I used to have a client that literally served during WWII. He was meticulous about his vehicles, a great story teller, and a good friend. I miss my visits with him. He was from a different time and I always used to chuckle when he couldn’t remember Audi by name: “You know, that auto union company” (accompanied by him making little circles with his fingers and joining them to help me visualize the Auto Union and Audi’s logo)…. Of course he was talking about Audi but it was always funny that, to him, it was still an emerging company.
The Audi I know comes from a later time and the glory days of Quattro! Quattro is Audi’s all-wheel-drive system that dominated in the 1980s. It changed perceptions of what was a sports car and left a permanent mark on the industry. Today every auto manufacturer is into the all-wheel-drive game, but Audi with its Quattro system is still a leader.
Quattro, incidentally, has its roots in military engineering coming from the VW Iltis – a small military jeep introduced in the 1970s. From there it grew and really came into its own in the famous UR Quattro, the Audi 4000, and the not-so-famous VW Quantum Syncro. Using three differentials (two with vacuum controlled locks) this Quattro system dominated rally sports and was a bullet-proof drivetrain.
If that wasn’t good enough, during the 1980s and 90s, Audi built spectacular 5-cylinder engines. These engines could be easily hot-rodded into silly levels of power, and, when coupled with the Quattro drivetrain, created very, very fast cars.
Today’s Audi holds true to the idea of leveraging technology to provide the Audi owner with ‘more for less’. Turbo charging, although certainly not unique to Audi, has always been a strong point. It fit into Audi’s formula: getting more from less – or “Truth in Engineering” as their brilliant marketing slogan puts it.
Audi haven’t always been successful with this approach. They have had some stumbles, especially the “unintended acceleration” of the Audi 5000 (a scandal we’ll have to discuss in person), but on the whole today’s Audi is successful because it has held true to this vision.
Should your Audi need help, we are well versed in their technologies, tooled up with dealer level diagnostic equipment, and here to provide you with service superior to your dealership experience.
My friend John has since passed on and I will forever miss him, but I chuckle inside everytime I service an Audi as I can still see him trying to describe that little ‘auto union’ company. That’s not today’s Audi but it’s pretty cool to look back to their beginnings and to have known an auto enthusiast who remembers their start.
Oh – and ask me about VW Quantum Syncros sometime…
