derfA8L

The Audi Forum in Manhattan has an Oolong Grey metalic A8 on display. Looked real sharp with a black interior. The Oolong has bit of green mixed in with the grey. Looked real nice, at least in the forum's lighting conditions.

Also saw that the 19-inch tires are now 255X45, not the D3's 255X40. The added profile height should add to ride comfort, I'd imagine; however, not sure how much steering/handling control is compromised---probably minimal.

Glisse

Thanks for posting.

Was it basically what you expected from photos, or a bit different? It is a little difficult to get a sense of how dark, or not, the colour really is...

derfA8L

Indoors it's quite dark, like a very dark cashmere grey. In sunlight it lightens up just a bit and has an interesting greenish-grey/turquoise metalic hue---in essence, mimics the color of oolong tea, and does show off the car's lines quite nicely.

The one I saw had a black interior, and I was a little surprised that I did like the Oolong/Black color como. But I'm thinking about going lighter on the inside---perhaps velvet beige; I think the silk beige would be too light and require too much work to keep up---the vanilla interior I had on my '06 A8 wore me out ;^)) The wife is going to check out the Oolong A8 at the NYC Audi Forum this week, and then we'll decide in which color direction to go.

Glisse

Great description, thanks.

Also good to know the black interior worked well. I've moved away from the A8, as it is a bit too long for parking spaces here in Europe, and the trunk is too small and inflexible for weekend skiing duties. So am about to order an A7.

But when I was working up an A8 with the dealer, who has never seen Oolong grey, I was going for the velvet beige, pearl beige birch, and black alcantara roof. The leather and wood are a tonal match, and contrast nicely with the black dash, etc. Although in the US, I don't think you have as much choice in trim details, such as the piano black rather than aluminium trim section across the dash. As you said, silk beige is much lighter and would be harder to keep clean, notably the carpets/mats.

But my wife hated the lighter colour wood, so this would have been a battle! She likes Oolong, and I will get the S line pack in the A7, which means a black interior. So I was most pleased to read your comments.

derfA8L

The Oolong/Black color combo is very sporty; I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

I think we're going with the A8L, so the instrument panel color for the Velvet Beige interior for the LWB comes in Moor Brown with Velvet Beige upper/lower door panels and carpets---something I'm still undecided about, considering my current A8 has a black interior. Also a bit torn about staying with the A8 or changing to the A7. However, my dealer is front-loading his Jan thru March A8 build allocations right now, so I'm thinking of putting in my order within the next week or so.

Let us know what equipment you're ordering on the A7. It should be a terrific model, but unfortunately here in North America it's being limited (at least initially) to the 3.0 super-charged V6 engine---nothing wrong with that, but I would have liked the 4.2 V8 instead.