What’s perhaps most impressive of all about the Q5 isn’t that it would blow the minds of the average car buyer of fifty years ago, of course, but that it’s an outstanding product even for today.

Turn the key and it’s instantly obvious that this is not your average Audi.  Instead of a silky V6 purr, the distinctive burble of a V8 engine resonates through the dual exhausts.  It’s impossible to miss, especially if the top is down.  You don’t need to be told what happens when you give the accelerator a shove, do you?

Audi’s high-performance S4 lineup gets a new addition for 2004.  The S4 sedan and Avant wagon are joined by an S4 version of Audi’s slick A4 cabriolet, bringing high power and athletic …

There’s nothing quite like the confidence of driving with all four wheels.  Case in point:  2004 Audi A4 versus surprise early-spring Michigan snowstorm. As the snow came down and the salt trucks were sluggish to respond, drivers were fishtailing left and right.  The medians were full of overconfident sport-utes. Meanwhile, our serene silver sedan plowed through the worst of it without a complaint, illustrating the results of Audi’s long-term love affair with all-wheel drive.

The A4 is Audi’s lowest-priced entry into the sports sedan market, and it’s a familiar face. Getting …

Unofficially, there are two kinds of convertibles.  You have your flashy, look-at-me ragtops, with sexy sheetmetal wrapped around a pair of often color-keyed leather seats and a big engine.  Those are your BMW Z4s and Ford Thunderbirds and Jaguar XKs.  In the other corner, you have the more conservative convertibles, for folks who want to enjoy a nice sunny day but would rather do it without acting like movie stars.

The Audi A4 cabriolet, new for 2003, falls solidly into the latter category.  Its conservative, bar-of-soap design is elegant, but not …

Audi’s new A6 model lineup was a certifiable home run.  A formerly dowdy sedan was transformed with show-car like styling and a level of refinement that made it seem more like a work of art than an automobile.  It was hailed as Audi’s first true challenge to arch-rival BMW in many years.  An A6 Avant station wagon version soon followed, broadening the A6’s appeal to capture disillusioned minivan buyers and even some loyal Volvo and Mercedes wagon customers.  So what was next?

Getting it dirty.
Introduced just last year, the Audi allroad …

The best thing about big, fantastically expensive, high-tech cars is that the cool stuff almost always eventually trickles down into cars the rest of us can afford.
Take the Audi A6, for instance.  With its smooth-as-an-egg, futuristic styling, powerful twin-turbocharged engine, and luxurious interior appointments it’s a dream car for any fan of sports-luxury sedans.  Unfortunately, the starting price is about $40,000, and things head upward from there.  Yipes.
Now, the looks and the lifestyle offered by the Audi A6 are available in its little brother, the A4.  Totally redesigned for 2002, …

Audi’s elegant style and blistering performance have always lent themselves well to coupes, and many of the company’s most iconic products are two-doors.

Are you ready to stick it to Northwest and Delta?  What would you pay for a device that would free you from ever having to wait in an airport, lose baggage, or be stuck on a runway again?  How does $45,000 sound?  With an Audi A6 2.7T at your disposal, air travel becomes a second-tier means of travel.

Although the A8 is larger, more luxurious, and more expensive, the A6 is the big Audi sedan that people are likely to remember.  It shares the TT sports car’s rounded, purposeful lines, and …

One thing will never change, at least for car people: the unashamed joy of finding a slightly battered car under a layer of dust, buying it for a song, and lovingly restoring it to top condition.  And what, in a quarter century, will car people seeking a project be looking for?  Not Toyota Camrys or Dodge Caravans, certainly.  No, they’re going to be looking for cars like the Audi TT coupe and roadster.  These cars invite emotional attachment in a way that few cars these days can.

The swoopy, overturned-bathtub shape …

The A8 feels like old money, no small feat for a manufacturer that’s not British, and its confident brand of luxury is evident even to non-car people, at least from the inside.