Instead, they’ll ask about the foot massages and admire the mood lighting. They’ll comment on the air ionizer and the churchlike quiet of the cabin. They’ll want to use the flatscreens and heated seats. This is as it should be—the advances of today’s cars allow us to use and appreciate them without having to know or even care about the inner workings of the chassis.
“This is the nicest car I have ever been in,” said Evan Ortiz, Bloomberg’s photo editor, as I drove him and our food critic, Kate Krader, home one evening. I wanted to get some non-car people inside the A8 to give me some feedback. “It feels very special, like a sense of occasion,” Krader gushed.
Large luxury sedans are difficult to write about because, at this point in the history of modern automotive manufacturing, they’re all very good. They all offer big-engine, long-wheelbase versions with supple leather massaging seats; crystal-clear heads-up and crash-avoidance displays; and perks such as air purifiers, fragrance disseminators, and extensive rear-seat entertainment systems that are on par with private theaters.
Choosing the best one for you is often more about brand loyalty and marketing than it is about one car being better than another.
And in the scheme of things, that’s really where Audi AG’s latest—the biggest car in its line, and the fourth generation of its star—is now. It’s special because it represents the Ingolstadt, Germany-based automaker’s shot at competing directly against the exceptional and heretofore dominant town cars from BMW and Mercedes, the $83,650 7 Series and $91,250 S-Class, respectively.
The Mythos black A8 that I drove cost $102,000. (That figure includes the $83,800 base price and some serious executive-style upgrades, which I’ll dissect in a moment.) Others from BMW AG and Mercedes-Benz AG routinely cost mid-six figures as you get into the “executive-level” packages that offer extra room, foldout working tables, extra rear-seat controls, and the like. The 2019 A8 feels less like the coach-built interior of a private jet and more like the inside of an intimate office or control room. Four-zone climate control, leather detailing, LED lighting, two large sunroofs, and a rearview camera come standard, as does the center-placed rear-seat console full of knobs to control climate, audio, and entertainment settings
As the third party in what’s largely been a binary race for luxury sedan preeminence, Audi’s A8 offers consumers what’s often a welcome out from the stranglehold they may feel choosing between the two brands that have owned the segment for decades.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.