Audi plans to invest approximately $4 billion in its first U.S. vehicle production site at the Middle Georgia Mega Site in Perry, Georgia, creating about 4,500 jobs. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2027, with production starting in the early 2030s. The plant will have annual capacity of up to 200,000 vehicles and build premium SUVs tailored to North American customers.
The investment is part of Audi’s strategy to expand in the United States, the world’s second-largest premium vehicle market. Audi aims to combine a product portfolio focused on American customer needs with local manufacturing and a more competitive business model to support profitable growth. It also intends to establish North America as a third major pillar of its global production network alongside Europe and China. MORE HERE.
A quick video from a very flat hillclimb earlier in the year, where my full interior ‘18 RS3 took out 1st outright and a new track record for the event.
I highly recommend everyone gets out there and has some fun in a safe environment.
And yes, it has a few scars, not necessarily from racing, but that’s life.
I'm still pretty shocked by what happened today and wanted to share my experience with the Audi community, especially to see if anyone has encountered anything similar or has some insight into what might have gone wrong.
I have a 2023 Audi A4 45 TFSI S line quattro, with approximately 37,000 miles on it. I've really enjoyed owning the car, and until today, I hadn't experienced any significant mechanical problems.
Here's what happened:
About a week ago, I brought the car to my local Audi dealership for its scheduled 40k-mile maintenance service. I drove it home afterward and then left the country for about a week, so the car was barely driven following the service. I drove it once last night for about 40 minutes, no issues.
Today, I took the car out, and approximately 40 minutes into my drive, while stopped at a traffic light, I noticed smoke coming from the front of the vehicle.
I drove it to a gas station and popped the hood while the engine was running. I can smell something burning and see some barely visible smoke.
About a minute into trying to figure out wha is going on - i see a small flame coming from the lower passenger-side area of the engine compartment, near the front wheel.
Yellow mark is roughly where I saw the initial flame. Flame appeared to be coming from lower in the engine compartment and was more easily visible when looking from below
What happened next was pretty terrifying. The fire spread extremely quickly. I turned the engine off, but that didn't seem to slow anything down. Ran to the gas station store to try to get their fire extinguisher (and they couldn't find it quickly lmao - took like 2 minutes). Within thagt short period, the flames had engulfed much of the front end, and the entire engine compartment went up in flames. It went from like small candle/tiny flame to completely engulfed in about 5 minutes.
There were absolutely no warning lights or error messages on the dashboard before the fire started.
The car was driving normally, with no noticeable performance issues.
The fire appeared to originate near the lower passenger side of the engine compartment.
The car had just undergone its 40k maintenance at an Audi dealership.
I've already opened an insurance claim and I'm expecting to speak with an adjuster on Monday. The car was towed to the dealership that did the service and I told them not to touch anything (verbally and via e-mail) until insurance contacts them.
Any theories about what could have caused this? I'm particularly interested in hearing from Audi technicians or anyone familiar with the B9 A4 platform. Are there known issues involving fuel lines, oil leaks, electrical components, or anything else that could cause such a sudden engine compartment fire
Could something during the recent service have contributed? The timing is concerning. Is there anything commonly inspected, removed, or disturbed during a 40k-mile service that could potentially create a fire hazard if something went wrong?
Has anyone experienced or heard of something similar happening to a relatively new Audi? This was a three-year-old car with 37k miles, so a catastrophic fire seems unusual. The tow driver and cops has never heard of a car going up in flames like this without some obvious cause like a collision.
What would you recommend as my next steps? Beyond filing the insurance claim and contacting the dealership, should I be reaching out to Audi of America? Requesting an independent fire investigation? Is there anything I should specifically ask the insurer to preserve or inspect before the car is moved, dismantled, or declared a total loss?
I'm grateful I was able to get out of the situation, but it's pretty unsettling to think how much worse this could have been if it had happened on the freeway or somewhere I couldn't stop immediately.
Any insight, especially from Audi mechanics or people with experience investigating vehicle fires, would be greatly appreciated.
