Nov 1: Just beautiful!

Eech! What the heck is this misbegotten troll of a car from BMW doing in a blog that is entitled "Just Beautiful"? Relax. I know that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but I want to compare what another German car company has produced. The pic on the left, by the way, is BMW latest, their fully electric car, the i3. Coming to Canada in early 2014 at a starting list price of $45k. Green Party members (if they can afford it) can line up on the right. But why does it have to be so ugly or just plain strange looking?

So Barry, what is your point? Well, let's take a short drive over to Ingolstadt and see what Audi has been up to........

This is their beautiful RS7 Sportback. While BMW misses and hits (their Gran Coupe is stunning), they go off the rails more often than not. Audi on the other hand continues to design elegant looking rolling sculptures. The A7 above has lines that flow so well.

Those same lines flow even better on the smaller, original A5 Sportback (not available in North America). It looks almost the same, but based on the A5, it is shorter and arguably better proportioned. I've seen lots of these in Europe and they look great in real life. But being based on the A5, a car on most folks most beautiful list, how could it lose? Just take a look at this gorgeous sheet of metal.......

Even today, one never passes me, without my giving it a second look and this is about four years after its initial intro. Some cars age so well.

It's usually easier give the sport models a standout design, since they are the glamour queens of any car's line up, but how does Audi do on their sedans? Take a look at their range topping S8.........

This is one beautiful sedan, cloaked in a design that belies just how large it actually is in real life. Audi seems to hit home run after home run, while BMW in my humble(?) opinion, generally stumbles from one bad play to another (the 328 GT for example).

But greatness had to start somewhere, so let's go way back to near Audi's very humble beginnings with this 1961 DKW.........

.......always good to end a blog with a bit of humour.

Until next time.......