An Audi lifer has produced a heartfelt yet scathing film about everything he loved and now hates about the Four Rings brand. Yes, that’s past-tense love and present-day hate. Or dismay, disappointment, disbelief, and even confusion. Based on the video’s 3,500-plus comments, he’s not alone.
“Speak up for Audi is a film for and by the automaker’s very strong community of owners, enthusiasts, collectors, and fans,” is the film description’s first line. The anonymous creator, Auditory, shares his credentials — from drawing the cars as a boy and buying his first Audi after university (an A4) to working as a professional photographer for the brand and growing his personal Audi collection. He adds:
My relationship with Audi is engraved in my bones and heart. For me, it’s not a brand. It’s a lifestyle.
In the past 7 years, Audi has been making more and more questionable decisions and lately it has really gone downhill. It seems like they completely lost their identity. More and more people started to speak up, but felt like they were screaming out in thin air.
I started to build up more and more feelings, disappointment, and anger inside of me that they didn’t care about their owners and fans at all.
Those frustrations culminated in an hour-long ode to more than a dozen “decisions” the German luxury brand has made. The derision is polite but straightforward, while the delivery is a polished package of historical content (his childhood drawings and scrapbooks!) and what’s likely his own images and videos produced for Audi or personal use.
Speak up for Audi is impressive in its organization and arguments, which are supported by documented complaints from Audi enthusiasts. For example, badging and logo changes take up 10 minutes of the 70-minute film. But instead of being another car guy yelling at clouds, messages and posts from others related to the changes are overlayed. And everyone’s pretty upset. At the 5:10 mark, Auditory says:
Badges are one of the most precious things for an Audi owner, especially when it comes to S and RS models. So how Audi has butchered this important topic is beyond my understanding…
The removal of the front badges on the S and RS models is probably the worst decision in the company’s history. Together with a fake exhaust.
Auditory says he is all for brand evolution but not at the expense of passion, attention to detail, and dismissal of a brand’s heritage. The road Audi is traveling down is one that is uninspired and leaves the brand without its distinctive character.
There is hope, however. The automaker changed course on the Audi Sport badging and has even backpedaled on its naming strategy, which no one could make sense of. To Auditory’s point:
Sometimes, to go forward, you need to go back. Look back and remember what made Audi such a [beloved] brand, and what made us choose their cars over others.
Now, regardless of whether Audi takes any of this to heart, the brand does need to do something. Sales declined in 2024 and have continued to slide into 2025. Through June, sales are down 12%. Audi CEO Gernot Döllner is also allegedly at the center of some corporate infighting. Hmm, maybe this calls for a larger bucket of popcorn.
Top graphic image: tk
My mom had a B5 S4 in the early 00’s that had its engine blow up at 50,000 miles leaving her stranded in a blizzard for 5 hours.
After a professional rebuild, it still smoked a shit ton. She then traded it in on a Maxima.
Since then, she hasn’t owned a single enthusiast car. So screw Audi for scaring her away from owning enthusiast cars.
There’s no major automaker i care less about than Audi
Dodge likes to hear this.
Feels like “Audi” could be swapped for many brands.
We could mourn the loss of multiple hatchback turbo Subarus (available with manual transmissions, mind you – incl a twin-turbo 4-cyl Legacy), a Honda that did everything from oval pistons, their own version of the 996, or a low-volume two-seater roadster, or a Nissan that made vehicles people would want to show off.
I’m an 80s kid, so how I view the brand is through that lens.
You need to understand how game changing Audi’s quattro system was/is. They DOMINATED WRC. Like, destroyed everyone. And the 5 cylinder turbo just sounded absolutely glorious; group B is PEAK rally racing.
Then they went on to destroy all of America’s sports cars in the IMSA series. Watch this video if you’re unfamiliar, it’s just… spectacular.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyvkTznA8Ww
Then you have the early 90s Audi RS2 Avant; 300+hp, Quattro, Manual transmission only. No soccer moms or influencers, have to know how to drive! Faster 0-60 than a McLaren F1 and it’s a friggin wagon! This was my dream car for a long time, but due to it’s performance it was banned from import until a few years ago.
So I built my own.
I bought the closest possible thing; a 95 S6 Avant, and only 300 of them were ever imported to the states. Same engine and trans as the RS2, smaller turbo, bigger chassis.
I fixed that with a NOS RS2 turbo and a new modern exhaust manifold, injectors, and software which bumped the power from 230hp to around 360-380hp. Added some H&R springs and bilstein dampers as well. It’s an incredible car that will destroy 99% of the traffic on the road in any road condition; the worse the weather turns, the better the car is.
Real Quattro (Torsen based AWD) combined with the 20v I5 Turbo was just such an amazing combo; a C4 (chassis code) S4 still holds the world record for top speed of a production body sedan:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6_ntSiGimg
….
Then we have today, with their RS6 Avant, covered in fake plastic vents and fake diffusers with an engine without any motorsport history and sold with an automatic only. Bleh. Modern Audi is NOTHING. They don’t compete in WRC, they don’t even do LeMans anymore because corporate wants Porsche to win that instead. They HAVE a glorious 5 cylinder turbo, but refuse to put it in anything other than a tiny sedan and the TTRS.
I shall end my poorly organized comment with this image:
https://i.imgur.com/g6pG5Sm.png
It wasn’t poorly organized, the angst was felt, and shared. I’d add the entire industry in disgust. Not to take away from your fine points, and how transformative they once were.
That is next level enthusiasm
Never been a big Audi guy but I respect some of the cars, but I’ll be grabbing some of that popcorn and seeing how it turns out! As a fellow car enthusiast I hope it goes well.
Audi has, in my experience, always been a sister brand to Volkswagen. It is/was more pricey and less interesting. No one that I have known has ever strived to own an Audi. It has always just been there, a tiny fraction of the cars on the road.
