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, Auditography, 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 The derision is polite but straightforward, while the delivery is a polished package of historical content (his childhood drawings and scrapbooks!)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, Auditography 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.
Auditography 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 Auditography’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.
I am feeling sorry for this guy. One should never expect ‘loyalty’ from a corporation. I’ve never owned an Audi. However, back in 1990’s I rented an automatic while in England because I didn’t want to shift and drive on the ‘wrong’ side of the road at the same time. Back then, automatics were not that common. When we arrived in Bath to pick up the car, they gave us the only auto they had, an Audi 100. The person at the rental agency had no idea how the car worked, but it was no problem. Wherever we went in the UK, people were surprised we were driving such a big luxury car for a rental. Being American, I couldn’t help but tell them we couldn’t find anything bigger.
“I am feeling sorry for this guy. One should never expect ‘loyalty’ from a corporation.”
+1
Sorry, but somehow this reads like a Jalopnik article.
You mean like an easy to write introduction to someone else’s work and then take credit for it?
I was like what are you talking about I am reading jal…. wait a minute
I dunno, I kinda think maybe this is just a platform for his personal brand or whatever, though I’m not gonna pass judgement without seeing it. Except for the badge thing. That’s just pedantic.
I appreciate the time & effort put forth here, but question which cause is taken up. With all the things wrong in this world of ours, that time & effort could have gone towards something positive, meaningful, and lasting for all of society.
“For me, it’s not a brand. It’s a lifestyle.”
I find this level of attachment to a corporation difficult to understand more as I age.
It’s not some local restaurant or bakery you went to for ages and you knew the guy who ran the place personally.
You can like the products companies produce, but eventually those companies will get away from their ‘brand heritage’ or whatever malarkey the brand-people push.
In the 1990s-2000s, Honda and BMW were the hot ticket. Then they weren’t.
I couldn’t have given one whit what Toyota was doing in the mid-2000s, but in the 2012-present era, Toyota has released several cars I find quite compelling.
But they’ll break your heart, because companies are about making money, not fellating purists.
Enjoy the cars you enjoy. Be happy when another company surprises you with greatness. Get over it when a company decides that they will go another direction than your specific desires.
Car people are great, because they’ll be able to find enjoyment or knowledge in lots of different cars, regardless of brand. Brand snobs are insufferable, because they’re wankers about branding.
This 1000%. This guy is less a car enthusiast and more a consumption enthusiast.
Corporate cheerleader is what I call them. Griping about badging is so very putting image over content.
Just like other ‘trendy’ products, the ‘badge’ is the most important detail….so everyone knows you have the ‘best’/top tier car whether he uses the extra capabilities or not putting around the city center, being seen.
““For me, it’s not a brand. It’s a lifestyle.”
I find this level of attachment to a corporation difficult to understand more as I age.”
Yeah when he said that, my reaction was that he needed to get a better lifestyle… one that didn’t depend on the whims of some for-profit corporation that doesn’t give a shit about people like him.
I agree. those corporate sluts will sell their mother for an extra buck so why would any of us fall for this bullshit of being loyal to one brand only.
I do not say I like one brand over another. I have owned all kinds of cars and i loved them all. I loved my Japanese Pajero and Patrol. I loved my German A6, VR6 Golf, multiple W124s, many Exx BMWs. I even liked out Czech Skoda FFS. There is not one that I would want to spend the rest of my life with. I enjoy them all. Currently slowly falling into Delica, Pajero RHD game again…it is just a cycle. i am sure my next is Miata as might get my mid-life crisis soon.
Taps the sign.
The sign: Cars companies do not make cars for brand enthusiasts.
I had a B5 A4 that got me through college. 1.8L, Quattro, manual, it replaced my broken WRX with the car I had hoped the WRX would be: a reliable, nimble car with a pleasant-sounding turbo 4. Handling was great given the weight distribution, the AWD system was fun and predictable, and the engine yielded decent reliability given its age and the way I drove it. I still get excited when I see an Audi from before 2005, but that’s becoming less and less common.
I wanted to update to a newer A4, but they’d gone up a size class, eliminated the manual transmission and moved over to a part-time AWD system.
I had developed a superiority complex from my time with Torsen-based systems, and refused to entertain the idea of Haldex for anything more than getting boring family cars through shallow snow in a straight line, so the A3 was right out. That meant there really was no Audi left for me, if I wanted Quattro I had to get an S4 or higher, which was neither nimble nor affordable.
For a brand that lives and dies by its mechanically elegant and dynamically sound full-time AWD system, they really don’t seem to care too much about it these days. The base models and the smaller offerings mostly have some kind of FWD-based part-time system, while the higher end models are all festooned with hyperactive corner-grabbing systems so meddlesome that they lost driving comparisons against 4Matic for being unpredictable compared to the simpler Mercedes-Benz system.
Without Quattro, and considering Post-Dieselgate VW maintenance, there’s no point to any lower trim Audi over any of its competitors. All that truly makes them unique now is the inline-5, which they’ve relegated exclusively to the most expensive versions of their smallest cars, a dried-up segment in their key markets. Worse, they only pair that engine to a transverse Haldex system, a layout you can get from literally every manufacturer of economy cars with transmissions.
