Auto News 5

Indy 500 parade queens, fluttering balloons, fried-chicken feasts, and shrieking engines are so indelibly embedded in the American psyche that it's difficult to visualize the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as anything but today's steel, concrete, and asphalt temple of speed. But, like other inventions that evolved into institutions, this one began as a zany idea.

It only stood to reason that the news media, after spending years erroneously explaining how our major corporations were doing a fantastic job, would fail to predict their own collapse, along with the meltdown of the American economy. And on the way to misperceiving the rest of the world's subsequent economic decline, we ought not be surprised that the smug business publications and cable TV screamers have also fumbled the facts underpinning the American auto industry's ongoing brush with extinction.

When I first got into the Audi A6 3.0T, I thought that something had gone wrong with the MMI, because when I pressed the nav button, the system told me navigation wasn't installed. I thought this was a software glitch, as I've never seen an MMI-equipped Audi without navigation, but a little research revealed the Q7 and the A6 come with a full MMI system but no navigation. Bummer. I know I'd be upset seeing that nav button and not having the $1800 option.