Hammerli

Well, mostly sweet. I LOVED my Macan GTS, enjoyed it immensely, as my Wife's Cayenne is our most used vehicle, I had the passenger seat somewhat forwards and our 4 yr. old behind that seat, worked great. Then came the infant, and suddenly I had to fit an infant seat behind my seat (I'm 6'3"), requiring a very large movement into uncomfortable territory, or eliminate the leg room for the 4 yr. old, neither really worked out, after a month of struggling, had to face the reality that while I could force myself to make it work, it was not going to be enjoyable.

So 2017 A8L 4.0T! Awesome vehicle to put kids in, really enjoying it, different than the Macan, but largely better for what I need right now. Do not yet have 1K miles on it, but there are just a few things I really miss from the Macan.

Full leather interior. Had the GTS Leather/Alcantara interior in the Macan, black with rd stitching, loved that the upper and lower door panels were black leather with the red stitching. Seems like such a small thing, but I enjoyed it. I have the black/nougat interior, and maybe the special interior packages have greater leather coverage, but I could not find one nearby like that, so I don't know?

Miss the Porsche 3 spoke steering wheel. Same basic wheel that is in my 2017 911, perfect size, the knurled, angled wheels for adjusting controls just felt right.

Miss the buttons for sport, sport plus, exhaust tone and suspension settings. I actually used those all of the time. I loved that Sport raised the RPM slightly, changed the exhaust tone, and altered the suspension settings without going into any menus, I know, I know, I could have bought an S8, maybe should have, but wanted the extra 4", when you sit in them back to back, that difference is not insignificant.

But overall, the A8L is the FAR better vehicle for us right now. The acceleration is faster than the Macan, but different, the Macan off the line was more aggressive, but the A8 builds faster and is noticeably stronger as speed increases.

I am about to search the forum for what the weird noise in the dash of an alien compressing a tiny, audible spring about 5 times in a row occasionally is, but this car is very well thought out. I love that I can still use the Porsche "Auto Rest" functionality that runs the interior fan for 20 minutes after shutting the car off to circulate warm air, use that daily here in MI winter.

Apologize for the long ramble, just excited about new car!

Ngerstman

It is what it is. A vehicle the size of an a8 will not have the certain fun factor of a much smaller one like a Macan. But you own perhaps the best large luxury sedan on the market, I test drove a more expensive Mercedes s550 and it didn't drive as well as the Audi, not close. The Audi is fast, well made, comfortable, gorgeous interior, big and handles well for the size, a great family cruiser. Enjoy. Regards. Ned.

Jack88

I'd bet the noise is the hard drive. Congratulations on the purchase!

dwboston

I have that same noise in my A8. Seems to happen in the same places when I'm driving - my assumption is it's happening as I'm passing the same cell towers. As a test I've pulled the SIM for Audi Connect, turned off my mobile phone, and shut off bluetooth, but the noise persists. Not sure what it is.

dwboston

Interesting. Is it normal or a sign of a failing hard drive? I never noticed it during two test drives or initially when I got the car, but I hear it at least two or three times during a 40 minute drive to and from work.

Hammerli

Thanks! That is the result my search turned up as well. I was surprised it wasn't a SSD, but glad it was an identifiable normality.

Psy Wagon

Considered a Macan myself but couldn't get past the space and elegance of the A8L!

Audis or VWs 4Life

After switching from a B8 S4 to 991.1, the only major thing I miss is the Audi infotainment system. Porsche's stuff is maybe a 6 or a 7 on scale of 1 to 10 where Audi is a 10 in this department. I know the 991.2's improved a bit in that area, but it still isn't as good as what Audi was putting out several year ago let alone now. Then again I didn't switch to a 991 to get a better infotainment system.

Hammerli

I struggle with this. Conceptually I want the car to have the latest and greatest, but for me that is largely wasted. I listen to a couple NPR stations, and a few music stations. Other than those 5 presets, I do not remember the last time I used nav, never use the Apple Car Play in the 911, don't want to store music in the car, or do anything other than the occasional phone call, nearly always to my wife, so want access to recent calls. Frankly what I would prefer on that screen is a configurable gauge cluster. The new screen itself is really nice in the Porsches, but like the infotainment in all of my cars, largely useless in reality.

Audis or VWs 4Life

I miss the TMC accuracy and formatting mainly. Nav is crap in comparison. Also the way audi handled music was much better then porsche. Though I think they are now at parity on the music side in the 991.2.

Phone vs, Phone, I would say its even maybe slight edge to Porsche there because you have buttons to specifically hang up or answer.

I daily the 991 so I am constantly driving in situations where the TMC was so much more helpful in the Audi.

One thing I don't miss is the non-existent steering feel of the S4 versus the 991. At times I would love to add a D3 or D4 back into the line up, but I have to wait until I have the 991 paid off, other wise my wife might choke me out.