We spoke about the positioning of Audi relative to the other German car manufacturers. He acknowledge that Audi is number 3, right after MBZ and BMW. However MBZ is self destructing with their quality issues and their cars just do not handle well.

Audi is aiming straight for the BMW line and thinks that his products are at least on par if not better than the Beemer line. Audi's RS4 is superior to the M3, the S6 is comparable to the M5, and he said that the RS6 will blow the M5 out of the water. The A8 and S8 is challenging the 7 series in the luxury sedan market. They have the TT as the answer to the Z4, and the Q7 competes well with the X5.

From a design standpoint, he thinks that BMW's and MBZ's are all about the cars, rather than the drivers; and that the drivers have a certain stereotype. From Audi's viewpoint, they rather have a more subtle car that looks and performs well, and everyone walk away thinking, wow, that's a nice car and trying to figure out who the driver is rather than making the car more important.

We discussed the design and styling of the R8, their first entrance into the real super sportscar arena. His feeling was that they underpriced the car, but he got voted down. So now they are trying to establish exclusivity by producing only 180 for the US market, to make it rare.

The best news is that when I told him I am on the waiting list for an R8, he said he might have some pull to help me get one sooner So I got my fingers crossed!!!

Nice gentleman, I was pretty impressed by him, and there are alot of truth in what he's saying about the Audi line.