Why Audi Is Going to Beat Mercedes

Buried in Audi of America's 2007 sales report is a lofty -- if vague -- goal: to become "the most successful premium brand by 2015." But what's interesting is the company's not talking sales (though it expects them to double in that time). It's talking image and prestige. It wants to outsnob Mercedes.

While the report doesn't offer any particulars, you can suss out a strategy from Audi's most recent press releases. First, there are the überpretentious accessories. For instance, if you want a high-end stereo in your car, BMW gives you Harman-Kardon, while Audi gives you a Bang & Olufsen system with motorized tweeters that rise up out of the dash.

Then there is supply and purity. The new BMW M3 convertible will soon be as common in south Florida as sixteen-dollar martinis, but Audi's building only three hundred RS4 Cabriolets for the U. S. You get your hands on one of those and you're Somebody. The R8, meanwhile, is a full-fledged mid-engine supercar with no BMW or Mercedes equivalent. And while BMW and Mercedes both build certain models in the U. S., all Audis are screwed together in the Fatherland by real live Germans.

Even Audi's new signature styling theme -- icy-white LED running lights below the headlights -- gives the front end of its cars a distinct get-the-hell-out-of-my-way attitude that clearly declares Audi's intentions. Is all of this enough to beat BMW and Mercedes -- not to mention Porsche -- at their own game? Ask again in seven years.