needles

The regular A8 is no slouch. Dynamic mode and the 4.2 are pretty damn fun. Grippy in the corners and smooth as silk to drive.

Pratfall

I test drove a v6 A8 and the S8 back to back, and came away thinking the S8 only improves the experience at the margins. It's definitely a tighter drive and the engine note and time-bending acceleration is fantastic. But the "base" A8 is so good, I think I'd take it and put the savings towards a Porsche or something. I don't say this to rag on the S8, which is magnificent, but rather to elevate the A8. I certainly wouldn't kick an S8 out of my garage.

davideisenva

Hi JoeD,

I agree with your sentiment, for the price everything should be perfect. Just remember, a lot of times it is personal preference. Also, the higher performance/rarer the car, the weirder the issues are to fix, because the number of cars that are similarly equipped to yours are quite low. In the high performance sedan market, you run into cars that are engineered around having smaller V6 or V8 engines, that are then souped-up by their manufacturers to turn them into 4 door supercars. I realized that years ago, when my E63 AMG was missing a ton of features that were common sense, and broke once a week. iPod control was in the middle of the speedometer, but could not be controlled through the nav system except for next song or previous song. Got rid of it after 6 months, I basically had a standing appointment with the dealership. Someone on the Mercedes forum told me I had to pay to play... needless to say I paid to play when I bought the car, with a warranty...

My girlfriend's car (2015 SQ5) has the MMI hook up in the glovebox, in a time where everyone plugs in their iPhone into their car instead of the center dash... stupid idea, and she bought an iPod to leave permanently plugged in there.

I had an Infiniti FX50-S I bought after the E63 for reliability. Needless to say, at the beginning it almost got lemon lawed for a power steering fluid flushing issue. It eventually got fixed, and I got a nice extended warranty out of it. There were arguments at a $65k car that there should not have been any issues. The best part was it had European brake pads on it, but Infiniti had a stock shortage on them, and eventually stopped producing them completely, so I had to get regular pads which squealed like a banshee everywhere.

As far as german engineering goes, my S6 had a loose speaker grill in the back that caused vibration. Needless to say I American engineered it with a bunch of super glue... never heard the problem again.

First World Problems sir... First World Problems.

powerplyer

I finally got my 2015 Audi A8 L TDI about two weeks ago. I come from a 2007 MBZ S550.

I agree there are some "differences" between MBZ and Audi, but after owning 3 different MBZ, I can say I really enjoy the Audi.

One feature I really enjoyed with MBZ which I miss is the closing of the windows and sunroof's when I hold the FOB lock button.

I did not get the night vision, however I agree that it is a manual intervention should not be needed.

On small annoyance is the shifting ****. I always have to look to make sure I am in "D" vs "N" and assure I am in "P" vs "R". This is a pain when you have to park in a tight spot or when you have to go from "D" to "R" and vis versa.

This is my first TDI and I do have to get used to the acceleration. I think the acceleration is all electric.

The lane assist is a cool feature to show off, but unless you are on a long drive it does not make sense to activate. I do like the convenience of the on/off lever near the steering wheel. The dynamic steering is laggy and will take some getting used. I agree it does have some latency issues.

The adaptive Crusie Control and stop-and-go cruise control are awsome especially in traffic. Wish it would move quicker when the car in front moves, but I do not mind pulling the "resume" lever.

The MMI is cool but the counter clockwise is counter intuitive. Also the **** is a little to far up. In the MBZ the turn *** was bigger and closer to the elbow rest. Also I wish the MMI supported FLAC music.

I got the B&O sound system and agree it is not worth the $6k upgrade. The systems lacks in bass. The MP3's do sound cleaner, however my stock MBZ had more bass with fewer speakers. Hopefully they update the software to adjust.

Next Items on my check list:
-- Got the Ross-Tech need to figure out what I want to change if anyone has tried any "enhancements" on the 2015 model let me know. I will enable the VIM for sure.
-- Try to reach the infamous 40mpg on highway. I am avg 32mpg right now with mixed driving.
-- Get windows tinted all around.


BTW thanks for opening the thread, it would interesting to see what other people have to say about their 2015 Audi A8 experience.

Overall the car great the driver experience has been excellent thus far.

bruswain

reviving this thread, I have the same gripe. It's downright stupid to default to all the stations. Who listens to or scrolls through all the stations?

Any chance Ross-Tech or other has a fix for this?

frybear

Yeah, number 4 is my big complaint. But I don't have an S. Just a lowly A8 so number 5 for me would be the missing S8 power plant!!!!!!! But again, the damn thing should at least remember to keep it on presets as the default. Otherwise WTF is preset for? Falls under the "duh" category.

RED HORSE

Don't understand this. My '15 S8 doesn't seem to suffer this ailment. My preset radio stations are always available via the touch pad or the dash display.

Jack88

I use the touchpad, it's easier to me than using the steering wheel, since I leave the center screen on the digital speed readout. I don't even use all the six presets that the pad allows, if I'm honest.

bruswain

It's always available, but doesn't start there by default. To get to the steering wheel display for presets, I have to push mode+mode+mode+scroll down 4 times+push scroll wheel.

I should also mention that this is for an SQ5 but it seems the issue is the same.

HouTexAudi

Same here--always available on the touch pad when the car starts. This is for Sirius--haven't tried the normal radio stations.