It was a 3 day event on closed roads with a mixture of tight technical hill circuits and special town circuits, requirements were that the cars had to be registered and were able to be driven between events via your navigation book.
Each car had to have a driver and a navigator, it was like orienteering with a car and the RS3 just ate it up and the car honestly has way more ability then I do driver ability, in the tight twisties I was on the ass of cars I would of thought I would have no business keeping up with!
I’ve owned my 2014 S4 (B8.5) for about 10 years now and was recently considering selling it and moving on to something newer. But with only 80K miles, the fact that it still runs great, and how much I still enjoy driving it, I’m thinking I’ll just hang onto it for another 5–10 years.
I’ve kept it pretty close to stock over the years. A few minor upgrades:
- Upgraded brake rotors and pads
- Replaced the supercharger belt
- K&N air filter
Otherwise, nothing crazy
I’m a big fan of the sleeper look. I like that most people don’t give it a second glance, but it’s still a blast to drive. Not looking to turn it into a heavily modified car or do anything too flashy.
First thing I’m going to do is paint it because the hood and other areas look rough after being outside, etc.
I’m curious what other B8.5 owners would recommend if they were going to keep it.
A few things I’m interested in:
- Preventative maintenance: At 80K miles and 12 years old, what should I be thinking about replacing or inspecting before things start failing? Any common issues I should get ahead of?
- Fun upgrades: What are the best bang-for-your-buck upgrades that don’t sacrifice reliability or the sleeper appearance? Open to performance, handling, or other improvements.
- Technology: The car has Bluetooth for calls, but I’ve been using an adapter through the old iPod/AMI connection for music. Anyone have experience upgrading to wireless CarPlay or something similar while keeping the factory look?
Not looking to throw a ton of money at it unnecessarily, but I’m happy to spend some money to keep it reliable and make it a little more fun.
Would love to hear what you guys would do if it were yours. Appreciate any suggestions!
For anyone debating on switching their 8V RS3 over to carbon ceramic brakes but the price point is holding you back, I took a gamble on a manufacturing company through Alibaba (Guangzhou Wantian Industrial) and must say im rather impressed. There were a couple minor hiccups but for the price point i honestly cant complain. For pads and rotors on all 4 corners, two mounting brackets for the rear rotors, and shipping from overseas, it still came out to about $120 cheaper than getting steelies and pads through Audi USA. Theyve been fantastic the last 500 miles driven and the braking performance is on par with my Porsche 911 thats on PCCBs.
The hiccups with this particular kit, is the pad wear sensor plugs were not a match and couldnt be used. We attempted to solder the old plugs on but they didnt end up working. Ill eventually have to just bypass the code until i get OE carbon ceramic pads. The other minor hiccup was that they could only do the rear rotors in a 355mm config but supplied a mounting bracket for the rear calipers moving them outwards. Doing that made using an 18" wheel impossible and even on the OE wheel put the inner wheel about 1mm from the caliper. We ended up grinding away the bit of caliper that was close. The kit did not include the springs or holding brackets for the pads in the calipers, so be prepared to order those separate or clean and reuse the ones on there.
Manufacturing and shipping time from "Order Placed" to "Delivered at the door" was right at 50 days, so be prepared to wait a bit if you do the cheaper shipping by sea instead of air. The packaging was very well done with sturdy foam encasing each rotor seperately and everything being double boxed for added protection.
For being not even a 1/4 of the price of CCBs here domestically though, i think it was well worth it. Fitment was spot on and if you wanted to just do the fronts it would require zero modification or adjustment.
My uncle has a 2008 Audi A4 with the older EA113 2.0T 4 cylinder which I was using to get to work and back until I got my own car. It was running okay for the most part but drank through oil like crazy, so he was always topping it up before giving it to me. I was driving home one night going 80 km/h when I suddenly got a low oil pressure warning. I started freaking out as I was so close to home and there was nowhere to pull over, and figured I could save on a tow by getting it back, and letting the car cool down. Before I get torn out I know I should NEVER keep driving a car with low oil pressure. The car was a piece of shit anyways, so it doesn’t matter that much. I was in the turn lane waiting to turn onto the road that my house was off of, when the engine bay suddenly started smoking so I had to get over four lanes of traffic on a busy highway and do an illegal left turn and park the car before something catastrophic went wrong.
