Category: Large Executive 
Price Range: £49,995 to £80,995
Refined engines, very good automatic gearbox, excellent seats, good quality interior, ease of use of major controls
Some tyre hum, higher-speed suspension control, functionality of MMI and minor controls, a little conservative on the inside
As the sporting answer to the luxury segment, the A8 doesn't come across as all that sporting, but it is competent and accomplished. As a follow-up to the previous A8, it's the car you could have predicted Audi would make, if not the car you'd hoped it might
For a car of this girth, the A8 is very easy to punt along. Visibility is restricted a little about the rear, but you'll get a parking radar, so it shouldn't be a problem. The automatic gearbox is one of the smoothest around, the brakes have a good weight and progressive feel, while the steering, which weights up as speed rises, becomes extremely light (disconcertingly, actually) at manoeuvring speeds to make parking easier. Adaptive cruise control, which automatically retains a gap from the car in front of you on a motorway, is optional, while if you opt for the keyless start/stop function with fingerprint recognition, the car will adjust to your personal settings when you put your finger on the start button. Funky. One thing, though - the dash-mounted screen for the controls might be in the right place, but the MMI system's control panel, which you use to scroll through the menus, isn't, as it's down behind the gearlever, so you have to shift your gaze to find the right buttons to press. Buttons on the edge of the screen, or even a touch-screen system, might be a better idea. The A8 is aimed at the enthusiastic driver in this segment, so it's reasonable to expect a trade-off in comfort for a bit more action behind the steering wheel. To be frank, on the models we've tried, it doesn't give away much of either. It's still comfortable, but it's not much more sporty than its rivals. There are four options on the air-suspension system - lift (which raises the car a bit), comfort (meant to be cushy), automatic (looks after itself), and dynamic (firmer and more sporting). You'll probably leave it on automatic after a while. An optional Sport pack lowers the ride height by 20mm and has thicker anti-roll bars, and loses the 'Comfort' setting in favour of 'Ultra-dynamic' - up to 50 percent of UK buyers will take this up, 30-40 percent elsewhere in Europe. In standard form, the A8 doesn't feel as dynamic as the old Sport model. The steering steers, but offers no tactility and feels very artificially weighted, while the benefits of that aluminium construction certainly don't surprise you when you push into a corner like a previous A8, which felt more nimble. There's some diagonal pitch in higher-speed motorway bends too, and the A8 takes a little while to settle over bumps on those occasions. The Sport models promise to be a little more agile, but the A8 is still not particularly involving.
There's a 3.0-litre six-cylinder petrol, two V8 petrol motors (3.7 and 4.2), plus two diesels - 3.0 six and 4.0 V8. A W12 petrol is coming. None of the petrol engines is short on pace, though the 3.7 doesn't feel quite as powerful as expected. All are extremely quiet and refined. So is the four-litre turbodiesel, possibly our choice of the range, while the 3.0-litre straight-six is fine. Power for all is delivered through a good, smooth, six-speed automatic gearbox, with tiptronic over-ride on the gearshift lever, or via optional paddles on the steering wheel.
Latest Readers' Drives About the Audi A8
wrote on 05 05 2007