“Buy an Audi, get virtually unlimited WiFi in your car for $15 per month,” Bill Howard reports for ExtremeTech.
“The Audi Connect WiFi hotspot service, backed by a 3G T-Mobile connection, may be the biggest tech leap by an automaker this year, even if it’s as much a pricing-and-marketing leap rather than a technology tour de force,” Howard reports. “There’s only one gotcha: You sign up for 30 months in advance for $450 ($15 per month) after the first six months free for new-car buyers.”
Howard reports, “Users who want month-to-month service can still use Audi’s $30-per-month plan. Service is on the T-Mobile network, which Audi uses worldwide.”
Read more in the full article here.
And if I don’t want an Audi?
Then you don’t buy one?
Sounds good. Will think it over!
If ya’ can’t afford the WiFi, ya’ cant afford the Audi. The Kia kiosk is right around the corner…
Why no love for Audi? Audi is better than the poseur BMW brand. BMW has become exactly what they used to advertise against.
Obviously, you have never driven and “M” Class BMW…
I like Audi as much as a Merc as much as a Porsche.
And I really like my BMW 5X M.. scoots down the road just fine.
Your denigration of BMW and giving Audi such laudatory reference is interesting. Please show me a non-poseur Audi. They are all over the place where I live and it is definitely the poseurs who drive them.
Just sayin’
Darwin is off his rocker — BMW still knows how to make a fine driving machine. That being said, the bulk of what BMW sells are not good examples of the sport coupes where BMW used to dominate. And on a slippery road, Audi’s quattro puts down the power where Mercs and BMWs cannot.
You owe it to yourself to test drive a Sport (S) or Rennsport (RS) model Audi. Unless you live where the roads are smooth and perfect, the Audi is usually the better daily driver.
I would take an old RS6 wagon over your X5M any day, but that’s personal preference. If road handling is not important to you, the X5M is impressive. Just not as impressive as the Cayenne or its sister the Q7, which routinely out-accelerate and out-handle the X5M even when configured with less horsepower. (The Q7’s optional V12 TDI with 1000 lb-ft of torque might have something to do with that).
Bottom line: all German automakers make very fine vehicles. Trash talking any of them today is ridiculous. You have to go to China or India to find truly terrible auto mfrs.
And show me a non-poseur BMW owner, especially those who drive X-class cars. The X5 and particularly the X6 are held in especial contempt, as grossly oversized tanks driven in urban areas by people who have do idea how to drive them. They are ugly, they lack space, and as a 4×4, they fail spectacularly as an off-road vehicle. Range Rovers and Discoveries are better looking, and are the world’s best for off-road capability, and even VW with the Toureg outperform BMW’s.
As do the Audi Q-series. BMW saloons even fail when it snows, rear-wheel drive means the slightest dusting of snow and you can’t even get it off your drive.
I wouldn’t be seen dead in one, I’m happier with my old Skoda than I would be with a shitty Beemer.
Rorschach, how would you know if you were seen in a BMW hearse? And how would you know how well an X6 performs at hauling groceries?
People seem to forget that for the last several decades, the purpose of the automobile has not been to offer improved transportation performance or economy, but rather to separate the consumer from the maximum amount of money.
BMW has always been superior at this than Skoda, just as Apple is better at it than almost any other computer manufacturers.
Sure.
Strange pricing!
That seems to be pretty unfair pricing – be it by Audi or T-mobile.
In Germany you are free to choose any provider and just pop the SIM of your choice into the slot in the dashboard. I’m using a secondary T-moile SIM from my iPhone contract for an additional €5 per month with the ability to cancel that on a monthly basis.
Btw, it is really much better to connect via the car WIFI with its outside antenna than using the poor iPhone or iPad connection when those devices use their own GSM connection. I love that feature of my A7!
(Afterthought: And then, if you start comparing the $450 for 3 years of data service to the initial cost of an Audi the $15 p.m. pale a little bit.)
Mobile pricing in the states is much higher than In the EU. With that said $15 does pale in comparison to the purchase price.
My wife’s Audi has this feature. Nice for passengers, but iPad and iPhone LTE much faster.
I would never buy an Audi. Lousy styling.
Exactly what I would expect Ballmer to say. MS knows nothing about style. Zune, kin, Xbox, windows.
Windows 8, Surface, Table, chairs, campus, CEOs all could be included in your list. 🙂
I disagree. Audis are among the best-looking cars anywhere.
Keep driving your Nissan Juke (yuck) BLN.
Audi styling? since the late 2000’s, few other companies have achieved the critical praise and awards that Walter da Silva and his styling team have. You are clearly in the minority when it comes to taste in automobiles. What’s especially nice about late model Audis is that they are classy and understated — with the exception of LED headlight surrounds, there aren’t any styling gimmicks that go out of style overnight.
… and that’s a hell of a lot more than can be said for the BMW Bangle Butt, the Mercedes Headlight Disaster, the Cadillac Straight Edge Only, the Acura Beak, or the Lexus Ugly-From-Any-Angle treatments.
Ha – I think you just nailed all the right nicknames! My wife wants an Audi but living in the city of Chicago it’s pretty pointless. She has a 2004 Civic she bought new and it only has maybe 15,000 miles on it since public transportation rocks.
Cheap WiFi with an expensive car. That’s a marketing gimmick?
Next thing you’ll hear is free tires with every Toyota.
What? Every manufacturer does that?
In the late 60’s my dad had a DKW. that was a 3 piston Audi. No wifi though 🙁
$450 is a drop in the bucket for most people who buy an Audi.
Several German cars would be almost perfect if they removed ~150 kilos of electronics. This is one more item that no one should have on a car.
That said, I would happily pay $15/month to block all WiFi & mobile phone signals within a half kilometer of my vehicle.
Get off the road if you have important calls and messaging to do!!! I know you think you can “multitask”, but it is abundantly clear that you cannot. Now that drunk drivers have been largely removed from the road, the remaining vehicle accidents are almost always caused by idiots with cell phones. Even on a good day when the twit with a cell phone manages to keep the car in his lane, his inability to use his turn indicator, cruise at steady speed, or use predicable/smooth/alert/courteous driving behaviour causes bottlenecks for everyone behind him.
Love my manual transmission Audi A4! Cars are a very subjective thing, but I look at Audi’s as the automotive equivalent of a Mac – elegant, but minimalist, design, and everything just seems to work without being over-engineered or larded up with unnecessary features and lines.
Mike,
Sadly, drunk drivers have not been removed off the road. I work in Health Care and deal with this issue every week. I do agree, though, that texting while driving is a distraction. However, SPEAKING while driving may not be (well, except for some people, of course!).
Been saying since garmins got cheap, & even more since iPhone got gps: car manufactuers are saddling us with multi-thousand dollar ‘optional’ (now becoming standard) electro-touchscreen-failure points, when all i want is A) to be able to change the radio station & turn up the HVAC without taking my eyes from the road & going through 2-4 screens & B) a cellular connection for my the devices that i carry around with me all day, that do just fine for 90% of what I had to pay extra $$s for when buying the car.
So now Audi is finally giving the cellular data access, but i still have to buy their overpriced & redundant electronics crap.
Why not drop that stuff & let me apply the savings to buying their $15/month data plans for the entire time the car is under warranty??? Sheesh!