VCDave

I saw the D4 in our neighborhood and couldn't believe that there was one on the road at all since they are not even available. My wife reminded me of an acquaintance of ours who works for Audi in Germany and is in the US on assignment. She told me he had the car (are you kidding me!) - about 30 seconds later, we're calling him to see if I can get a ride in it. When he picked us up a couple days later, I was shocked to find out it was a W12! What an incredible car! Spent about 90 minutes in it as we drove on some open back roads, down the coast and through a couple canyons. Learned the car is a proto field test unit in service for mechanical/electrical evaluation. This thing was loaded with every possible option and what a technological marvel it is - almost too much. Acceleration was breathtaking and the ease with which he threw that car around was amazing. We drove at night so I unfortunately could not get a good look at some of the exterior details. The LED headlights were very bright - looked great in fact! I lost track on how some of the interior functions worked - definitely something you need to spend time in with to master them all. The panorama glass roof was very cool - just wish I got a chance to experience the car during the daytime.. Now if Audi can just keep these cars from experiencing the myriad of issues that I have had with our D3.. Having spent time in my brother-in-law's S600, this new Audi is hands down a much nicer ride.

Audi S5 TC

I take it your D3 is a 2005 if it is an A8 4.2, 2004 or 2005 if it is an A8L 4.2 or 2005 or 2006 if it is an A8L W12, VCDave.

Most (but by NO means all) A8 4.2s and A8L 4.2s from 2006 to 2010 are not problematic. Most (but, again, by NO means all) S8s and A8L W12s from 2007 to 2009 are not problematic.