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.

Should You Buy This Car?

Many readers are surely thinking that this whole exercise of comparing a slow-selling luxury sedan to faster-selling SUVs is bizarre. Nobody, surely, shops between these specific vehicles, right?

However, if what you're looking for is luxury, style and head-turning looks, we do actually think the trend today is to try to get those qualities from an SUV or crossover. What this reviewer fails to understand, however, is why Americans continue to hurt themselves in doing so. It's not mileage we're talking about. If you have more than $50,000 to spend, you're surely not worried about paying $1,000 to $2,000 more in gasoline a year.

But life is short. And if you do have that kind of money, why not spend it wisely, on a car that can give you a better daily driving experience? For $50,000 or more you can have a car that offers something tremendous -- the apotheosis of 100 years of automotive technology. Or you can have a truck with technology circa 1980, with a bunch of leather and foam packed inside to dim the noise of the roadway. No truck-based vehicle like a Navigator or Escalade will have the dynamic ride or emergency maneuverability of a great sports sedan, nor will it impart the sheer verve that such a car can offer.

The Audi A8 is the latter: a tonic brewed up to be a blast to drive, hugely spacious and magnificently opulent. This car rides like a dream, is a joy to inhabit, handles great and goes like a rocket. For those who'd buy an SUV instead, we just don't get it.