diamondp

Hi folks,

I'm new to the forum and was wondering if anyone can share their thoughts about a D4 A8 as a daily driver. I have experience owning some BMW's including my current E90 M3 but Audi is new to me.

It will be the Missus' car and she'll put around 15K miles on it a year, mostly freeway. I was trying to push her towards an A6, but apparently you can only get massage seats on an S6 which would cost more than a used A8.

Thank you

theanimala

I bought my 05 D3 A8L in 2008 and my 13 D4 A8L this past April, both my daily drivers. Both have been great and drive much smaller than they are. Only issues I ever have is parking lots (its long, need a good arc to enter a spot) and tight parking structures that have those narrow ramps to go up/down to the next floor. I always feel like the front left and rear right bumpers are going to hit.

Besides that, no issues. I too considered an A6 this time but I need seats with the extendable leg support which is only available on the S6. I was able to get my 4.0T for less than an S6 and have much better/higher quality interior details.

bmorrow

I bough a used 2013 S8 D4 in July and I love the car, but the single issue I'm trying to resolve is the road noise. I'm in the process of getting new tires because mine came pretty worn so that could be a major factor. I love the car and use the massage seats every day. I drive appx 25k miles a year and have put 10k miles on this s8 since July. I'm comparing this to my 09 Cadillac CTS-V and my 2012 BMW 740i...both seemed quitter than this s8. Looking to change out wheels to 20" with a 40 series tire.

Seaclav

I have a 2012 short wheel base A8 which I use as a daily driver. Slightly lower mileage than you're thinking of with about 12K/yr.
I find it an excellent daily use car - I live in downtown Seattle and seldom have issues with size - it definitely drives smaller than it is. Plenty of power and responsiveness to make it nippy enough in city traffic. Getting out to open roads is a delight :-).
Excellent freeway cruiser; I've put in several trips of a thousand plus miles in a day, and I genuinely seem to be able to get out of it at the end of the journey feeling almost fresh.

I've had no mechanical issues with my vehicle, in fact just about the most negative thing I can think of is that it seems to go through tyres very quickly - at 46K miles, I'm looking at putting my third set on (and I don't really drive like a hooligan).

MP4.2+6.0

FWIW, do you have the exhaust sound turned all the way down in MMI, if using individual settings that is? Soundakator driven; sounds nice at times (if you like artificial). But I try to remember to turn it down on longer trips--a bit noticeable on freeway as sort of just more noise.

absent

S8 Plus is the best daily driver I've had in years, comfort and performance totally satisfying, have 12k miles on it already.

Swissman564

I don't know how you could improve on an A8L as a daily driver. I'm a road warrior clocking about 3500 miles per month. I put 180,000 miles on my 2007 without a single major component failure and loved every single mile. My 2011 seems just as dependable although I did just drop a grand on a new water pump, but truly...its worth it. As Seaclav states, you can drive this car a very long way in a single day and not regret it. And mine is toting 61 year old bones around.

Swissman564

Does the 2011 D4 have this piped in noise? I've never noticed anything ususual and have read about this in Car & Driver. What a crazy concept.

MP4.2+6.0

Can't be sure for an early year. Just look in the Car settings, go to Individual and see if Exhaust is in the pull down menu.

BMW has had canned sound for years and I bet lots of others by now. Maybe better though than the piece o crap factory exhaust the neighbor got on his new M3; most of us wonder why anyone would pay money for the rattle sound, especially when cold. In the 2010 Mini S I had as a low end implementation, it took an hour within the first thirty days to pull out the hokey pipe--they literally piped engine noise through a plastic tube into the heater assembly.

Ravill

Indeed, I don't think there is any car better suited for daily driving!