Auto News 5

The Audi A3 is a bit of an odd duck in Audi's U.S. lineup, mainly because it's only available in a four-door hatch format here. That's about to change with the reveal of the Audi A3 concept, a sedan-based vision of the next-generation car that's making its world debut at the 2011 Geneva auto show. The concept is strikingly similar in form to the now-legendary B5 S4, a car that changed the way people think about performance sedans.

Talk about déjà vu -- this is almost an exact clone of the A6 3.0T we sampled two years ago. Same black paint; same sumptuous cocoa-on-graphite leather interior; same superb supercharged 3.0-liter V-6 underhood.

Volkswagen's new plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, is still tooling up to build its first product, the new Passat, but plans are already being laid for a major expansion. Although nobody will confirm it at this stage, reliable sources tell us that the Germans are almost ready to sign off on a second phase that would increase the plant's output by 180,000 to 200,000 units a year. The plan is to let three brands participate in the new venture: Volkswagen, Audi, and Porsche. Chattanooga 1 is geared to paint and assemble passenger cars, but Chattanooga 2 will almost certainly be adapted for high-roof vehicles. A second paint shop is thus a necessity.