Are you ready to write a check for a true German luxury sedan stunner? If so, you’ll surely be interested to hear that pricing has arrived for the 2011 Audi A8. Base MSRP for this Bavarian beauty is $78,050 including all extra charges, which puts it squarely between its two main rivals: the Mercedes-Benz S-Class ($87,950) and the BMW 7 Series ($70,150). The long-wheelbase A8L starts at $84,000 and both versions will be in dealer showrooms starting late November 2010.

It’s an enticing price for the finest luxury sedan to wear four rings. The all-new A8 packs brand new features into a sleek body wrapped around a wonderful 4.2-liter V8 engine. The car and engine work so well together that the A8’s 17 mile per gallon city/27 mpg highway rating put it right next to the Mercedes-Benz S400 Hybrid in the fuel economy category. Those figures are also enough to surpass the I6, V8 and Hybrid versions of the 7 Series.

No word yet on how many organs we need to sell to purchase the W12-equipped A8.

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As if we needed another reason to salivate over the delicious little Audi A1. The Four Ring’d One has just announced that it will pull the sheets off of a new, hopped-up version of its tiniest hatch at this year’s Paris Motor Show. Here’s the important part: under the hood, there’s a 185-horsepower dual-charged 1.4-liter four-cylinder engine with 185 lb-ft of torque. That’s right, this machine makes use of both a supercharger and a turbocharger, and as a result, Audi says that its new A1 1.4 TFSI can scoot to 60 mph in a quick 6.9 seconds.

By way of salting the wound even further, Audi says that the meanest of the A1 breed returns around 40 mpg U.S., effectively making the Honda CR-Z look both lethargic and overtly wasteful. A seven-speed DSG gearbox handles shifting duties and likely helps with that massive fuel economy number. Quattro all-wheel drive is still not available, however.

European buyers can expect to see the brawny A1 by the end of this year, where it will carry a price tag of around $31,500 at current conversion rates (though the included EU taxes inflate that figure somewhat). As usual, we won’t see it on our shores.

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Demand for Audi branded cars has increased on a worldwide scale and to keep up with this, the German luxury car maker have firmed up plans to launch their A1 model outside of Europe from 2011. Customers from all over the world numbering to a mammoth 150,000 have hit the dedicated website that A1 has. This number far surpasses what the company had thought or contemplated: that of 100,000 A1 units per year and that too just for the European market.

An increase of production by 20 percent is to be carried out by the team as per their sales chief Peter Schwarzenbauer. The introduction of this car into the market would also place a stiff competitive element for the BMW who have their Mini Cooper in the market as of now and no other model to compete with the A1 segment.

In a statement issued by Audi, Schwarzenbauer says, “Reports from our international dealers show us that interest in the A1 is exceeding our expectations considerably.”

When the car would enter the US and Chinese market is yet a big question. It is expected that only after 2011 the car would be in the Chinese market but such decisions need time to be formalized and finalised.

The Chinese people taking to a small Audi or not would be the deciding factor if the A1 would make it to the Chinese market and when.