Ferrari to Audi

That's right, I totally forgot about that. Ferrari had arranged for Maserati to use the Audi Quattro system in the Quattroporte......

 

i don't think BMW would buy Ferrari and i also hope they never entertain the idea. BMW has a problem just keeping thier customers, recent poll shows BMW loosing 50% of its previous buyers to other brands. that has got to hurt. yeah I'm bitter and yes i also think BMW made some of the best cars for the price out there, but lately profit has ruined the name.

not sure about Audi becouse most all mfg's share technology, the lines have blured in the last 10yrs.

just my 2cents....

 

Did someone just whisper "Wal-Mart"?



-DC

 

HAHAHA!! Have you been in my stash again? MB is below the industry average as well, BMW is above it, and the only Euro lux/motorsport manufacturer that is independant to be above it too. They would be a far better in influencing reliability than MB.

 

So, why doesn't Ferrari go public and use the money to buy out Fiat. They can use the money and Ferrari would become "independent"

 

Agreed. MB quality has gone way down. You should have seen how they
were built before the 1980's. WOW. Why buy an SLK 32 with Crossfire
parts ? They have good power for the $$$. Just built differently now.

 

"Isolated experiences"? Not hardly. I purchased a brand new 1999 ML320 that was towed to the Mercedes dealer 8 times over 11 months. The "lemon law" went into effect and I got ANOTHER ML320 after much nastiness, this time a 2000 model, and it left my wife stranded 3 times - the last time 2 days before she gave birth to my first child. Nifty. After ANOTHER 18 months and many trips to the MB dealership, Mercedes got sick of seeing me so they GAVE me a brand new 2002 C320. It's an improvement over that American-made ML piece of junk, but VW and Audi (not to mention the jap sedans) are equal to, if not greater than, the quality of this Mercedes.

Mercedes today are not really Mercedes anymore. Just spiffed-up Chryslers with the three-point star instead of the five-pointer!

 

Well, on the bright side every Ferrari would be all-wheel-drive.

 

Yikes! That sucks. But that's just two cars... not hundreds... that's what I mean by "isolated".

HOWEVER, I just re-checked the latest reliability statistics... Mercedes has been falling like a rock... and yes, its arguably actually at or below Audi now... still above VW, but below Audi. Interestingly, Chrysler's actually doing better than all three of those German makes! Those three German makes do not have a single car that is even "average" reliability in its class. At least Chrysler has a few above average.

Sheesh. I wish there were enough numbers for Ferraris to show up in the stats... I think they'd do quite well against the European marques.

 

Uhh, that would be quite unfortunate!
AWD is for SUVs; RWD is for sportscars.

 

awd does not make for fun driving.. keep it on suvs!!!!

 

Yeah, I heard a car thats not Italian that starts with a 'L' that I cant say because someone will say its not Ferrari, jitters when your just crusing.

 

I dont think this is related, but FMOD is being bought by the local P/Audi dealer.(Boardwalk)

 

My mother works for an Audi dealer. Lets just say she would never own an Audi

Pete

 

There a beeyotch to vacum.

 

any model you like. the quality control on an a4 is better than an an s class merc--forget about the c class--awful!

don't believe me? just go sit in an a4 the sit in a c class. tha audi interior is MUCH nicer. fit and finish are better too.

we could do much worse than audi

 

brian--

what data are you relying on? jd powers #'s are similiar--consumer reports usually favors audi. vw jetta has been the top rated small car for consumer reports for the past several years.

don't like jetta or passat? test drive a camry or a taurus down your favorite country road!

 

brian-- do you REALLY think ferrari reliability would compare favorably with the germans you mention above? i love ferrari but i seriously doubt it. reliability is far from ferrari's finest trait.

btw you forgot to mention porsche--they are surpassed in reliability on the 3 yr jd powers survey only by lexus.

to me that would be the dream partner--porsche--quality control, reliability and profitability are all at the top of the car industry. i just don't know whether they're too small to buy ferrari or whether they are even interested.

 

I have an '85 380SL with 155,000 miles on it and I reckon it is a better car than the current crop of MBZs - wife and I went to an MBZ C-Class day here and they had all of the current cars there as well, and we weren't impressed. I have only paid a small fortune to REPAIR my Benz.....!!!

Cheers
Kevin

 

Yes, both of those. I wouldn't say CR usually favors Audi over MB... MB used to have very good reliability numbers in CR... but they've been tanking the past few years.

Huh? The only cars below the Jetta in CR's reliability numbers are the Beetle, the Golf, and at the very bottom the turbo Jetta (all VWs). The turbo Jetta is off the chart bad.

It is not a CR top pick... in fact, its not even "Recommended". It does rate mid-pack, boosted by pretty high safety ratings.

