2005 Audi A8 Test Drive

Awesome Audi

If you're in the market for a midsize luxury SUV, do yourself a favor and consider the elegant and powerful Audi A8.

From The Driver's Seat

Do the Hummer H2 or Porsche Cayenne have more passenger room than an Audi A8? The A8 has 114 cubic feet of interior volume; the Cayenne, which ranges in price from $41,000 to $89,000, has slightly less than 100 cubic feet; the H2, which stickers at $52,430, may or may not have more room. We can't tell you for sure because the wily folks at GM don't publish interior volume figures on their H2. Anecdotally, though, we can tell you that the cockpit of the H2 feels like a cave. The metal-to-glass ratio favors light-averse people or those brandishing M-16s. Meaning, even if it's actually fairly roomy inside an H2 (and it's not tremendously roomy in the backseat), it feels a bit tight.

Meanwhile, comparing the quality of the cabins is no contest. Yes, the Cayenne is sharp-looking inside, and more premium models look progressively swankier. And the H2 is properly butch, but hardly a tour de force of design. Sitting in the A8, on the other hand, is like having a corner table at the Four Seasons. Nothing this side of a Bentley Continental GT -- Audi's parent, Volkswagen, owns Bentley -- has a cabin this beautiful.

And owning this car means that even before you climb aboard, it "knows" you're nearby. As you approach the vehicle, don't bother to pull the key fob from your pocket; just lift the door handle. The car will unlock, and even start, without you ever removing the fob. And this system is more goof-proof than some we've tried. For instance, on a few other systems out there you can accidentally walk away from the car without shutting down all of the electronics -- potentially leading to a dead battery. Fail to shut all the systems down on the A8, and the car beeps at you and a screen on the dash will tell you to push the "engine off" button again to secure the car.

But we're skipping ahead.

First, just admire the polished walnut interior (sycamore and birch are also options). Note the brushed aluminum brightwork at the steering wheel, the shift bezel, the door levers and even on each vent control. Eyeball the Valcona leather upholstery. This cabin has seats so body-conforming (with optional seat heaters all around, by the way) and supportive, you don't want to get out when you arrive at your destination.

We could go on in this vein, but let's cut to the chase: This car's interior is styled richly, but not ostentatiously. The mood of the A8 cabin isn't board-room stuffy, nor is it so hyperactively technical that you feel as if you should be driving in a lab coat.

True, there's one flaw in the Audi math: The Multi Media Interface digital car control system that can be every bit as frustrating to operate as BMW's iDrive. Here's but one example. Say you spy a set of turns ahead and you want to firm up the splendid pneumatic suspension a tad (you can choose from four settings, from plush to very firm). First, touch a button labeled CAR on the center field of switches, which resides near the gear selector. Then turn the dial at the center of that field of switches while gazing at the LED screen at the top of the dash to see if you're at the suspension setting you want.

With a little practice you could get that done in less than ten seconds. Unless of course the CAR setting had last been displaying one of its submenus, of which there are many. You might have to scroll backward to the suspension menu, by which point you'll have either given up or already bombed through that set of turns you were relishing. It's all too distracting.

Maybe all that technology is why people are buying crossovers instead? Nice try. Play with the suspension adjustments in the Cayenne for a while, and that conclusion will quickly be dispelled.

Speaking of suspensions -- and engines -- we're simply smitten with the way the A8 performs. To pit this car against its hypothetical rivals, the H2 and Cayenne, is nearly laughable. The H2 takes about 11 seconds to get to 60 mph. The Audi's splendid 335-hp V-8 can hustle this car to 60 mph in 6.3 seconds. The only Cayenne that's faster than the Audi A8 is the Turbo; its 450-hp motor can carry the roughly 5,500-pound (depending on options) Porsche to 60 mph in 5.5 seconds.

That's fast, but that Cayenne also only gets 13/18 city/highway mpg fuel economy and costs $89,300. The Audi gets a respectable 18/24 city/highway mpg, and we actually got about 26 mpg during a 140-mile trip. Do you really have to ask about the Hummer's mileage? As for handling, the Porsche could probably give chase to the Audi, but not without some very careful attention paid to its higher center of gravity.

In fact, we had an opportunity to do our own emergency lane-change maneuver in the A8. Driving in a rainstorm on the interstate, a car slammed on its brakes in front of us. We quickly hit the Audi's brakes, noticed that the car ahead was starting to skid, but saw that the adjacent lane was open and darted into it, then pounded the throttle to accelerate past what became a three-car pileup that rapidly spilled into two lanes. In any SUV or crossover such a maneuver would have been much more harrowing. In the all-wheel-drive A8 it was stunningly easy -- if pulse-quickening.