audi a8 driving impressions (long)

[Eliot Lim <eliot@u.washington.edu>]

Just drove the a8q 4.2 this morning.  Here are my impressions:

exterior:

tastefully understated in fine tradition.  the car doesn't shout "the
owner has lots of $$$" which i think is a feature in today's climate.
the gold chain crowd could probably go have the grille and badges
gold plated i suppose.

the car had the optional 17 inch forged 5 spoke alloys that look like
those on the A4.. on closer inspection one finds that they are polished
aluminum and have a gentle sheen on them.  another nice subtle touch.

like its predecessor, the rear indicators look red when off, but comes
on orange when in use.  always liked that..

the xenon (?) headlights are special in terms of their intensity and
color.  i actually saw an a8 in toronto on the highway going in the
opposite direction.  among a mass of cars one notices an exceptionally
blue and bright set of headlights.  those of the a8's.

overall, i still prefer the a4's styling.  the a4 is chic and lively
while the a8 is mature.  you can see the demographics inspired styling
at work here.  and you can probably guess which group i belong to.


interior:

the test car did not have the wonderfully stylish 3 spoke steering
wheel found in the a4.  instead it had an all black rectangular affair
which we find in most ordinary cars.  i would consider the
unavailability of the 3 spoke wheel a minus.  right now it appears
that such a wheel would not be in character with the a8's intended
audience.

the seats are leather of course, and one notices that the quality of
the nappa leather is of a higher quality than in previous audis.
the texture and the softness are quite noticeable.

the seats have much improved adjustment controls featuring electrically
operated lumbar and headrests in addition to the usual height and
rake adjustments.  even the rear seats are electrically adjustable,
with headrests being adjustable from both front and rear.

the face level vents now have a separate temperature control adjustment,
which will put an end to the endless debate on which is better, cold or
warm air to the face.  the climate control now have separate adjustments
for driver and front passenger.  rear passengers now had vents from both
the center console as well as on the sides behind the "B" pillar.

the 4.2Q was missing front armrests that were present in the 3.7 fwd.
curious.  the 3.7 fwd also had an electrically operated rear windscreen
shade as well as shades for the rear side windows.  this must be part
of the warm weather package.  however the 4.2 had the solar sunroof
as well.  the solar sunroof means that there's no glass "moonroof".

while there is an abundance of wood and high quality plastics and
cloth i have to comment that the interior styling is a step down in
elegance compared to its predecessor.  i found it to be too fussy.
for example, on the front windscreen pillar, there are no less than 3
individual vents.  the shiny aluminum shifter gate does not seem to
blend well with the delicious wood.  the center vents don't blend in
nicely with the dash like in the previous generation car.  the trip
computer is now almost a lap top screen with lines and lines of text.
e.g. "depress brake to move shifter out of park".  it can't be turned
off either.  overall there is too much of a visual overload in the a8
interior.

i prefer the a4's simple and functional interior.  with the a4, the
economy of gadgets and controls led to its clean and functional elegance.


dynamics:

wonderful, and a major advance over the old 3.6 V8Q.  the 3.6 V8Q always
felt heavy, with heavy steering (or worse, ridiculously light and numb
servotronic in the later cars), heavy brakes, thumpy ride (especially with
UFOs).  the most embarassing aspect of the old slush V8's performance was
its drag racing ability.  it simply did not want to move if you floored it
from a standstill, while the 5 speed v8 did not have a particularly good
shift quality and a 1st gear that was so low that the engine ran out of
revs very early.  the 4.2 A8 by contrast is almost the direct opposite.
flooring it will launch the car so spectacularly that you will feel your
neck snap.  this car will be a killer traffic light dragster, because
there are 4 wheels to put the power down and enormous grunt to hurl you
into warp speed.  the biggest complaint of the old v8 has been addressed
in a major way.

not only is the acceleration from rest mighty impressive, the overall
feel of the car is also special.  the brakes are enormously powerful,
no doubt helped by the low weight of the car.  the suspension copes
with any kind of spirited driving with arrogant ease.  there's no
roll, squat or dive noticeable even when caned really hard.  there is
an effortless serenity in the way that it handles these demands.  like
a super fit athlete it doesn't break a sweat when seriously
challenged; the car will ride over potholes, longitudinal ridges and
depressions like they were not there.  definitely as smooth as a lexus
without the lexus' wallowing and floaty sensations.  for once you can
have your cake and eat it. i think this is the quality where the
critical acclaim comes from.  the dealers are distributing CAR
magazine's article where it was declared "the best car in the world".

