Took delivery of silver A8L on January 11. Can compare with silver 1997 A8, silver 2005 A8L and silver 2006 A8L. First impressions are dominated by the loss of features taken for granted in earlier models but now missing, either completely or simply dumbed down. For example, the four seat memories on each side are now redeuced to two. Tire pressures and temperatures can no longer be viewed in the MMI. Seats were most comfortable in the 1997, which also had inch thick wool floor mats. The D3 models added seat massage but the seats were less comfortable. The D4 seats have even more bells and whistles, but so far they seem to be even less comfortable. Quite a dissapointment. Better floor mats can be found at Walmart. License plate attachments are a noticeable detraction from the otherwise meticulous attention to detail in the styling. We really miss the loss of space in the trunk. The car is longer and wider, but the trunk is markedly shorter. Go figure? The glove box is smaller (where do you keep the manual?). So are the other storage areas.

On the happy side, the adaptive cruise control has exceeded my expectations. I liked the ACC in the 2006, which dropped out at speeds below 20 mph. The 2011 is operational to a complete stop, performing it exactly as I would myself, and resumes by simply pushing the accellerator pedal". Love it, but it is too bad that I can no longer set the default following distance from the MMI. The weather and roads have been very bad since day one, so it has not been possible to have a really good test drive as of yet. Thus far it drives very nicely: very quiet. This is my first experience with the side assist radar and the night vision. The side assist works wonderfully and I can see that it will become a gotta have. So far I haven't found the night vision to be very useful, other than for checking for the patterns of heat loss from the neighbor's garage doors.

I haven't done justice to either the positive or negative characteristics, but may flesh this out later. I gave up keeping track of BMW, Mercedes and Lexus, so I can't compare the 2011 A8L any of them. In past years, however, I couldn't find any reason to leave Audi. Still, I wonder if they also have trimmed so many of the features that made their cars stand out from the pack. I simply do not understand the move to oversimplify and dumb down a great car, especially when there has been no significant cost saving to justify it. Why, for example, must the functionality of the MMI be reduced while the cosmetics are improved?

I was saying to myself while reading your post.... all for a lower price, right? However, you answered that in your second to last sentence. Historically, VW and Audi offered an introductory price on new models either a line item knocking off a thousand or two bucks or inclusion of an options package gratis.

At least your MMI has the touchpad to write in letters which is a nice feature. Are you absolutely certain that the display of tire pressures & temperatures is no longer there? Is it just an "idiot light" indication? Does it tell you which tire at least? GM cars with the two line dot matrix display on the speedometer tell you what each tire pressure is. I rent enough to know that.

The glove box is smaller (where do you keep the manual?). So are the other storage areas.


In my 2011 NWB, there is a space behind the rear seat console and behind the trunk access door, there is just enough space for the manual. If your LWB has reclining seats, this space may/may not be there.

I can only compare my A8 to my prior MB S500 whose ride was more isolated from the road, a lovely cloud-like experience, but nowhere near the lively performance, handling and acceleration of the A8.

Enjoy your ride, you made the right choice (so far, at least until the S8 is released... )

Cheers,

doctorharrison

Cost for same feature set has increased by 12%. No, there definitely is no tire information until something goes wrong. How wrong before a warning? No one knows.

In regards to the TPMS what they did was go to idiot sensors. A quick visit to Tire Rack confirms what they did and I will quote from their site: "Important Notes:
This vehicle relies on the wheel speed sensors in the hubs to monitor the tire pressure differences. Although no tire sensors are required, a TPMS reset is required so the vehicle learns the new tire overall diameters."

So in other words no true wheel mounted TPMS sensor. It keeps an eye on the tire diameter and if it sees a rapid change it will inform you.

What I think happened was Audi felt that the service and warranty customer headache was not worth it from the D3 era. They also had supporting data from the Audi/VW cars made from the mid 2000's to around 2009 when they started to cut over to this hub based sensor. I won't lie those sensors are buggy and it causes 90% of the dtc's I see in my car.

Also the wheel sensors die after 60-72 mos of service. I know this because I have an 06 D3 and the sensors in my winter/stock 18's are going south. Sometimes they work sometimes they don't. Its very annoying to get falses because the sensors lose communication.

It sucks a bit more too when you find out they cost $125 a pop, you do 5 wheels and you're out $625 bucks let alone the cost to have them put in. My plan since my winter wheels are running low on tread is to ride out the winter and replace the sensors when they mount a new set of snows. Ironically my snow tires will likely cost only $830, either way its a 1k plus job just in materials. Summer wheels are fine since I have only 20 months on those sensors.

Bottom line is they wanted to meet the DOT regulations about having TPMS and they didn't want to make a huge on going cost to its customers. (who I am sure complained)

I personally love knowing the temperature and pressure my tires are operating at, and don't mind paying the price for the capability. I am sure in that sense I am in the minority and while others here may agree with my views, Audi played to the general population not the enthusiast population.

I know in the future it will get better because the word is tire manufactures are working on a global industry standard and building the sensors into the tires them selves. That way a 5 year battery life wont matter much since you'll like burn them up in that time anyway, unless your car is a garage queen.

Those are the wheel speed sensors used for ABS, ESP, Traction control etc. For a tire monitoring function calculated by the ABS; If a tire revolution/mile figure changes dramatically one one wheel end vs. the others, the warning indication will be triggered.

Being an outstanding German company, I'm sure Audi is passing the savings in hardware on to the consumer.