sedan in more than 20 years. Twenty-two years to be exact. Enter the Pontiac G8. (This is not to be confused with the G8 Summit happening in Toyako.) The G8 will replace the Bonneville and the Grand Prix as well as the V8-powered GTO coupe. One trim has a 256 horsepower V6 engine, standard with a 5-speed automatic transmission. The other trim has 361 horsepower V8 and 6-speed automatic. Can you say 60mph in 5 secs?

Airbags, 6 of them, traction control, stability control, dual tailpipes 18″ alloy wheels, sports body kit….ah, and a 7-speaker audio system. The driver can’t hear the Vrroooom of the engine over the beautiful tunes. Pontiac says this car is the most powerful car in the U.S. available for less than $30K. Test driver James Raia at TheWeeklyDriver says the car’s shortcomings are no navigation system and finding the emergency brake. Bumper to bumper, 3 years/36K, drivetrain warranty, 5 years/100K, and corrosion 6 years/100K. Pontiac obviously thinks this car will look good while it lasts a long time.

By the Numbers May 2008: F-150 Falls Edition

Honda Civic, Accord, Toyota Camry and Corolla all outsell Ford F-150 for the first time

The two brands who lost and gained the most sales last month (MINI and HUMMER) sum up nicely what happened to auto sales during May in the U.S. Brands armed with small cars weathered the storm and big trucks and SUVs continued to nose dive. In fact, after 17 years worth of being this country’s best-selling vehicle, the Ford F-150 full-size pickup (42,973) has fallen for the first time to fifth place behind the Honda Accord (43,728), Toyota Camry (51,291), Corolla (52,826) and your new best-selling vehicle in the U.S., the Honda Civic (53,299). Note to automakers: that would be the sound of the canary in your coal mine hitting the floor.

U.S. automakers continued their year of suffering last month (Chrysler LLC had not yet broken down its numbers by brand at the time of posting), with General Motors taking the beating of its life and Chrysler LLC not far behind. Every single GM brand was down not just in the double-digit range, but all were down more than 20% with HUMMER falling off the map at less than 2,000 units sold. FoMoCo was down nearly 20%, but can at least take heart knowing that its new Focus (32,579) has found a lot fans. Toyota was also down, but was buoyed by the aforementioned incredible popularity of the Camry and Corolla. Nissan and Honda were both up, however, with the big ‘H’ bucking all trends and posting a gain of 11.3%.

NOTE: Because there were 27 selling day in May 2008 versus 26 in May 2007, all percentages represent the change in average Daily Sales Rate, i.e. the average number of vehicles sold per day, rather than the change in raw number of vehicles sold. › Continue reading