Timothy Moore
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Audi NAIAS Display: Our First Stop

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Audi NAIAS display: Audi A3 e-tron

The Audi A3 e-tron

When we first stepped inside NAIAS, I felt like I was getting off the subway for the first time in Manhattan. I’m sure Lewis and Clark felt similarly on their trip to the Pacific, although I am not quite certain how they made it sans smartphone. There was so much going on: cars and flashing lights and spinning floors and seven-foot-tall models in stilettos and a bunch of businessmen in three-piece-suits admiring the models (the, uh, car models that is…) everywhere we looked.

Audi was to our left as we hesitantly walked forward, so we made the display our first stop. As newbies, we weren’t exactly sure how much to photograph and tweet about, so we haphazardly made our way through the floor layout, pointing and staring, as the seasoned vets snapped photos in two seconds and moved along to the next car apathetically.

Audi NAIAS display: allroad shooting brake concept

The Audi allroad Shooting Brake Concept

The Audi allroad Shooting Brake was the big to-do in the section. Aside from having a terribly stupid name, it was a pretty sleek car that most definitely foreshadows the third-gen Audi TT. I did like the concept’s plug-in hybrid powertrain, which merited it Audi’s e-tron branding; it’s a 2.0-liter TFSI four-cylinder married to a dependable 40-kW electric motor (but also shacking up with an 85-kW motor on the rear axle). All these moving pieces working together yields 408 hp and 479 lb-ft of torque for the concept, and it can hit 62 mph in just over 4.5 seconds.

Audi NAIAS display: Audi A3 Cabriolet

The Audi A3 Cabriolet

Marci and I also checked out the A3 Cabriolet, but I didn’t get the chance to sit inside because a group of B.O.-ridden businessmen crowed around it before my butt could lay claim. Already the show was getting insanely busy, and it had only been open for about an hour. As overwhelmed as ever, we made our way to our next stop: BMW.

Check out all the other pit stops on my tour through NAIAS:

My First Experience at NAIAS General Motors NAIAS 
Audi NAIAS Nissan NAIAS
BMW/MINI NAIAS Hyundai/Subaru NAIAS
Kia NAIAS Honda/Acura NAIAS
Volkswagen NAIAS Infiniti/Smart NAIAS
Porsche NAIAS  Chrysler NAIAS
Ford NAIAS Lexus/Scion NAIAS
Lincoln NAIAS Toyota NAIAS
Mazda/Volvo/Jaguar/Land Rover NAIAS Mercedes-Benz/Tesla NAIAS
NAIAS Luxury Car Seats: My Definitive Ranking of Places You Put Your Butt