Automotive graphic artist and photographer Matt Daniels has created these really good looking renders of how the 2009 Audi A4 might look like for Audi World. The upcoming B8-series Audi A4 will be based on Audi’s new MLP platform which made it’s world debut in the Audi A5/S5 coupe. Daniels’ rendering of the 2009 A4 is more evolutionary than revolutionary, which is what Audi has been doing with it’s A4’s design cues anyway. This latest A4 gets Audi’s curvy wave shoulder line that is found on the A5.

The new MLP platform promises better handling due to a more balanced positioning of the engine, which might be what it takes to turn the Audi A4/S4/Rs4 into a proper big power sports saloon instead of just a normal sedan with a huge engine. Because of the different positioning, front and rear overhangs will be reduced, although this is not really very apparent on recent spyshots of the new A4 on test. Perhaps they have a longer overhang bumper slapped on for disguise purposes. The new B8 A4 will be only one inch longer than the current B7 A4, however wheelbase will increase a full 6 inches. That’s 5 inches of reduced overhang.

Related Posts:
2009 Audi A4 Spyshots
Audi A4 (B7) 1.8T Short Test Drive
Audi A4 (B7) 2.0T FSI Multitronic Test Drive

BMW is considering selling their engines to other car manufacturers who would like to use them in their cars. This new plan is spearheaded by new CEO Norbert Reithofer, in efforts to increase BMW earnings. BMW has already started doing engine sharing projects, like it’s turbocharged and normally aspirated 1.4 and 1.6 liter engines that are used in both BMW’s own MINI brand and some PSA Peugeot Citroen cars.

Earlier this year, BMW announced it would further collaborate with PSA on engines because of the success of the MINI engine collaboration. Something tells me the next engine BMW and PSA would somehow use together is the newly announced 4-cylinder twin turbodiesel engine.

It’s not that BMW has not done this before though, it probably only means such engine selling or development sharing projects will be done more often. The McLaren F1 has a BMW V12 engine in it, and Range Rovers have had BMW M62 V8 engines in them for quite some time, though not anymore in the latest versions.

A piece of news by Edmunds Inside Line carries some very bad news. Edmunds picked up the story of the government saying it will not be providing any financial bailout to Proton, whose cash reserves are expected to be depleted by early 2009 or so. What Edmunds has added on is what it’s heard from some government officials of Indonesia in Jakarta.

Edmunds reports that Volkswagen has abandoned Proton tie-up plans altogether, and will be looking at establishing a regional assembly plant in Indonesia instead, or tie-up with a local assembly partner in Indonesia.

Whichever it is, it looks like another Geely tragedy has happened - the NAP has chased away another potential investor to Indonesia. If what Edmunds says is true, the only way for Proton to partner up with Volkswagen somehow is jointly operating the PT Proton Tracoma plant in Indonesia. Perhaps that is why Proton bought out all 100% of PT Proton Tracoma shares back in January 2007?

Of course, the Edmunds article mentions no concrete sources, so we just have to hope, and hope, and hope… that something good will come out of all of this.

Source

Have you heard of Climb Dance? Climb Dance is an award-winning short film of about 5 minutes that documents Ari Vatanen’s record-breaking run at the 1988 annual Pike’s Peak Hill Climb Event in Colorado. The car used is a Peugeot 405 T16 with four-wheel-drive and four-wheel-steering. Footage from the video was recorded from cameras placed inside, in front, underneath and above the car, and cut together by Louis Mourey. Check out the video after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Climb Dance: Peugeot 405 T16 on Pikes Peak

Keyless entry systems may not be as cool as you think it is. At least, that’s what it’s turning out to be for some buyers of Nissan’s latest cars in the US that come standard with keyless entry systems. Some customers have found that cell phones kept near their Nissan Altima and Infiniti G35’s I-Keys can reprogram and damage the key, causing it to stop working.

“We discovered that if the I-Key touches a cell phone, outgoing or incoming calls have the potential to alter the electronic code inside the I-Key. The car won’t start and the I-Key cannot be reprogrammed,” warned Nissan spokesman Kyle Bazemore. He assured that owners who encounter this problem can get a new key from dealers, and an updated version of the I-Key which solves this problem will be available in Fall 2007.

Seriously, doesn’t the Nissan I-Key have a manual key integrated into it as well? For example, BMW’s keyless entry device has a little manual key integrated into it which you can pull out and use to unlock the doors and etc. Why the warning that it will “stop working”? It would be better to be teaching the public how to use the manual key to open and start their cars instead of just saying the car will be disabled. Plus this shows that insufficient testing was done before launching the product.

Autobild reported that Porsche will be building a smaller version of it’s Cayenne SUV based on the Audi Q5 and Volkswagen Tiguan, in a classic Porsche-VAG platform sharing tradition that was used with the Cayenne-Touareg-Q7 trio. There’s certainly a business case for this, as the Cayenne proved to be a financial success, though many have criticized Porsche for diluting it’s brand by developing an SUV, a far cry from the sports cars it was making.

While most of the time an automaker would just remain silent on such comments, Porsche has responded via Dow Jones Newswires that there are NO plans for a Porsche version of the Audi Q5.

The new face lifted BMW X3 is essentially a jacked up 3-Series station wagon with BMWs xDrive all-wheel-drive system. Bear in mind, not even the latest 3-Series even - just like how BMW dipped into the E39 parts bin when designing most of the previous generation X5, the BMW X3 takes most of its stuff from the E46 BMW 330xi.

Read my full test drive review after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of 2007 BMW X3 2.5si Facelift Test Drive Review

The Audi Q7 has been available in Malaysia since November 2006, with prices pegged at RM580,000 for the 3.0 liter TDI turbodiesel variant, and RM750,000 for the V8-powered Audi Q7 4.2 FSI Tiptronic. But as for it’s official launch, that just happened recently in the previous week. Prices are not exactly the same - the 3.0 TDI is now RM580,200, while the 4.2 TSI V8 is now pegged at RM750,200.

The Audi Q7 3.0 TDI is powered by a V6 turbodiesel that puts out 233 horsepower at 4,000rpm, and 500Nm of torque from between 1,750rpm to 2,750rpm. The V8 petrol variant makes 350 horsepower at 6,800rpm and 440Nm of torque at 3,500rpm. Yeah, this is not the same 4.2 V8 as the one in the Audi RS4, but a detuned, lower revving version. Check out more on the Audi Q7 through the links below.

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Audi Q7 SUV
Audi Q7 Hybrid Concept
Audi Q7 6.0 V12 TDI at Paris Motor Show

Remember the monstrous concept Volkswagen Golf GTI W12 650 you saw earlier? Sure, it looked cool, but there were no photos of the actual engine sitting in the rear of the car. Volkswagen has finally released images of the W12 engine sitting in it’s specially designed glassed off engine bay in the rear of the Golf GTI. Check out the vast carbon fibre surfaces.

More photos after the jump.

Related Posts:
Volkswagen Golf GTI W12 650 Concept

Click here to read the rest of Golf GTI W12 650 Engine Bay

German car magazine AutoBild has a very nice 75 photo gallery of the new BMW Concept CS along with other notable coupes in the history of BMW cars. The photographers over at AutoBild offers a view at the individual details on the Concept CS that we’ve not been able to see in the press photos available recently.

View Autobild’s Gallery

Related Posts:
BMW Concept CS revealed at Shanghai Motor Show
BMW likely to build production Concept CS