German sport luxury brand Audi has played a robust role in helping to shape consumer tastes and influence the complete ECU touring market. For just about one hundred years, the Audi brand has been synonymous with manufacturing high quality, reliable, and well engineered vehicles. An odd start almost scuttled the corporation’s plans, yet today Audi has risen above adversity and is producing cars that are world respected in quality and engineering.

August Horch set up Horch automobile in Cologne, Germany in 1899, and started producing cars in 1901 which featured a horizontal engine manufacturing upwards of five h.p. Demand for these models propelled Horch to expand production and move to a larger manufacturing facility where a newer, more powerful model pumping out a then-amazing ten h.p. was released.

By 1910, Horch himself was booted out of the company that sported his name so he set up shop some place else and started to sell vehicles under the Audi moniker. Originally, Horch tried to use his family name, but German courts ruled against him therefore the Audi name was chosen instead. In German, Horch means “hark” and the word “audi” is the Latin interpretation of horch/hark. So, although he could legally no longer use his folks name, the Latinized version of the same won out. Guess which name is understood today?

In between a pair of devastating world wars, the modern Audi company began to take shape. Indeed, the “four rings” brand of the company represents the union of 4 distinct German automotive manufacturers under the auspices of Audi. Yes, you guessed it: the Horch company that originally booted Mr. Horch was absorbed by Audi and makes up one of the four rings. August Horch lived to see that day, but he also witnessed the dismantling of the company following the end of the second world war.

Reparations was the rallying cry when World War Two stopped, thus thus the Soviet Union who was occupying the eastern portion of Germany during the postwar age, took the company, took all of its assets, and by August 1948 the company no longer existed. One year later thanks to state loans and Marshall plan help, a resurrected Audi was back on the scene manufacturing a delivery truck and a bike. Continual expansion across the 1950s highlighted by Daimler’s purchase of the company in 1958 fueled further expansion. In 1964, the Volkswagen group bought Audi from Daimler and to this day Audi remains a significant part of the Volkswagen establishment.

By the late 1960s, Audi started what many consider its historical run its important run to the apex of automotive excellence. New models were developed many of which were also marketed as Volkswagen models for that time. In 1980, Audi shook the automobile world to its foundation when it released its Quattro sports car, a vehicle with full time all wheel drive and a turbocharged engine. Right away , the Quattro propelled the Audi name to the top of the race auto world when the car world when the auto started to win race upon race. Undeniably, the Quattro was such a runaway hit that the model was banned from some races for having an “unfair” technological advantage.

Throughout the 1980s and the 1990s, Audi began to produce additional models including its first premium model, the Audi V8 in 1988. Sporting a 3.6L 32-valve V8 engine, the Audi V8 featured full time all wheel drive and a 4 speed electronically controlled automatic transmission. This particular model was a big exit from earlier Audis and set the brand on a collision course with Mercedes and BMW, Germany’s 2 other luxury brands in an attempt for car supremacy.

Today, Audi continues to grow and compete against all of the top luxury brands in the world. New technology including its Audi Space Frame all-aluminum body – known for its rigidity and improved crashworthiness – are among the highlights of a brand that does not accept second choice. From sedans to sport coupes to an all new SUV, Audi has a model that competes against the likes of Lexus, Mercedes, Cadillac, Infiniti, and BMW its chief rivals.

That “hark” sound you hear is both the name of a company and the awareness the brand deserves in a sea of capable premium models produced by Germany’s esteemed Volkswagen Group. Yes, Audi has weathered several storms and the company appears balanced to keep on its thrust forward thanks to its many inventions and continued high quality.

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