Fuel economy figures

The report says that on the road, cars rarely come near government figures, and use up to two or three litres per 100km more than the new car rating.
Editor of The Dog and Lemon Guide, Clive Matthew-Wilson, said during a test of a new Toyota FJ Cruiser, he achieved an average fuel consumption readout of 14L/100km, a few litres short of the government rating of 11.4L/100km. Mr Matthew-Wilson said,

“Around town – which is where most of these vehicles will spend their days – the fuel consumption will be over 18L/100km. That’s nearly 60 percent higher than the so-called average figure quoted by the government.”

Mr Matthew-Wilson says it’s not confined to large cars either. He says hybrids are often presented to be much more efficient than they are in the real world.

“According to the BBC, government fuel consumption figures for hybrids are often out by around 30 percent, and our own tests confirm that. The government website says that the Prius uses an average of 3.9L/100km. In the real world, independent tests have shown the Prius uses an average of 5.3L/100km.”
It’s an interesting topic being argued here. Many buyers looking for a new car use the government figures as a serious factor in the car selection process. Most buyers do not realise that these figures have been provided under laboratory conditions, and not under normal day-to-day driving conditions.

Audi TT RS tested by Car and Driver

Audi R8 Spyder 5.2 V10 FSI, the magazine managed a 0-60 time of 3.7 seconds. That's supercar territory, which is to be expected of a $165,00 Audi with 525 horsepower and all-wheel-drive.

The 2012 Audi TT RS should hit dealer lots this summer, with a much more reasonable Monroney somewhere in the $60,000 territory. The hot coupe features "only" 335 horsepower from its turbocharged 2.5-liter five-cylinder engine, so it shouldn't even come close to challenging the V10-packing R8 from 0-60, right? According to C/D, the TT RS can do more than just "challenge" the R8 Spyder, as the little hatch managed to hit 60 mph in a blistering 3.6 seconds (note: C/D conducts acceleration testing with a rollout). That's quicker than the R8 and a lot of very expensive Porsche 911 variants. Could this stupendous performance be an aberration?

T-Mobile Announced As Data Provider

For those of us who have already been reading seemingly endless reports and speculation about the proposed merging of operations of two major U.S. cellular providers, it was hard not to see Audi's apparently-only-ill-timed release as that.

Audi gave the official nod to T-Mobile as its official U.S. service provider for its Audi Connect navigation and infotainment system—the day after it was announced that cellular provider AT&T had offered to buy T-Mobile from Deutsche Telekom for $39 billion.
The automaker says that it chose T-Mobile for its reliable network, leadership in telematics, and strong record for customer satisfaction. Of course, that latter assurance now...well...needs some new assurance.

Last month, Audi revealed that the Internet connection the A8 gets uses that new LTE data connectivity standard, which allows higher data-transfer speeds of up to 100 Mbits per second—more than six times faster than standard 3G. The speed could in theory be used to stream video to the vehicle.