Review: 2011 Audi A8

I must admit to losing track of how many times my hapless copilot gave them - and countless other unpublishable phrases - from the front passenger seat during our drive. But if I honestly, it does not hold a candle to the endless chain of explicative through my own mind.
The reason? I'm running piloting a 2011 Audi A8 by a particularly winding stretch of California asphalt between the Monterey Valley and the Pacific coast, and for the better part of 20 miles, the driver of a tuned BMW 335i at the top not seen anything other than the A8 massive slatted grille in his rearview mirror. Equally impressive - if not more so - the pair worked E36 M3 over that time are hard to keep up. And these guys are locals. You have this way has been running for over a decade, just to show me and spoil their ragtag demonstration in the latest Audi luxo-boxer.
I want to believe that my hairpin exploits and high-speed capers evidence of my own abilities, but I'm not so blind. I have equipped with the standard car journo hamfists issued, and to think otherwise is to fall prey driving madness and insulting the work of the Ingolstadt-based magician. Audi A8 is new only as good and the steering is only half. If you're not in love with the look of this latest flagship, you're not alone. Audi back to its Germanic roots, a sausage in the three sizes, so that less can get obsessive types have a hard time about a A4 A8 from 50 yards out have. Me? I've always been a preference for the D3 chassis (2002-2009), the mixed stately elegance with an understated air of superiority. It never looked threatening, but it came as impressive. Not so with the D4.
Viewed head, above the grille, a survey crew has a wingspan estimate must make during the square bank of LEDs look like Droopy Dog on the A8 with electroluminescent eyeliner. In profile, Audi designers simply embiggened did the A4, the roof line by 30 percent in Photoshop, the same on the back and called it a day. We can not blame them, because the sheer size of this latest A8 - an astonishing 202.2 cm trunk-to-tail with a wheelbase of 117.8 inches - enough to make it from the rest of the luxo-pleebs.But when the road separated is walking distance to your taste, once in the 22-way adjustable sports seats located, all reservations are put firmly to rest. How to create a luxury interior to do, and embedded in the light of the four rings on the chunky steering wheel, we have come to expect nothing less.
The driver's instrument cluster is standard fare, especially if the "virtual instruments" compared to the Jaguar XJ, but what it lacks in eye-opening effect, it makes up in clarity and functionality. Nestled between the tachometer and speedometer Audi is the central seven-inch information display, a screen that keeps everything from navigation directions of infotainment information in front of the driver. The optional Night View Assist with Thermal Imaging Infrared Camera mounted in the front bumper can track by pedestrians and animals crossing the A8 to keep in the way that the driver with a short sound and visual warning. Trick, but nothing that we are not in the current Mercedes-Benz S-Class.

But seen what really impressed - and where this Audi stands out - with the first application of the MMI touch interface. Located on the left side of the center console and perfectly placed to give the driver his or her forearm on the yacht-inspired gearshift lever, the rest rectangular touch pad allows you simply write letters with your fingertip and easily scroll through the menus. Gone are the days of endless rotation of the MMI knob to navigate input an address where you a phone contact, select a station or XM map on the flip-up, center-mounted display. The MMI Touch is certainly the killer app A8 and Audi rivals hope better that the patent application has more holes than the Steelers defense.
But the team from Ingolstadt has not stopped there. In addition to the de Rigu adaptive cruise control, blind spot detection and Audi Lane Assist (walk from the road and the steering wheel vibrate gently), Audi will begin with an optional factory-installed Wi-Fi hotspot, connect not only to any number of WiFi devices, it can explore a fully integrated Google Earth into the MMI system. It was while not equipped on our $ 80k and lower tester (it is not in the U.S. for a few months) we had to try the possibility of the system at a media event and came away with the performance impressed, but not the graphics . It's nice, but with the topographical and satellite images in use by BMW and other manufacturers, it does not look visually and the graphic standard satellite navs.However polished, sanded not even begin to describe the available Bang & Olufsen Advanced Sound system. Nineteen-speakers, 19 channels and 1,400 watts of B & O patented sonic splendor are available at one's disposal. During my week parked the car, the system has sent more than a few "driveway moments" where I sat, not rays of Kleptones "at the latest while reveling in dynamic highs and rich bass, and my neighbors were worse for the wear -. With doors and windows closed to closed, not a trace of perfectly matched the mid-80s, mashups seeps out of the cabin.
There are certainly more than enough to impress to the interior of the A8, but Audi is the statement of the standard-wheelbase sedan as its driver the car, so that the "prestige, sportiness and comfort" to the elongated and plush-packed A8L. So, how was it? Walking, as if I have not given up enough in the opener, it's great. The combination of the lightweight aluminum space frame chassis and the 372 horsepower means 4.2-liter direct-injection V8 the A8 is on par with his colleagues, but brings the addition of rear-biased Quattro Audi all-wheel-drive it into a new area. While the engine power is far from the world class, the 328-pound-feet of torque starting at 3,500 rpm from more than enough to consider to merge effortlessly with blown highway-and three-digit no. But what impresses more than anything else, the ability chuck full of what is - by all appearances - a heavy, solid sheets of aluminum and steel.
Forget the official 0-60 mph time of 5.7 seconds. It is simply not a factor. Instead, Audi's chassis and powertrain dance inventors have focused on making this big boy. And it does. You would not believe that something so great and this could Lux is fast on its feet, the response to steering movements with immediacy and the selection of his eight perfect conditions to kill the power, but it works. And she does it with clinical precision, not leave the, the driver from the mix - a nice trick that is often missing in the thin air of the sports executive set.With the Audi drive select dynamic set, a Cray worth of computing power seamlessly tweaks the adaptive air suspension and S4-derived sport differential virtually eliminate understeer and allow mid-corner points raised by force, that massive track schnoz in curves. My companions are driving left shaking their heads and I'm left with a steadfast grin. These kind of antics should not be possible, but it creates the A8 thanks to a smorgasbord of animated physics electronics to hack wrapped a number of steadfast, fade-free stops and 20-inch wheels in the sticky summer rubber. And it's not just what has to - Excellence is baked-in. Thanks to its stiff aluminum chassis fits dressed body, the Audi is easy to move less mass than its competitors. The A8 controls on £ 4,409, while the Mercedes-Benz S550 and BMW 750i £ 4,455 checks from rich weighs 4641 pounds. This may not sound like a huge difference, but you also remember that the A8 are brighter, while toting around all-wheel-drive.If you are interested in such things, manages Audi fuel consumption estimated at 21 city and 27 highway, and I managed to on average about 19 mpg during a nine-day stretch - easily in the immediate vicinity of the two flagship Benz and Lexus ... Hybrids.
When the time came for motor up Highway One to a very late dinner, I set the system to select Individual (suspension in comfort, the rest in Dynamic) and the front seat massagers for me and my companion amping. "You're kidding me $%#^@#&, right?" No, no I'm not, my vocabulary-challenged friend. And neither is Audi. In the absence of a better term, old luxury they have also been informed and infused some very welcome "sport" in his flagship.