Depreciation is one of the worst nightmares for fleet managers across the globe. Car leasing and other auto finance options like contract hire, lease purchase and hire purchase are solution to this problem. In short, when you lease a car you will pay a set monthly fee for something that is depreciating.

It is arguable that car leasing is not as good as it seems, paying for something that is not actually yours and is loosing value either way might not sound like the brightest idea. But there are other benefits that make car leasing for business owners more attractive than actually buying a new one.

First you can renew your fleet every 2 to 4 years depending on your leasing contract, monthly payments are on average 40% lower than a normal car loan, there is no need for huge up-front deposit, just to highlight a few.

Now that the benefits of business car leasing are highlighted I will get down to the real purpose of this article. Here is a list of what I think are the best Audi Models business owners and fleet managers alike should consider leasing.

Audi A3

Offering one of the most extensive variety of models from all the Audi range the Audi A3 has all the practical benefits a company car should have. The Audi A3 offers luxury combined with sportiviness mixed with the latest fuel efficiency technologies developed by Audi, not to mention the lowest CO2 emissions rates in the premium segment. Audi A3 leasing prices start at around £240 a month.

Audi A4

Another vehicle from Audi with an extensive range of models that go from the traditional saloon all the way to ultra-sportiviness of the RS family. The Audi A4 boasts modern, ultra-stylish looks and advanced technology. Audi’s traditions of perfect performance, luxurious interiors and high safety levels are perfectly displayed on the Audi A4. Leasing an Audi A4 starts at around £300 a month.

Audi A5

For many, the Audi A5 revolutionised the whole Audi Range. Never a model received so many variants in such a short period of time. In less than 3 years the Audi A5 range was extended all the way to newly launched Audi RS5, including two cabriolet versions, A5 and S5. The Audi A5 is the ideal vehicle for the new generation of young business owners who are looking for an executive mid-size vehicle that has all the luxurious features of bigger models with the power and performance of a sports car. Leasing an Audi A5 could cost as little as £350 a month.

Audi A6

The Audi A6 offers unrivalled beauty, cutting edge technology and the powerfulness a high-end business man vehicle should have. In all areas, from styling, performance and handling to value, safety and environmental responsibility, it simply excels. Depending on the year and model you could lease an Audi A6 for only £329 a month.

Audi A8

One of the most luxurious saloons in the world, a car perfectly made for business men that are on the move constantly. Equipped with all the latest Audi driving enhancing technologies the Audi A8 redefines luxury and comfort in the premium segment. The new Audi A8L W12 has definitely set new luxury standards with its reclinable back seats that provide more space for the rear passengers not to mention the optional factory installed WLAN hotspot for Wi-Fi access. Leasing an Audi A8 for your business could cost a bargain of only £629 a month.

To learn more about Audi Lease & Audi Contract hire and other Audi Finance options please contact Audi Nationwide or follow us on Twitter

Audi drivers can expect to pay considerably less to insure their cars than owners of equivalent models from the German premium sector brands, according to data sourced from the Association of British Insurers (ABI) group ratings database.

Managed by the Motor Insurance Repair Research Centre in Thatcham on behalf of the ABI and Lloyds Syndicates, the insurance group ratings database has been updated monthly with new car insurance rating data since the 1980s, and includes all trim levels, variants, body styles and engine types. This data has been used to calculate average insurance group ratings for Audi models and their equivalents wherever applicable from German premium sector competitors. In virtually every range, Audi models post considerably lower average ratings than competitors, meaning that owners will generally pay lower insurance premiums.

These ratings are defined using a system which allocates penalty points to each vehicle based on a number of factors, including the purchase price, the cost of key parts and the ease, and cost, of repair following an independent crash test undertaken by the Research Council for Automobile Repairs (RCAR).

The higher the outright purchase price or parts and labour charges, and the more costly and labour intensive the crash repair, the higher the points tally, and consequently the higher the insurance group rating.

Crucial security performance
Security performance is of course also a critical factor in determining each rating, and four British Insurance Vehicle Security Awards and three What Car? Magazine Security Awards for ‘Best Overall Manufacturer’ attest to Audi expertise in this area. Held by Audi for four consecutive years since 2006, the top BIVSA award for ‘Best Overall Manufacturer’ highlights the fact that the brand offers more ranges in which every variant has achieved the maximum five star rating for ‘theft of’ security and of at least four stars for ‘theft from’ security than any other entrant.

Award-winning security protection is achieved right across the Audi range through features including Thatcham Category 1 alarm and immobiliser technology with interior ultrasonic protection and anti-tow sensors, Thatcham Category 4 locking wheel bolts and extensive covert and overt marked parts.

To learn more about Audi Lease & Audi Contract hire and other Audi Finance options please contact Audi Nationwide or follow us on Twitter

With effect from Tuesday May 25, retail prices for most models within the UK Audi range will increase as a result of prevailing currency exchange rates. Their impact has necessitated an average rise of around two per cent, which in some cases will be partially offset by specification improvements.

