Audi Vehicles

Overview

    Audi was founded by one of the pioneers of the German automotive industry, August Horch. Horch used his name on his own brand until the board of directors, after which he founded a new company, named after the Latin translation of his name. Audi merged with DKW, Horch, and Wanderer in 1932 to form the Auto Union brand, the four-ring logo of which is still used by the company today. The Auto Union brand was acquired by Volkswagen in 1964. Auto Union merged with NSU (maker of the pioneering Ro-80 rotary-powered sedan) soon after, with the new company bearing the decidedly chewy name of Audi NSU Auto Union AG (mercifully truncated to Audi AG in 1985). Volkswagen chose to introduce the brand to the United States in 1970, as a premium brand. Thanks to a corporate decision to use all-wheel-drive on Audi vehicles, the company was able to move up-market to engage Volvo, Saab, and later BMW and Mercedes-Benz. Audi suffered a sharp blow in the mid-1980s when it was alleged that the Audi 5000 suffered from "unintended acceleration." The allegations were eventually disproved, but the damage had already been done, and Audi's reputation and sales were disastrously affected for a decade. Today, Audi is a full-line luxury automaker, with models from small sedans and premium hatchbacks to full-size exective sedans and large crossover vehicles. Its use of AWD is increasingly emulated by BMW and Mercedes-Benz. The company has also tapped its association with Lamborghini to provide a V-10 engine for the sporty versions of its sedans, along with the R8 supercar (essentially a re-engineered Lamborghini Gallardo). Audi also maintains its own in-house tuning arm, Quattro GmbH. Not to be confused with the company's Quattro all-wheel-drive system, the Quattro company develops Audi's RS high-performance models, analogous to BMW's M GmbH or Mercedes's AMG. Audi AG is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group. It is the parent company of Lamborghini. Audi's corporate headquarters are in Ingolstadt, Bayern, Federal Republic of Germany. Audi models are constructed at the company's factories in Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm, as well as at Volkswagen Group factories around Europe.

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