clembo

I picked my new A8 Thursday, after a long wait, this is my third A8 so I have been happy with Audi up to this point.

I am surprised how the new car has a better road feel than the old model. I usually drive in Dynamic and it feels a bit smoother on this car yet better connected to the road. The option for having an Individual setting is nice to have. The power also feels stronger, I know the engine has slightly more power but I think the new transmission must be an imrovement since response is improved and fuel milage is up as well, good job Audi.

The interior is upgraded again, really nice materials. I have the Velvet Beige Leather and it contrasts nicely with a Black car. The new MMI will take a bit to get used to, I have not yet become completly comfortable with the new placement but time will tell. The voice command seems much better, but the Jukebox feature does not appear to be easy to use, I need to spend more time with it, why it won't accept CD's is a mystery.

The seats are better, front and back. Seat controls require a little getting used to but the massage function has been improved.

Exterior styling, good but not great, they could have really broken new ground here but chose to be evolutionary instead. The new wheels look nice but will be a pain to keep clean. The LED lights are great, big improvement. I took a nearly 200 mile road trip late yesterday and it was foggy and raining and the lights were great and the car performed well.

A couple of nags would be that the trunk is small, I don't know how a car this big can have such a small trunk. The spare is no longer a full size. I also would hope that a software upgrade will be available when the new feautures that were touted at the product introduction come available.

Overall the car is great, but it should be for $90K. I am happy that I chose it over the others, although I did come very close to getting an S550, I'm glad I didn't.

derfA8L

Congrats Clembo. When my wife chose the Velvet Beige interior I had some doubts, but having seen it recently on a car being delivered at my dealer's store, we really liked it. Can't wait for my car to arrive, but then I'll still have to wait for my current D3 lease to end in mid-April before getting the D4. Again, congrats and have fun! Can't wait for you to post some pics :^)

woofster

Nice review, clembo. I've only seen the Velvet Beige interior in pictures and I think it looks fantastic. Don't be shy about posting up some actual photos to prove this point!

Modena430

You should haver received an offer from Audi to waive the final 4 payments and credit you either $3,000 on purchase/$1,500 lease of a new Audi.

I received the offer a little late....with only 3 lease payments left.....the day AFTER I made a payment. The dealer arranged for a refund of that payment and I received a check from VW Finance.

I suggest you contact a couple of dealers in your area to see what they can do for you.

derfA8L

Yeah, I know about the Audi Loyalty credit, but just checked w/AFS and was told there's no current early release program. When were you offered the move forward program option?

Modena430

I see what happened. I received a post card from Audi Financial around January 21 with the special offer to waive the last 4 payments and allow up to $1,500/$3,000 on the lease/purchase of a new 2011 Audi. That offer expired on March 1.

I'm surprised you dealer can't do something for you. As nice as the A8s are, they aren't exactly flying off the shelves here in bankruptCalifornia.

I contaced several dealers via email and they all seemed pretty anxious to deal.

Best of luck; the 2011 is an awesome ride

derfA8L

Thanks. My dealer would have to buy my car---unfortunately, my buyout is much lower than what AFS would charge them for my D3---the remaining residual value is far lower than the prevailing wholesale market value, which is what AFS charges its dealers. Doesn't make sense for my dealer, and for the 3 to 4 weeks until lease end, it's not worth pressing the issue.

darkop

http://www.carmagazine.co.uk/Drives/...st-CAR-review/Audi




A8 4.2 TDI SE long-term test review
By the CAR road test team
Long Term Tests
16 March 2011 10:00

A8 vs 7-series vs Phaeton vs XJ – 16 March 2011

The A8 may be the least fashionable limo in the directors’ car park, but fashion counts for squat when a car is as good as this. We’ve had around 11,000 miles of flaw-free motoring, which you might well expect. But we’ve enjoyed the experience all the more because the A8 has been designed to impress those on the inside more than it wows passers-by.

I’ve dabbled with a few alternatives recently, to place the A8 into some kind of perspective, and it has been a thought-provoking experience. My previous long-termer was a BMW 730d which, from the driver’s seat, is surely the most formidable opponent. But, while the Seven was imperious to drive, fleet-footed and beautifully controllable on the throttle, its strengths are wasted on a car weighing more than two tonnes.

The traditional handling spat between Audi fans and those of BMW, which BMW invariably wins when CAR has a say in matters, simply doesn’t apply here. The A8 is easily as good, its natural tendency to understeer being blotted out eclipse-like by the sheer force of the 4.2-litre diesel engine. Think I’m kidding? This is a 1995kg car, yet it hits 62mph in 5.5 seconds – half a second behind a Cayman R.

‘But the A8 has no character,’ say its detractors. Really? They ought to try its cousin, the VW Phaeton, a car with less appeal than a night stuck in a lift with Ashley Cole. The Phaeton is ostensibly the same car as the A8, and serves the useful purpose of demonstrating how NOT to do it. Only 50 private buyers felt this was a demonstration worth paying £46,195 for in 2010, and absolutely all of them would have been better off forking around £20k more for the A8. The Phaeton looks dated and frumpy, has no steering feel and the interior appears to have been beamed up from 1978. Awful.

To be fair, the interior of our particular A8 is a bit special, having been hand crafted from cows the colour of Cadbury’s Dairy Milk. It bumps the price by a ludicrous £12,000 to an even more ludicrous £95,050, and punts this particular A8 into a stratosphere it can’t sustain. But at £65,390 basic it’s a steal.

Then there’s the Jaguar XJ. Here’s a car that ought by rights to sweep away the Audi’s Germanic heft with a wave of British sovereignty. It doesn’t. Despite artful use of aluminium and a peachy drivetrain, the Jag can’t resolve its external design issues. The back end and rear three-quarter don’t grow on you – they grow apart from you. Whereas the Audi’s initially plain lines become more confident, more settled, with each day.

The Jag interior has been heaped with so much praise in certain quarters that it’s virtually invisible, but I think it’s an over-egged, one-trick pony (the trick being: it’s quite funky the first couple of times) that basically doesn’t work very well. The touchscreen is unworkable unless your eyes are firmly off-road and the gear ‘selector’ looks nice but isn’t as good as a trad stick. Audi’s MMI, here with handwriting recognition, and helm-like lever both work better.

Basically it’s like this: the A8 gets better every time you get into it and looks better every time you approach it. Nothing else in the class does the same.

By Greg Fountain

jetinder

As I left the office today, a lady said "you look really happy, how come?". All I said was "I get to drive my car".

The smile just gets bigger each time I drive it.

Hopefully, the TDI will make it to the US soon (although I have a feeling it may not be the 4.2. So probably the 3.0 single turbo - or yet to come twin turbo that I've heard rumours of).

Jet

darkop

3rd Place: BMW 750Li
2nd Place: Jaguar XJL Supercharged
1st: Place: Audi A8L