Audi is an automobile maker in Germany, and a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group. The company is headquartered in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, Germany. The company traces its origins back to 1899 and August Horch. In 1969, Audi merged with NSU, based in Neckarsulm near Stuttgart. 

The image of Audi cars was perceived as conservative, so a proposal was accepted from their chassis engineer Jorg Bensinger to develop the four-wheel drive technology in Volkswagen's Iltis military vehicle for an Audi performance car and for a rally car. The performance car was known as the "Quattro" of the 1980s, a four wheel drive turbocharged sports-car based on the Audi Coupe.

In 1986, as the Passat-based Audi 80 was beginning to develop a kind of "grandfather's car" image, the type 89 was introduced. This completely new development sold extremely well. In 1987, Audi put forward a new and very elegant Audi 90, which had a much superior set of standard features.

Currently, Audi's sales are growing strongly in Europe, and the company is renowned for having the best build quality of any mainstream auto manufacturer. 2004 marked the 11th straight increase in sales, selling 779,441 vehicles worldwide. Though its brand still doesn't have the global cachet of Mercedes-Benz or BMW, Audi's reputation for quality and understated style has once again made it a highly desirable marque. After 2003, with the release of the new A4, and in 2004 with the new A6, Audi's dedication to quality had finally paid off when it started to received news reports and various vehicle critics praising Audis over Mercedes-Benz and BMW.