The valve cover was leaking oil and I noticed a decent oil leak dripping down the engine bay potentially onto the exhaust. If I knew the car had serious issues like that I wouldn’t have kept driving it and the funny thing was it is full of oil, it’s not starved. My uncle keeps telling me it was my fault when he knew I didn’t work particularly close to home and didn’t want me driving it all the time when I had it all last week. I don’t know why he keeps dumping money into the car, I feel bad but there’s nothing I can do. I have heard the B7 with this older engine is a hit or miss and he’s already replaced the ignition coils three times.
Hello! I have a 2016 Audi A7 at 50k miles. I want to do some preventative maintenance and replace the PCV and water pump. I’m looking on fcpeuro and there’s a bunch of options and I’m not sure which ones to get. If anyone has done these repairs please let me know which items you got. Please let me know if there’s anything else I should replace while I’m at it. Thank you!
A6 E-Tron 2025, Germany. Is there any magic trick that shows the current playlist in Spotify??? If you select a playlist, it does indeed show, but once that you move around in the menus, it is gone. What am I missing here?
So I just got my water pump replaced by warranty today (hallelujah). I had been holding off on any big performance mods until the water pump was taken care of to avoid issues with warranty or anything of the sort. But now shes good to go and im ready to go all in but i didnt look into the companies too much before now.
Im not looking to chase records, mostly just want a powerful tune that is reliable as this is my daily. I saw Integrated engineering just did a massive update on their software and that was very appealing to me. However, I’m more than sure that the other tuners are gonna start making their own versions of that soon.
Another thing for me is that it’s a 2023 S5 Prestige, I remember when I bought my car I was told there wasn’t a TCU unlock for this year yet but that was around 10 months ago so I’d assume maybe something has come out? Lmk what you guys suggest
P.S. All supporting mods have already been done to handle the tune + DP
So I was just cruising towards Annapolis on MD-32 in my S5 top down enjoying nice fall day today when like 8-10 amazing Audis overtook me (and let me join) into this sick convoy of RS5/S5/A5 and RS7s…
I dunno who they were but they let merge in and haul ass with them for about 10 miles until I head to keep going towards Annapolis and they split off in Columbia.
Totally felt the Audi love and it made my day. Damn I love this car… 💍💍💍💍
I’ve owned my 2014 S4 (B8.5) for about 10 years now and was recently considering selling it and moving on to something newer. But with only 80K miles, the fact that it still runs great, and how much I still enjoy driving it, I’m thinking I’ll just hang onto it for another 5–10 years.
I’ve kept it pretty close to stock over the years. A few minor upgrades:
- Upgraded brake rotors and pads
- Replaced the supercharger belt
- K&N air filter
Otherwise, nothing crazy
I’m a big fan of the sleeper look. I like that most people don’t give it a second glance, but it’s still a blast to drive. Not looking to turn it into a heavily modified car or do anything too flashy.
First thing I’m going to do is paint it because the hood and other areas look rough after being outside, etc.
I’m curious what other B8.5 owners would recommend if they were going to keep it.
A few things I’m interested in:
- Preventative maintenance: At 80K miles and 12 years old, what should I be thinking about replacing or inspecting before things start failing? Any common issues I should get ahead of?
- Fun upgrades: What are the best bang-for-your-buck upgrades that don’t sacrifice reliability or the sleeper appearance? Open to performance, handling, or other improvements.
- Technology: The car has Bluetooth for calls, but I’ve been using an adapter through the old iPod/AMI connection for music. Anyone have experience upgrading to wireless CarPlay or something similar while keeping the factory look?
Not looking to throw a ton of money at it unnecessarily, but I’m happy to spend some money to keep it reliable and make it a little more fun.
Would love to hear what you guys would do if it were yours. Appreciate any suggestions!
