Use your A8 for city daily driving?
02-03-2005, 10:25 AM
#1
AudiWorld Senior Member
Thread Starter
Use your A8 for city daily driving?
I'm considering buying my parents' 1998 A8 4.2 next year when they're ready to move down to something smaller (most likely the A4 Cab.)
My concern is whether the car is just too big to use as a daily driver and my only car living in downtown Seattle. Obviously it's a great car for road trips, going skiing, etc. but I worry about parking it on the street, at the supermarket, maneurvering small streets etc.
Anyone else living in a dense urban environment with such a big car? Frustrated? Annoyed? Or has it been okay?
FYI, my current car is a 1998 A4 2.8QTS. The alternative is to buy the new A4 in a couple of years when the new model kinks have been ironed out.<ul><li><a href="http://home.comcast.net/~jrdailey/Holiday2004/A4_Ridge.jpg">My current car...</a></li></ul>
My concern is whether the car is just too big to use as a daily driver and my only car living in downtown Seattle. Obviously it's a great car for road trips, going skiing, etc. but I worry about parking it on the street, at the supermarket, maneurvering small streets etc.
Anyone else living in a dense urban environment with such a big car? Frustrated? Annoyed? Or has it been okay?
FYI, my current car is a 1998 A4 2.8QTS. The alternative is to buy the new A4 in a couple of years when the new model kinks have been ironed out.<ul><li><a href="http://home.comcast.net/~jrdailey/Holiday2004/A4_Ridge.jpg">My current car...</a></li></ul>
02-03-2005, 10:31 AM
#2
Audi Fanboy!
Re: Use your A8 for city daily driving?
I don't use mine for daily driving. Its more of my weekend and occasional weekday car so I wouldn't if I were you. Why not keep the A4 as the everyday car and the A8 as your other car.
02-03-2005, 01:33 PM
#7
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Such a huge difference from ...
growing up now and growing up a couple decades ago. My first car was a 1970 Cadillac DeVille convertible, and it was 18 FEET long. The 1984 Honda Civic, when parked next to me, ended at my driver's side mirror.
The A8 is NOT a large car, it is mid-sized.
The A8 is NOT a large car, it is mid-sized.
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02-03-2005, 02:12 PM
#9
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I'm in Mukilteo so it's a little different, but I drive downtown all the time.
Once you drive it for a little while it just feels like a normal sized car and everything else feels tiny. I actually have an easier time parallel parking the A8L downtown than I did my 03 A4 because the trunk is flat and I can see behind me better.
02-03-2005, 08:19 PM
#10
U have cajones of confidence?
If you don't mind doing last second maneuvers in tight situations, you can survive with an A8. I drive in both NYC and Boston, and parking it parallel is the hard part. At 200 inches, it is a foot longer than your A4.
It turns nicely in tight spots, but bumper booboos are pricey. Nicking an A8 bumper usually results in a chunk being removed, and not just a mere scrape. Both front and rear bumpers are quite flimsy, very thin plastic.
If you are patient in gridlock, you won't have the issues I have. I never tailgate, except for when the light is about to turn yellow and the jerk in front of me is coasting through the light below the speed limit, on the phone, without a thought to the cars behind him who will spend next few minutes at the 5 way stop light...
It turns nicely in tight spots, but bumper booboos are pricey. Nicking an A8 bumper usually results in a chunk being removed, and not just a mere scrape. Both front and rear bumpers are quite flimsy, very thin plastic.
If you are patient in gridlock, you won't have the issues I have. I never tailgate, except for when the light is about to turn yellow and the jerk in front of me is coasting through the light below the speed limit, on the phone, without a thought to the cars behind him who will spend next few minutes at the 5 way stop light...