i rode in the 3.7 fwd briefly and have to say that even with its 200
pound advantage, the 4.2's extra cubic inches more than make up for
it.  i cannot see any reason for anyone to choose the 3.7 fwd over the
4.2.  when you are up in the $60K range you are not buying basic
transportation and the small savings for the 3.7 fwd presents a
very weak argument indeed.

on the highway, the 4.2 with its taller final drive ratio did not have
a noticeably superior overtaking grunt as the old 3.6 V8.  the 3.6
V8's forte was always its ability to do very rapid overtaking bursts
while already on the move.

i played with the tiptronic shifter briefly and was not too infatuated
with it, since there were only 4 ratios to play with.  and the reason
why american a8s will not have tiptronic is because tiptronic so far
does not work with 5 ratios.  and audi of america wants the 5 speed
slush with its hyperdrive 5th gear to escape gas guzzler taxes.  it is
a shame that they did not retain the mercedes style zig zag gate of
the old car, because that would have made tiptronic unnecessary.

the audi V6 of the a4 with its modest output sounds better than the
muffled 4.2 V8.  with extra measures taken to reduce noise the v8 is
now even less audible than before and the rorty bark of the old 3.6 is
greatly diminished.  there is now little motivation to rev her up just
to enjoy the powerplant music.  it is needless to mention that the 4.2
v8 is smooth, quiet and serene at all speeds and all loads.

the a8 comes with servotronic steering and after several years of
evolution it is now quite ok.  still a hint of numbness at low
speeds but no longer offensively so.  the a4 with less weight
doesn't need servotronic and thus has a more direct and accurate
steering while being just as light.

encouraged by its light and agile feel, i proceeded to take a medium
speed bend with some gusto.  as expected the suspension more than
coped.  the car remained as unruffled as a buckingham palace guard.
what was surprising was that understeer crept in early.  the
"on-rails" feel of many older quattros was gone.  i read that this was
dialed in on purpose and not a fundamental weakness with the
suspension.  i don't remember the reasoning but i suspect that not too
many of the traditional Q enthusiasts will enjoy it.  with understeer,
the natural instict was to back off, thus it was not entirely
enjoyable.  i like to drive Qs with a heavy foot when powering out of
the apex and feel the car pull the g forces.  it appears that this
practice is being discouraged by the a8's suspension set up.

the car had 17X7 wheels and 225/55 goodyear GSAs.  not too generous if
you recall that the later urQs weighing over a thousand pounds less
had 225/50s on 8 inch wheels.  it would also be a waste to lose those
beautiful polished and forged alloys.  perhaps with stickier rubber
one could drive this car more like a traditional Q hooligan, but
perhaps that was not in the design script.


conclusions:

there is no doubt that the audi a8 represents a major advance in
luxury car design.  for about the same price as a LS400 it is
significantly superior in its dynamics and feel, as well as its
engineering.  it can match or exceed all the luxury qualities of its
rivals such as gadgets, ride and quietness and then as a bonus serve
up sports car agility and stopping power that none of its rivals can
match. the "new" LS400 has been eclipsed in a major way, and i suspect
the same applies to the benz S and bmw 7.

while i was tremendously impressed at audi's tour de force i was not
smitten by it.  the a4 was the car that captured my heart with its
beautifully chic styling and lively entertaining personality.  it
rides almost as well as the a8 and has better steering, handling and
roadholding.  it does not have the sheer grunt of the a8 and it did
not have the luxo gizmos, which i consider a feature rather than a
liability.

and for those who care, the a4 does not have the same prestige.  it is
clear that the a8's target audience is not me but i suspect that it
will be a big hit among those that audi is trying to woo.  it is not
the Q enthusiasts that will have the $$$ to purchase an A8 and audi
has recognized that.  perhaps the S8, if it ever makes it here will be
more my kind of big audi.  until then i'll lust for a M3 killing A4
with little or no gadgets.


eliot