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Audi product push includes A2, A5, A7, A8, Q3 and Q5
German luxury marque Audi is preparing a product push that will considerably grow the company's lineup by the end of the decade. The new models include an A4-based four-seat grand tourer called the A5 inspired the Nuvolari concept car, a four-door coupe based on the A6 called the A7 (AutoWeek illustration shown), an all-new A2 aimed at the MINI, the redesigned A8 with V12 diesel and V10 gas powerplants, an A4-based low riding CUV inspired by the Roadjet concept and finally an even smaller Golf-based SUV called the Q3. You can check out the schedule for each vehicle over at GermanCarBlog.
[Source: AutoWeek and GermanCarBlog]
Related:
Audi A7 coupe in the works
Spy Shots: Audi A5 coupe
Audi readying to battle with BMW and Porsche
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Giggles of Doom 1:35PM (5/17/2006)
An A4 sized coupe would be great.
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Ben 1:45PM (5/17/2006)
I want an A2.
A3 is too Golf to be an Audi.
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BK 2:10PM (5/17/2006)
Okay, someone please give me the true definition of "coupe". I always understood a coupe to be a two-door car. Then, Mercedes introduced a 4-door "coupe" recently, and now Audi's doing the same. Now, I don't understand what the meaning of "coupe" is anymore.
Please help me. --BK
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Philip Dunlop 2:24PM (5/17/2006)
Luckily, the above A7 is just a rendering. The real thing will look nothing like it. Audis are my favourite cars, not least for it's design. That thing is fugly.
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Howard Kerr 2:34PM (5/17/2006)
Re BK,
a "true" coupe used to be a car with two doors and seating for 2 or 3 people. (Look at older: pre WWII coupes.)
When I was a kid, my parents bought a '49 Plymouth coupe. There was NO back seat, nor was there even room to fit one...it was sort of like a regular cab pickup, only with an enclosed trunk. Actually, Saturn beat the Germans to market with a coupe that had 3, then 4 doors...assuming you call those doors on the Saturn SC1 and SC2 doors.
If nothing else, a coupe should be SHORTER than it's "sister" sedan, unlike these modern coupes that seemed to have arrived at that designation by virtue of their tiny rear side windows.
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ZoomZoomin' 3:09PM (5/17/2006)
A2? Tell me more...
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Jordan 3:12PM (5/17/2006)
I coupe is a vehicle with no B-pillar....that is why Mercedes can get away with calling its CLS a coupe. In the past no B-Pillar ment that the vehicle had only two doors for stiffness.
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RossL 3:50PM (5/17/2006)
Back before cars, a coup (pronounced coop-eh) was a closed, four-wheeled, two-seater carriage. Coup is French for "cut-down", meaning a carriage that was smaller than a conventional four-seater.
In talking about cars, a coupe (North Americans have dropped the accent) is a two-door hardtop. Mercedes is bending the definition to describe a four-door that is styled to look a bit like a two-door. If they keep it up, one day none of these terms will mean anything.
Not that in Britain, the word is still pronounced coop-eh.
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Steve 3:56PM (5/17/2006)
Jordan, #7
I clearly see the B-pillar on CLS. Honestly, the germans have gone mad! Thats the truth, period.
They are just MAD.
The R-class is clearly a VAN. Yet it is a sport-wagon or cross-over and what not. A CLS is a COUPE. Vow!
These days you never know who might come up with what?
Tomorrow you will see a limo being called a high performance sports car and a Pick-Up truck will become a tiny hatch-back. You never know what new lessons the germans have for you. its going to a be one heck of a semester, learning and memorizing.
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Finished.Law.School 4:14PM (5/17/2006)
They need to redesign their SUV/minivan.
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rwcmick 4:16PM (5/17/2006)
The name Q3 has been used in the media when discussing the future third model, but Johan de Nysschen, Executive Vice President in charge of Audi of America, Inc. said "It is not an an in house name (Q3) and I am almost willing to confirm to you today that there will be no such product" so look for the vehicle to wear a different badge.
http://allcarsallthetime.blogspot.com/2006/04/audi-future-product-news-watching.html
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jm 4:44PM (5/17/2006)
Coupe isn't a meaningful term when used by a manufacturer, it's a term applied to a naming scheme to make a vehicle sound sporty regardless if its sporty or not. The term van or minivan is also falling out of use for SUV or crossover derived terms. Anything with "van" doesn't sound exciting. This mutilation of the english languange isn't stopping anytime soon, expect more to come. "Car" is probaly next to go.
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Howard Kerr 8:07PM (5/17/2006)
Coupes HAD B pillars, 2 door hardtops didn't. Coupes had windows TOTALLY enclosed/encircled by metal, hardtops just had metal trim on one vertical edge of the side windows to which rubber weatherstripping was glued for sealing purposes. And the passenger compartment, if not the whole car, WAS smaller/shorter in a coupe than even a 2 door sedan.
Today, a 2 door hardtop can get away with calling itself a coupe, but shouldn't if it has seating for more than 2 or 3 persons.
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Bob-o 9:45PM (5/17/2006)
Actually, the official definition of a coupe doesn't state how many doors the vehicle must have, but rather specifies that if you're below a certain amount of much rear leg room, its to be called a coupe.
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Bob-o 9:51PM (5/17/2006)
"A coup is distinguished from a sedan primarily by interior volume; SAE standard J1100 defines a coup as a fixed-roof automobile with less than 33 ft (0.93 m, 934.6 L) of rear interior volume. A car with a greater interior volume is technically a two-door sedan, not a coup, even if it has only two doors."
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mike 11:11PM (5/17/2006)
i dont care about the etymology of the word. auto makers are soo scared to make a coupe (the two door kind). if you're to chickens*it to make an coupe just leave it alone -let the sedan stand on its own. if some one wants a sedan let them buy a sedan. it they want a coupe, for christ's sake let them have a damn coupe -not some half-assed trick sedan pretending to be a coupe. a coupe ia an ALTERNATIVE to a sedan. it is not a trick to fool people. 2 door coupe you idiots
2 door coupe you idiots 2 door coupe you idiots 2 door coupe you idiots
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Tom Design 11:16PM (5/17/2006)
Ah, finally a front end treatment befitting a near luxury line. What was Audi thinking with their nasty black plastic snout and lower twin black plastic air openings? It was a horrible couple of years in Audi design, with too much black plastic that looked like the grill from a K-mart boom box. Now, they've nailed it. The brushes of chrome, and lovely air intake scoops on the lower corners just shouts "high class." Just dress up the middle bar of plastic with a metal finish, and they've completed the look. Sweet!
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Tom Design 11:22PM (5/17/2006)
Coup (UK/EU) or coupe (US)
A 2-door, 2- or 4-seat car with a fixed roof. Its doors are longer than those of a sedan, and the rear passenger area smaller. In cases where the rear seats are very small and not intended for regular use it is called a 2+2.
Here's a classic, gorgeous American Coup:
http://www.99-04.auto2.hu/a2-web99-8/cadilac/image5.jpg
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DPC car videos 5:39AM (9/03/2006)
I am a huge Audi fa but this one looks like a Lexus. Saw an RS4 the other day and that car is just perfect.
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