 

Check this or last month's CAR magazine. It's a strategic exchange, not a merger or a takeover. Ferrari is interested in Audi's AWD for the Maser Kubang. VW is interested in Maser's rear-wheel, sky-hook suspension. Other issues could arise but Fiat isn't in that much trouble, at least not yet.

 

Well, Ferrari has a bad rap from the 70's and 80's AND the fact that repairs are quite expensive. But the modern Ferraris seem to be fairly reliable (ignoring some of the little quirky stuff). HOWEVER, that's just based on my isolated visibility... basically Fchat-land. It would be interesting to have CR reliability data on Ferraris.

For me, my 360 has been much more reliable and solid than my 99 911; and just as solid as my 98 BMW M3. Totally isolated data though. However, I feel more comfortable driving my CS to Monterey than I would my 911. Makes me wonder what a proper survey would show regarding Ferrari.

Yes, Porsche is still looking good in the data. In CR data, they are roughly average (exceeded by much more than just Lexus). BMW is slipping a little (the 3 series is better than Porsche; but the 7 series is a nightmare on wheels). But the rest of the Germans are stinking up the place... getting stomped by the Americans... who are, in turn, getting stomped by the Japanese.


Brian

 

cr's porsche data is limited to the boxster.. no 911's. jd powers is a better source of information for 911's.

you unfortunately had the worst year for the 996--the first!

since 2002 996's are much better. i have a 2002 c4s with 35k mi thats never needed any unscheduled service. 996 turbo's are even more reliable.

i will look up vw in the current consumer reports. i haven't checked in a couple of years but it used to be at the top of the small car heap. vw's are certainly much more fun to drive than the japanese or u.s. competition.

 

Having worked seventeen years with BMW, then three years with Ferrari and now one year with Audi, I might be able to add a little.

BMW electronics have really caused a lot of problems in the past few years, including the 745LI. BMWNA bought back over 700 7 series cars in model year 2003 due to problems, mostly with the I-drive. BMW is attempting to widen their model offerings and create much larger sales numbers by increasing the variety of cars offered. I still have and drive daily my old 1986 325 and love it but I believe BMW is moving quickly away from the people who made the brand so popular and trying to be accepted more universally. The cars are losing their individuality and becoming more cookie cutter. Yes, some models can still thrill but as a total model line it is becoming lacking.

Ferrari is much more dependable than they have ever been. The electronics have improved immensely in the last 5 years. I also believe that dependability will increase more as time goes on. Unfortunately, some of the newer models due not have the flair of the older F cars. I too wish that Ferrari would come out with that all-out true exciting Italian sports car that only Ferrari can build.

Audi is becoming the most technologically advanced of the German car companies and has some exciting new products coming to add to the ones already being produced. The S4 will add a cabriolet next month. The RS6 will probably come in a couple of years with a detuned Gallardo V10 of over 500 HP. The Lemans Quattro is due in two, the Pikes Peak also in the same time frame ( 7 passenger SUV, over 500 hp and 0-60 mph in less than 5 seconds), the W12 A8L and several more.

Audi and Maserati were going to share the Audi Space Frame aluminum frame technology on the Kubang but I hear it may be shelved. Luca said several months ago that if that happened that Audi dealers might also be able to sell the Maser in the Audi showrooms. It would make a good fit as Audi does not have a high performance coupe since the Nuvolari concept is probably not going to happen. Also, the Quattroporte is much more the sports sedan than the A8L and the Maserati Spyder has a totally different personality than the Audi does. I believe it would really expose Maserati to a whole different audience than being offered exclusively thru Ferrari dealerships (yes, I know Park Place M/B in Dallas is now a Maser dealer). Putting the Quattro in the Kubang or any other Maser will really make them handle. If you have not driven the Quattro as opposed to regular AWD you should go check it out. It is not what you would expect. Ask Writerguy, he has had the opportunity to test many of them extensively and just recently had the S4 for an extended period of time.

I personally have not heard anything about the possibility of Audi buying Ferrari, especially since VW is drawing money off of Audi to help cover the losses that VW is suffering right now due to poor sales. I am sure that many people read into what Luca said about Audi dealers possibly selling Masers and wanted to believe that would mean an Audi buyout. I do not believe he meant to imply that at all, although with Audis success in Lemans style racing, I believe that the Motorsports end of Ferrari/Maserati would be left alone if Audi did acquire them.

Oh, and Brian, Audi quality has jumped from being in the bottom of the tank four years ago to #11 last year and now #5 this year. It has been bad but the trend is way up.

 

And that is where my Mums company is having all the issues. I believe the twin clutch gearbox thingy is causing problems, etc.

Anyway not my sort of car.

Pete