2012 Audi A6

-Audi's A6 has a got lot more interesting. It was always kind of the neither-here-nor-there car in their line. Great car, sells well, but neither the luxury of the 8, or the nimbleness of a 4 or a 3, or the sporting pretensions of an R8. It was kind of a, you know, sober Audi. But it's gotten really well equipped now. This is an all-new version. Although it doesn't look dramatically different, notice it's got a shorter rump, a little longer front, so it gives it a more rakish sporting look. Underneath, it's based on the 7, one of the very new Audis that is a really hot-looking car; little more space and volume all around. We're also seeing 3 familiar engines here: a 3.2 V6; a 4.2 V8; or a 3-liter supercharged V6. Inside, quite a bit of revising of the dash; notice this kind of horizon band across the top of the instrument panel. We've got a little different sculpting here of the center stuff. Quite a bit of LCD; it's been pushed out right up against the speedo and the tach. And, of course, we've got a really nice push and swivel screen right here that is controlled by Audi's familiar MMI interface. Notice this I'm seeing now. Borrowed from the A8, you've got the touchpad here which we've shown you before. That can be used to draw letters on the screen, or in this case, point to radio presets, what have you--very cool Audi-only stuff. Even bigger news is this: Audi A6 Hybrid. First time Audi's had a hybrid in the sedan or a passenger car. There is a Q5 Hybrid. This will use the same powertrain; 2-liter, little tiny, little turbo gas engine hooked up to a 45-horsepower electric motor. Now, one of the things they did, come on back here, was to put a big old kludgy battery in the trunk. This is called a retrofit, folks, not a completely re-engineered platform. Now, if you can put up with that sacrifice, you're gonna get some interesting numbers. This thing is supposed to be doing about 38 combined mpg. For a big-ish with a whole lot of luxury goods rammed in, that's a nice number, and we'll be looking for this guy hopefully sometime in 2012. The distribution plans aren't firm. That base A6 with any of its conventional engines, that'll be happening late 2011.