old/new Audi coparisons

[Phil Payne]

> I think it is important to not forget what Audi was trying to do in the
> eighties and nineties.  When the 5000 came out, it was marketed as direct
> competition for, and priced to compete with, Mercedes.  BMW was just getting
> the wind in its sails for "up market" cars, and Mercedes was THE symbol of
> top end European, high priced cars.

Very different here in Germany.  The Type 44 gave both Daimler and BMW a terrible shock - not just because it was entering their
preserve but because it was doing so with such an incredibly economical car.  Where you get a free tank of gas with every hamburger
this might not be an issue.  Over here people will come up and tap on the driver's window if you sit waiting outside a shop for your
passenger with the engine running.  It wasn't just the cost - the forests started dying, too.  And all of a sudden you could keep
your luxury without being perceived as a planet-killer.

There are memos extant from the time about the councils of war that the others had in a mad panic.

--
  Phil Payne
  http://www.isham-research.com
  +44 7785 302 803
  +49 173 6242039