The most special Audis are gussied-up MQB-platform compacts, just a box to house the engine. Meanwhile, the most prestigious ones are tech-rich saloons with the segment-standard V6 or V8 with the segment-standard twin-turbo torque curve and the segment-standard many-geared transmissions, cars where the engine really is just the front bracket.
Speak up for Audi is impressive in its organization and arguments, which are supported by documented complaints from Audi enthusiasts
So.. overlaying a few tweets isn’t quite the same as “impressive in it’s organization” and “documented” but maybe I am just getting old.
Clearly the guy cares a lot about Audi but an hour of ASMR whining seems a bit much. He can still collect the (older) models he is passionate about, and maybe focus his enthusiasm on a different brand until Audi aligns better with his interests? And maybe it never will be the same Audi that he remembers from his youth and that’s alright too.
Something for me to watch tonight on Youtube. Thanks Beverly! 🙂
I owned an 80s Audi, and liked it a lot despite it being so unreliable that I eventually donated it to the Red Cross since I didn’t want to sell it to anyone directly, even with the caveats disclosed. That car was comfortable, structurally solid, and had a nice interior, but it left me stranded on the side of the road more times than all the other dozen+ other cars I’ve owned put together.
Nothing they’ve made for years is of much interest to me regardless of pricing (which is always high, given the realities of Audi ownership). Sure, I like the R8 of course, but am not about to go buy one new or used. If I lived in the EU where parts and service would be somewhat easier, I’d probably buy a diesel A2 just to try it out for a while, but it’s moot since I live in the states.
I still like 80’s Audis of course, but am not about to dip my toe into that particular pool again anytime soon.
I had a ’84 5000T; great if underpowered, when it was working. 10k total invested for 40k miles, got $600
I feel your pain Peter. 😉
Expensive VW’s with all the same issues.
The creator of this video should be given a board seat at Audi. He nailed it throughout the entire video. I just got my fifth Audi – the last generation 2025 S5 sportback to replace my prior S5 sportback and A5 sportback before that – one of the sexiest cars on the road. Audi has completely destroyed the new model from front to back from outside to inside. The lines are gone. Sunroof gone. Virtual cockpit gone. Audi chrome rings gone – replaced with an iron-on patch on the steering wheel. Functionality gone. Gear shift gone. It’s a travesty. I drove a new Q5 loaner and it had zero Audi ethos. The brand is dead. Cheap, soulless, plastic, uninspired. It might as well be a Kia. The new Audi models are just VWs with faux four rings. And the employees at the dealerships that I have been to feel the same way. If Audi doesn’t bring the brand back, sadly my new S5 sportback will be my last Audi.
When the main complaints are about placement of badges, it tells you something about the fanbase.
I wasn’t sure what I was going to be reading about when I clicked the link, but I did not expect that.
Struck me as well. I loathe the “look at me!” peacock culture, and badges are a big part of that (and loud exhaust, stickers, spoilers, fake louvers, etc.). If you’re going to complain about Audi sucking, start with engine out service procedures.
Until this video, I had no idea people existed who not just have strong opinions about badge placement, but also badge FONT.
This is such a silly take and is the type of thing repeated throughout the video. The kvetching about the soft limiter is especially ridiculous.
There is plenty to complain about in new car design, and those complaints would apply to most new cars. Bad ergonomics, complex tech that doesn’t solve any issue, etc. But claiming that the ability to rev your car to the limit in neutral is a critical feature and removing it makes you feel shame while driving the car indicates a serious issue with the person, not the car.
None of the German car companies produces interesting cars anymore. They have all become homogenized variations of a mid-sized CUV, and the few that aren’t don’t sell. The performance versions of their models chase spreadsheet performance and forgo any driver engagement because most people who buy cars like this don’t really care about how they drive; they want to make a fashion statement, and spreadsheet bragging rights help. There is a reason the video primarily focuses on the lack of badges on the car.
I think it’s more hyperbole than character defect.
Unless people are taking their Audis to fast and furious 1 style events where slapping the limiter repeatedly while in neutral is an expectation.
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.
As a B5 owner in the early 2000’s, this comment makes me feel old.
There’s no major automaker i care less about than Audi
Dodge likes to hear this.
Holy crap, I Would rather own a dodge! It feels so weird to type that out loud.
Woah! Me too! WTF?
Lancia likes this too!
I have absolutely no interest in Subaru at all
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 am an Audi guy, and his statements I hear all the time. I have owned nearly exclusively cars of the golden triangle so I can speak to the platforms. Most people will never understand. The feeling and the sound from my 84 4000s quattro back in 1991, this was not a normal vehicle.
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.
Nice! Did you see Sarah-N-Tuned when she got a UR Quattro? Like you, it was a dream car of hers and she’s taken good care of it.
https://youtu.be/hHRwoy_N45M?si=K5vfT4qvL1Dz0NsQ
https://youtu.be/-H2EhhIz4Og?si=Y4bUYtzQKNjn89_Z
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.
Skoda.
/jk
RS6 is too expensive and seems uncomfortable. I want to test drive A6 station wagon to check if luxury cars can be had with comfortable ride
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.
Easy there. If it’s one thing we’ve learned from this video, DONT TAKE THE BADGES OFF.
But SAABs were fun weird.
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.