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All I was saying was that poster ToyotaBMW seemed wrong on three of his claims:
1. Audis have more parts in common with BMW than VW.
2. You can't mount the same engine on an AWD and FWD car.
3. The 2.0t audi engine shares no component with VW's 2.0t
Those seem to be overly strong statements to me.
Audis and BMWs and Mercedes and VWs share suppliers, of course, but for different parts. they also design a lot of their products in-house. On the other hand you get a lot of commonality between Audi and VW products. Yes they do have separate engineering depts, but parts developed by one company end up in the product of the other company, exactly the the same or some variation of it. VW group makes large economies of scale that way, and I believe this is the reason why they can be so competitive and profitable.
The "parts bank" idea is not a critique; all carmakers do it to some extent. BMW wants minis and the 1series to share the same Modular FWD platform. BMW already has the same platform for the 5 series, 7 series and Rolls Royce Ghost. I understand the economic reasons. But to me the Ghost is just a super-pimped up 5 series. It is not entirely unique. The Ghost was not started from scratch, it was an extension of a less-pedigreed car (not that I dislike or would return a Ghost if it was given to me for free). A lot of BMW enthusiasts likewise criticize The brand for moving the 1er to FWD architecture because it erases or dilutes what a "real" BMW is like.
To me the same applies to A4s. Yes, they are specially engineered but to me they are just pimped-up Volkswagens. They haven't been designed from scratch to fit a specific need / place in the market. They haven't been designed to be sporty (CVT anyone? FWD?). They have just been made sporty by the addition of bigger engines requiring a sport package or an AWD addition or else it would be a nightmare for the front wheels.
Not that the result is bad or that I hate Audi. I praise their style, their interior build quality, their work on lightweight materials, on the 2.0tfsi (if they did it as opposed to VW) and on Quattro. I'm just saying that the base US model, the 2.0t, is less of an enthusiast, less of a pure breed than the 328i for instance. The S4 ranks higher in my mind, because it was created and designed to be a great AWD sport car.
(And we could talk about A1's being Polos and A3s being Golfs)
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