Part of the situation is that there are very few Audi dealerships, and so many of them also sell VWs.
They have always been an also-ran, and need to get their act together (as does Chrysler, Fiat and so many others).
Mazda and BMW have about 3% of the U.S. market each, and Audi is included in the bottom 2% with “Others”, such as Mini and Rivian.
wow… uh… man not even sure how to respond to that. The ignorance level is so high I’m not sure if you’re trolling or actually in the dark… either way, please watch this video. THIS is what defined Audi.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxymZ4ivmyA
You’ve obviously never driven a 20v inline 5 Audi before, or you’d remember. It’s one of the greatest engines of all time, and it has the WRC history to back that statement up.
I hope everyone watching the movie does an exercise and substitutes different brands when the narrator says “Audi”. This same passion is what drove the outrage of the loss of the Hemi for the Charger and Ram pickup; the same rage as Musk turns the passion for Tesla; the same frustration touch screens and over the air updates and recalls.
Every brand and every vehicle has their passionate fans willing to die on that hill. Respect to each and every one of them.
I mean peace, love, and understanding, sure, but you’re not the one that bought the Yugo?
Worse. I’m the one that likes full sized pickups with four-wheel drive and V8s in them.
(Although I will always remember when Susan Napoli signed an autograph for me at the Yugo display at the Detroit Auto Show.)
Make sure the safe search is on if you Google the name.
I loved me some very beefy V8 4×4 pickumups when I was doing tree work and construction, as a mental health break from big biz burn out. F350, and a K10 got r done. Also had a Audi Fox once, and looked at a 5000 when they were suppressed by the “sudden acceleration” . The classic Quatros were Just out of reach or too shagged.
Been an Audi guy since I got a ’14 B8.5 S4 and fell in love with it; my current is a ’19 RS5 Sportback. I’m in a few Audi clubs here in SoCal, and the sentiment from people I’ve talked to mirrors the video; enthusiasts are turning to other, more lively brands because they offer that fizz that Audi has lost. I love my RS5 but the only upgrade I could envision would be an RS6 or RS7, and certainly nothing post-2025 given what Audi has done to the B10 platform. It really stinks because they just keep pulling back and avoid taking risks like BMW has been doing. I would love to see the 2.5l turbo in the RS3 stick around, or a proper R8 successor come along, or even just a proper RS4/RS5 Avant here in the States. Probably not going to happen, but I can dream.
What brands are Audi people buying instead? BMW? Porsche? Genuinely curious.
BMW or Porsche, mostly, or sometimes Mercedes/AMG.
Luster lost, fond memories remain.
T’is not just VAG nor BMW and Mercedes that should feel shame.
Time was such that all endeavored,
best efforts put forth, once relished, savored, now severed.
Blame the bean counters the masses proclaim!
Economies of scale need not bore.
Following greed, easy fleeting win over vision is lame.
Pride in craftsmanship is noted, and diminishes maintenance chore.
Enthusiasts unite!
We miss all that was essence, stirring and right.
Not another bloated embarrassment to appease current du jour
We ack for simple pleasures, well executed, and pure.
It’s good film.
There is an existential problem at Volkswagen. At home, it is subject to EV mandates, which require the all new cars to be zero emission by 2035. In China, in its once biggest market, it is rapidly losing marketshare to homegrown competitors, specifically falling behind in autonomous technology and price. Those same Chinese cars are also sold in Europe, at lower prices than their European competitors. In the States, it’s now dealing with a hostile tariff driven administration. Lastly, VW is saddled with a Byzantine corporate structure, with the unions, the state of Lower Saxony, and Qatar as equity voters.
Dieselgate might have killed VW. Instead of easing the transition from internal combustion to EVs with diesel technology (something VW is very experienced in), it resulted in a complete distrust of diesels, initial failures with the sudden EV pivot (the poor launch of ID3) and now the moonshot attempt with a strategic partnership with Rivian to catch up.
Cool to see the passion for the brand!!
Audi has never really been my thing, but (without having watched the video) it seems a lot of the European brands are doing weird, hard to explain stuff these days.
Most European brands used to have some sort of distinct personality. SAAB was weird, Mercedes was stodgy and over-engineered, Peugeot was distinctly French, etc.
Now they’re mostly all building some variation of the AWD crossover. Take off the badges, and I wouldn’t know if I was in an Audi or a BMW or a Mercedes, or even a Skoda..
Has Audi ever had a personality? I don’t remember it having one, even in Yurp in the ’80s and ’90s. People knew they were unreliable, especially by German standards of the time, but if you asked non-car people to name German makes, anyone would have listed VW, Porsche, Mercedes, and BMW, but I doubt they would have come up with Audi unprompted.
Halfway. They were the halfway brand. Halfway between mass market and luxury, and with the DKW- derived longitudinal FWD, halfway between the conventional Fords, Opels and Mercedes and the eccentrics like Saab.
Take the badges off and there’s no difference between an Audi and a Skoda, they’re both a VW.
In the US the only Audi that’s a VW is the A3/Q3.
Historically they have been leaders technology-wise. First company to really bring AWD to the masses, the 1.8t is kinda the first mass market go at turbos for efficiency purposes, one of the first companies to start hitting the Haldex hard, dual clutch transmission pioneers, the 2.7t was way ahead of its time, the 3.2 was the highest compression ratio engine in a production car ever when it came out, the A8 aluminum space frame and the a2 are pretty insane.
IMO they were a complete menace up until the 20teens. Now it’s just boring turbo motors.
Sounds like he has a point. Modern Audis feel sterile and boring, whereas from the 1980s-2000s they were a hell of a lot more interesting, if not slightly conservative compared to the ridiculous stuff coming out of AMG and M at the time.