1986 Honda Trx350 4x4 Gas Fuel Tank on 2040-parts.com

Audi A6 allroad 3.0 TDI is the five millionth Audi with quattro 4WD

The first Audi qauttro hit the headlines in 1980 and now – 33 years later – Audi has produced its five millionth car with AWD – an A6 Allroad. It’s thirty years since Audi became the first mainstream car maker to offer a four wheel drive road car when the Audi quattro hit the road, offering a (certainly for then) fulsome 200PS with the added reassurance of four wheel drive for added grip. True, others had flirted with 4WD road cars before Audi made it mainstream, such as Jensen with the FF in the 1960s, but Audi’s bold move was a real first for a mainstream maker, even if the Audi quattro was not exactly an entry-level model.

Mercedes GLA – the A-Class SUV – will arrive in production guise at Frankfurt

The production version of the Mercedes GLA Concept (pictured) will debut at Frankfurt 2013 It’s only three months since the new Mercedes GLA debuted at the Shanghai Motor Show as a concept, but it’s already close to arriving in production guise. In fact, it looks like the new GLA – based on the new Mercedes A-Class underpinnings – will arrive in production form at next month’s Frankfurt Motor Show, ahead of going on sale in early 2014. The new GLA is aimed squarely at the competition from the BMW X1 and Audi Q3, and if it delivers as well as the A-Class has it stands a very good chance of becoming the pick of the premium compact SUVs.

New VW Beetle gets new engines

Volkswagen has finally made the new VW Beetle available with the 2.0 litre TSI petrol and 2.0 litre turbodiesel engines. When we reported the other day that the new VW Beetle Convertible was arriving at the Los Angeles Auto Show in November we did say that VW were about to announce the arrival, finally, of the 2.0 litre TSI petrol and 2.0 litre TDI diesel for the Beetle to make it a bit more appealing. It seems VW must have been listening as they’ve now announced that you can grab a new Beetle with either the more powerful petrol or the diesel engine, which should help sales of the new Beetle.