It seems Audi fans in Canada have fewer options for fun cars to drive. Visit Audi Canada website and you won’t see the TT RS or RS3 listed anymore. Both cars feature Audi’s popular turbocharged five-cylinder engine, and that could be the reason for their demise in the north.
We’ve reached out to Audi for official confirmation of this news, but with the holidays quickly approaching, we may not have an answer right away. Rumors have been circulating since Reddit, which claims both cars were discontinued due to emissions issues with the inline-five. A single image linked here allegedly shows a communication from Audi Canada to dealers, stating that the cars cannot be sold in Canada because they do not meet “certain technical requirements.”
Specific information on these requirements is revealed, but the communication mentions changes to new vehicle registration laws that will not allow Audi to offer its five-cylinder engine. It should be noted that, despite the Reddit thread pointing specifically to the shows, this purported post makes no mention of this type.
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It vaguely sounds like Porsche’s dilemma in California earlier this year over the GT3, which wasn’t available for sale with a manual transmission due to a technicality in a sound law. Oddly enough, the same car with a PDK transmission was doing perfectly fine, and after a few weeks of back-and-forth between Porsche and California officials, the manual was approved as well.
The issue seems a bit more complicated with Audi, if only for another reason that it involves an entire country as opposed to a state, or in this case, a province. The TT RS was already launched in the US market, so it is possible that a similar departure is in the works for Canada. With the RS3 cut too, it certainly leaves an enthusiast-sized hole in the Canadian market.
We will step in with an update as soon as we receive new information.
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