New customer orders placed up to, and including, May 24 will be fixed at currently advertised 2010 Model Year prices.

Among the core models in the Audi range, the three-door A3 and five-door A3 Sportback hatchbacks are subject to an increase of 1.9 per cent, the A4 Saloon and Avant rise by 2.4 per cent (in SE form) and the Audi A6 Saloon and Avant by 2.0 per cent.

Audi A5 Sportback, Coupe and Cabriolet models increase by 2.5 per cent, 2.4 per cent and 2.2 per cent, Audi Q5 and Audi Q7 by 2.0 per cent and 0.6 per cent, TT Coupe and Roadster by 0.9 per cent and Audi R8 V8 and Audi R8 V10 by 3.0 per cent. Recently announced prices for the A1 hatchback, the R8 Spyder, the RS 5 Coupe and the A8 remain as before.

In a number of cases the increases go hand-in-hand with improvements. The TT range, for example, has been visually enhanced for the 2011 Model Year, and features a newly introduced and significantly more efficient Turbo FSI petrol engine and recuperation technology that boosts economy virtually across the board. The Q5 adds an engine start-stop system for four-cylinder models that also works in favour of improved fuel economy, and the Audi Q7 is revitalised by even more frugal new petrol and TDI engines and a new eight-speed tiptronic transmission.

For Audi lease and contract hire for company cars contact Audi Nationwide.

The Audi A6 long-term quality and reliability has been confirmed for the second year in a row by the Faults Report 2010 published by the inspection company DEKRA. Audi’s business sedan was awarded the title “Best of all Classes” with a score of 88.1%.

DEKRA Faults Report awards the models with the lowest fault rate over a high mileage, thus rewarding high long-term quality. Besides the fact that this special evaluation is an excellent marketing for the question in question, but also provides buyers with an important purchase guide.

For the first time DEKRA is also awarding cars with the lowest fault rate overall. With 97.3% the Audi A4 came second grabbing another accolade for the Ingolstadt carmakers.

Earlier this year the Audi A6 also landed the top spot in the ADAC breakdown statistics in the prestigious field of the “Upper Midsize/Full-Size” segment, reassuring even further the A6’s long term quality.

To make it even more tempting for companies, Audi offers exclusive finance options, Audi A6 leasing and contract hire options.

As an Audi dealer we are a bit suspicious of affirming that the Audi A6 is the ideal company car. So why not share your thoughts and opinions with us? Is the Audi A6 the ideal Audi company car?

Up until now the auto industry has never seen an award with a judging team of only women. Over the past year, eight female motoring writers from around the world have tested 21 cars from the short list.

These awards had four main categories: Women’s World Family Car of the Year, World Sports Car of the Year, World Economy Car of the Year and World Luxury Car of the Year.

The judging criterion was nice and simple: judges are asked to vote according to the criteria women utilise when buying a car. Thus safety, value-for-money, aesthetic appearance, storage space, child–friendliness, ease-of-driving, colour, sex appeal and environmental footprint are all categories the judges will be analysing.

Audi had two models listed among the 21 selected vehicles. The Audi A6 was competing in the luxury car category where it came second while the Audi TTS was named Women’s World Sports Car of the Year after beating some high calibre competitors.

Certificates will be awarded to individual category winners and to the supreme winner early in 2010. The certificates have been designed by Bob Child of graphic design company Peartree Studios in Colerne, Somerset, England.

Progress through technology has not only been Audi’s ad strapline but has also been the company’ working philosophy since its creation back in 1909. Since then, Audi has contributed to a number of milestones for the auto industry.

Over the past decade, Audi has revolutionised the auto industry with a number of technological advancements that prove performance and efficiency can be combined without sacrificing one or the other.

When Audi’s engineers develop a new technology, they have only one thing in mind: increase vehicle efficiency without sacrificing performance – hence Audi Space Frame and the ultra-precise S-tronic transmission.

ASF (Audi Space Frame) is an innovative way to build a vehicle’s body with a lightweight high-strength aluminium frame that gives a car outstanding safety, excellent performance and phenomenal efficiency, while the S-tronic transmission – with its shorter gear changes increase fuel efficiency and reduce CO2 emissions – combines the agility and responsiveness of a manual gearbox with the convenience of an Automatic.

With the TDI engines, Audi simply redefined the diesel engine; with its unique common rail system for more efficiency and power delivering better performance along with a 15% reduction in fuel consumption while the TFSI engines where the first to combine petrol direct injection and turbocharging to provide greater power with reduced fuel consumption.

On the new TDIe engines, the ‘e’ stands for efficient. These engines are without a doubt the most efficient diesel engines in the world and it’s already on the roads running models such as the Audi A6 2.0 TDIe and the Audi A4 2.0 TDIe (with remarkable CO2 emissions of only 139g/km, resulting in an annual road tax of just £120 and a competitive 18% company car tax rating).

