BMW’s Phil Horton made a comment that indirectly states Audi is cheapening their brand by sharing parts bins with Volkswagen. It’s been something that BMW owners have held over the heads of Audi owners for many years. Audi’s Australian director Uwe Hagen has publicly spoken out again this stating that it’s more about the buying power than the quality of the parts used. He went on to point out that Porsche is using an Audi supplied diesel engine in the Cayenne. However, the Porsche implementation and tuning is up to the Porsche engineers. 

Each companies engineers use the parts in distinctive ways to provide a different identity while keeping costs at a minium. The costs of producing cars for North American is something that Audi and other German Car makers have been struggling with. Audi has even moved away from allowing customers the option of al-a-carte ordering of their vehicles options and moved to a structured packaging of: Premium, Premium Plus and Prestige for North American buyers. With the continuing growth of the Volkswagen Auto Group, their buying power may allow them to the option of providing North America with more models and options. Continue reading ‘Audi to BMW: Don’t call us VW’