derfA8L

angrypengu

" There's still some tire roar, but this is a pleasantly quiet car. "

We'll have to see if they made a good enough improvement vs the D4. That was my immediate reason for not considering that car.

derfA8L

angrypengu

That's very unlikely to improve the issue.

Goodyear Newsroom : Audi A8 equipped with Goodyear OE tires

It's an acoustic tire! Now if the original review was on 20" tires, then I have hope

Bada Bing

I don't understand the corporate strategy of AoA of introducing the D5 A8 with the 335-hp V6 only. The A8 will get compared to its competitors right now when it's brand new. Next summer when the V8 comes out, the A8 will be old news. You never get a second chance to make a first impression and I think for their flagship luxury sedan, they should have either introduced both V6 and V8 at the same time or start with the V8 first and then add the V6 later on. The 2019 A6 is introduced with the V6 only and they will most likely add a 2.0T model later. That seems like the proper strategy. I don't know why AoA is not being consistent with their launch strategy. They seem to hav botched the D5 A8 launch from the beginning. The A6 and A7 were revealed a few months later than the D5 A8 and they got those 2 models launched sooner in the U.S. It perhaps has to do with the Level 3 autonomous driving features not being approved or ready.

My brother saw the new A8 at the LA Auto Show about a year ago and was not impressed at all with the looks. It looked too plain. I'll reserve judgement until I see it in person but the exterior looks bland in pictures and video clips. The A6 and A7 look much more interesting.

derfA8L

angrypengu

Thank you for the insight!

MP4.2+6.0

Yes, some of the delays are about autonomous most likely. They seem to have not realized exactly what they were getting into on the regulatory side. And despite some early runs at it by the big players, at least so far the feds and state governments have not really legislatively given them a free pass on tort liability if (when) systems come up short. Besides that, I think the German co's also maybe misread Tesla some when they realized they couldn't just dismiss them as a fringe high end player, first thinking electro while Tesla was already aggressively pushing autonomous. FWIW, being here in Silicon Valley, I now probably see 50 model S's for every D any generation Audi, and 10 x plus Tesla X minivans in drag frequently at $130-150K an as equipped copy. And maybe the not so safe autonomous approaches along side that legacy players would not be so aggressive about. I think the incumbents now realize (unfortunately) a huge swath of buyers ultimately want the freedom to project they are smart and careful and eco minded and all, yet to text their brains out and pay little attention too often to driving, which Crash Pilot, err Auto Pilot sells into. Meantime the incumbent luxobarge history and big co nature has them move more like the Exxon Valdez, not a PT boat.

V8 specifically is also probably caught up in the change from Audi to Porsche responsibility for V8 motors AND apparently the relocation for Gyor Hungary (where Audi's motors are made generally now) to a German Porsche site. Some moron frankly may also have been thinking of copying BMW's oft strategy here, which is to intro with the mid level motor, and then predictably a year or two later come out with the bigger motor and try to upsell existing customers and excite some new ones. For BMW maybe, for Tesla and bigger batteries and P cars and such maybe, for Audi I don't think they have that kind of fan base for these. Biggest D market new are still Florida geezers too, and that stereotype does not rush to trade every few years like maybe the LA stereotype.

If you look behind the scenes, in past year or so many senior execs in Audi USA were blown out. And its president--seemingly well respected by the dealership owners--ended up moved to VoA top dog position in just last month or so given worse fires there. Doesn't help either when the overall worldwide Audi CEO was literally sitting in jail on no bail pretrial detention for alleged witness intimidation/tampering, predecessor VW CEO (hailing from Audi IIRC) is under US indictment and continuing German criminal investigation, corporation has literally spent $30,000,000,000+ on TDI fraud (majority of its total market cap and much of its cash), and so on. Not in an organization known as ruthlessly top down culture wise historically. What do you do in the real world when you have to look upstairs for a decision in a top down organization almost just to go to the bathroom, while the Deutsche Politzei are literally ransacking German corporate offices every few months, while the CEO is literally in the Kuhler after two years of upper brass previously trying their best Sgt. Schulz know nothing spiels, and the Board takes months to reluctantly even show the yet latest one the ejecto-door--if he gets out of jail? Hard to run business as usual, let alone in a dynamic market with regulatory changes, global competition, rise of China, electro and autonomous.

derfA8L