Audi - Progression Through Technology
Audi is another in a long history of German automobile makers. The Germans seem to produce car companies at the drop of a hat. Their headquarters are at Ingolstadt, Bavaria. Audi is a wholly owned subsidiary of the famous Volkswagen company. Audi’s catch phrases or slogans are “progression through technology” and “never follow”.
Audi did not have the happiest of beginnings. Audi was first started in 1899 by August Horch and was not called Audi at that time. It was, of course, called Horch Automobiles and the first car rolled off the very primitive production line in 1901.
Horch was forced out of the company that he started and was forced to start a new company called Audi, which is latin for Horch in 1910. He took the same styles and designs he previously used at Horch and continued to manufacture cars.
The modern era of Audi has been one of its most productive eras with some of the best designs coming out on the market. The first modern Audi was the Audi 100 which was made in 1968. This design and later designs were very conservative.
This was of course also the era of the Quattro. This was Audi’s first venture into the military, auto racing sports performance market. The Quattro was one of the first turbocharged coupe’s to be designed that also had full time all wheel drive.
Audi cars took a major dip in sales in the late 80’s and early 90’s to the point where they almost pulled out of the US market all together. This slump was caused by 2 things. Some basic design flaws in the new Audi 80 series and a damning report by US television show 60 Minutes. Sales took off however in 1996 with the release of the Audi A4.
Audi also plays a big part in the auto racing industry. This started off in rallying with the Quattro and has progessed through the years to touring cars. They are also even creating a car for the new Le Mans series that is scheduled for 2007.