Audi is cleaning up the premium sector with its highly efficient models. The new Audi A3 1.6 TDI has the lowest CO2 emissions in its class with just 109g/km. For Audi, good efficiency means low emissions and low emissions means cheaper road tax, making the A3 range one of the best choices for a company car. Add that to the Audi contract hire and leasing options you can potentially save thousands of pound each year.

One of Audi’s most innovative and economy focused technologies is the Recuperation Technology, which recycles the energy used to brake to lighten the engine’s load reducing fuel consumption by up to 3%. Already making the difference in models like the new Audi A8 and the next gen of Audi A3s.

As you can see, Audi follow the “Vorsprung Durch Technik” strapline from the design to the quality inspection process each vehicle goes through. Such attention to detail coupled with a genuine environmental concern has earned Audi a series of awards over the years. The most recent high-profile accolade going to the Audi A3, which has been named 2009 Green Car of the Year by the Green Car Journal. Another massive award coming from What Car? Magazine, who have given the title of “Most efficient luxury car” to the A8 2.8 FSI.

Now its time for you to have your say about Audi highly efficient models, if you had to choose which Audi model would you crown the most Highly Efficient of them all?

First one comes from Wards magazine and wardsauto.com, for the fourth consecutive year. Audi’s 2.0 TFSI turbocharged engine came first on Ward’s 10 Best Engines, considered by many as the “Oscars” of automotive engine awards.

The award honours the engine’s excellence, taking in consideration a series of factors like efficiency and technological innovations. Audi AG’s new generation of 2.0-litre TFSI turbocharged 4 cylinder engines had little trouble in winning this years awards thanks to small but highly effective innovations including an optimised turbocharger; variable exhaust-valve-lift technology; revised electronic controls; a lower compression ratio (9.6:1 vs. 10.3:1) and refined internal components.

Meanwhile, down under in Australia Audi celebrate a triple triumph at the 2009 Australian Best Car Awards. The Audi Q5 3.0 TDI was named “Best Luxury 4WD” while the Audi TTs TFSI won for the second in the “Best Luxury Sports Car” category and the trifecta was completed with the Audi A6 Sedan 3.0 TFSI Quattro claiming the title of Best Luxury Car.

Last week, Audi just added two new accolades to its collection, the first comes from the biggest internet poll in the automotive industry, the online auto portal “AutoScout24″ conducted its 8th Internet Auto Award and guess what, Audi achieved an amazing total of four first places.

The Audi A3 defended its title in compact class and finished top for the second year in a row, while the Audi A4 reigned in the midsize class. In the upper midsize class the Audi A6 knocked down some tough competition to finish first and last but not least the Audi R8 topped the sports cars and coupe category.

The Autoscout24 poll is aimed to find Europe’s most popular cars, the voting was carried out in several languages, voter could choose from 331 vehicles in 9 categories and over 250,000 votes were computed.

Meanwhile the assembly line for the Audi A3 and Audi A3 Sportback won the Automotive Lean Production Award for streamed line production processes and exemplary excellence via efficient and economical approaches.

If you want to find out what is Audi’s secret to such a highly efficient assembly line don’t miss our next post were we’ll look into detail at the Audi A3 assembly process.

As Peter Kössler, Plant Manager at the Audi Ingolstadt site said:

“Today’s state of the art is only temporary – tomorrow we will be even better.”

A lovely review of the Audi A6 quattro:

“It’s a bit of a wolf in sheep’s clothing, the Audi A6 3.0 T quattro. Here you have a tidy, well-finished, mid-sized sedan of slightly conservative appearance doing a claimed 5.9sec sprint to 100km/h.

I’m not going to say much about the Audi’s interior at this point. Suffice to say it’s class-leading in most respects – that’s not news. The roominess of the A6 makes it even more pleasant. Leg, head and elbow room are all ample and comfort levels speak for themselves.”

For full specifications of the executive Audi A6’s available here at Audi Nationwide please visit the website.

To prove Audi’s success in Germany, the Audi A4 Salon is the top selling premium salon, its big brother the Audi A6 also reigns in its segment while the Audi TT was crowned Germany’s best selling sports car and on top of all that, does a 13th consecutive year record growth say anything?

To mark this special birthday, Audi prepared an Events Calendar to celebrate its 100th anniversary with events spread out throughout the year.

To praise Audi’s 100th anniversary we prepared a collection of new wallpapers with some classic models from Audi and the extinguished Auto Union, right now you can download the wallpaper of the 1939 Auto Union Type D, also available is the Audi Q5 Custom Concept wallpaper and many more, visit our Audi Downloads page and choose your favourite Audi Model.

From now till the big day on the 16th of July, the exact date Audi will turn 100 years old, we’ll be uploading more wallpapers for you to download, so stay tuned here at Audi Nationwide’s Blog for more.