Audi A8 Review 2023

Are you after a luxury limousine? Are you after the best one you can possibly get, pound-for-pound? Then the Audi A8 is the car you want. Even compared with excellent rivals like the BMW 7 Series, Jaguar XJ and Mercedes S-Class, the A8 is an exceptional all-rounder, doing a great job in every single area. 

However, the things it does best are the things that matter most in a luxury car, those being ride comfort, refinement and quality, and that’s what puts the big Audi at the top of the class. So, if you’re a busy CEO that needs to be driven between meetings, or a chauffeur company operator that needs to drive celebrities between gala dinners and film premieres, this is the car you want.

In terms of trim level, we can’t see much missing from the entry-level Sport car. It gives you all the luxury kit you need and upgrading to S line or Black Edition trim earns you very little except a few aesthetic upgrades. To be fair, range-topping Vorsprung trim adds loads to the roster, but it also adds loads to the price.

Engine-wise, the V6 petrol will probably be of limited appeal due to its thirst, so the diesel will be more popular, especially for high-mileage drivers or those that spend lots of time on motorways. This is the one we reckon will suit most people. The PHEV version, meanwhile, will be of interest to those with short-hop commutes or those who spend most of their time in cities. There are some very useful tax advantages for company car drivers, too.

You can’t talk about any Audi without talking about its inevitable equivalents from old German foes BMW and Mercedes. As Audi’s flagship luxury saloon, the Audi A8 goes toe-to-toe with the BMW 7 Series, and Mercedes-Benz S-Class. 

Mind you, Jaguar also offers a temptingly athletic alternative in the XJ, and those who value reliability above all else will want to consider the Lexus LS. The Maserati Quattroporte could be a more glamorous left-field alternative, while a little (well, quite a lot) further up the scale, you have the Bentley Flying Spur and Rolls Royce Ghost.

You’d expect any luxury limousine to deliver cabin quality worthy of the tag and when quality is also an Audi speciality, expectations become even higher. Even so, the Audi A8 truly dazzles in this respect. Every surface is dripping with tactile appeal, and even if you grovel around in the lower reaches of the cabin trying to find a single panel that lets the side down, you’ll remain unsuccessful.

The way it’s all put together is just as impressive: every panel fits together super-tightly and you’ll detect no hint of creaks or rattles from any of the joins. 

This gives the car a wonderfully dense and substantial feel. Even among limos, this really is as good as it gets, and you’d have to spend more than twice the amount on a Rolls Royce to find anything better. And while in different versions you’ll find the odd styling tweak here and the odd bit of extra leather there, all versions of the A8 feel pretty much as posh as each other.

Although the quality on show inside the A8 is beyond reproach, it’s the infotainment system that really dominates proceedings, with its twin screens. While the 8.6-inch one on the bottom handles the air-con, it’s up to the top one - a 10.1-inch item - to take care of pretty much everything else.

The arrangement looks great and gives a really high-tech feel. The graphics are as sharp as they come and the software is super-speedy. However, some of the on-screen icons are a little bit small, and the system is so vast and complex that remembering where everything lives can be a bit difficult, and takes time to master. And, like with any touchscreen, you have to stare intently at the screen before jabbing your finger at it to deliver an instruction, and that inevitably distracts you from the road ahead. 

All the functionality you’d expect in a luxury car is covered, though, including DAB radio, navigation, wireless phone charging, Apple Carplay/Android Auto and various connected services. Upgrade to the Vorsprung model, and you also get an upgraded Bang & Olufsen 3D sound system.

Limousines are supposed to be roomy - that’s precisely why they’re so big - so it’s no surprise that the Audi A8 follows suit. The A8 is 5172mm long, 2130mm wide and 1488m tall so there’s loads of space up front, naturally, but it’s the rear of the cabin that matters most in a car like this, and the A8 is positively palatial back there. 

You get masses of headroom and legroom, allowing even the longest-of-leg to stretch out in comfort, and if you go for the long-wheelbase model, there’s even more. 

There’s enough space for a third person to squeeze in on the rear bench, too, and as an option, it’s also possible to replace the bench seat with two individual rear chairs that recline electrically for ultimate comfort. Those in the rear seats also get their own tablet device that allows access to certain parts of the car’s infotainment system and allows control over climate control settings, seat settings and other convenience features.

The boot, unsurprisingly, is pretty much the same size as that of a Mercedes S-Class, and there’s enough space for any number of laptop bags, a couple of big suitcases for long business trips, or a couple of sets of golf clubs for a cheeky weekday round. The saloon car body means the space isn’t as easy to access as it would be in a hatchback, but that applies to all such cars.

Also, there’s no option of dropping the rear seats to boost the 505 litre boot space no matter what trim you choose or option you pick. Bear in mind, too, that the hybrid’s boot is considerably smaller at 390 litres because that’s where the extra batteries live.

There’s a refreshingly simple range of engines to choose from in the Audi A8, one petrol, one diesel and a plug-in hybrid. The petrol, known as the 55 TFSI, is a 3.0-litre V6 with 340PS and it’s the least popular choice due to its thirst, but it’s still a very pleasant choice for those with an aversion to diesel. It makes the car effortlessly brisk - if not properly fast - and its power delivery is smooth and muscular.

The diesel, meanwhile, is a 286PS 3.0-litre V6 known as the 50 TDI. It’s marginally slower than the petrol on paper, and it’s not as keen to rev, either, but it’s still brilliant. The swell of urge you get from low revs means your acceleration is even more effortless than in the petrol, and in a car like this, that’s just what you want. Its superior economy will also make it more popular.

If you really want to double-down on economy, though, the hybrid might be the choice for you, thanks to its ability to run for short distances on electric-only power. It can do so at well over 100mph before the 3.0-litre V6 petrol engine is called upon to assist the electric motor, although your batteries won’t last too long with that kind of treatment. And, with 449PS to call upon from its engine-and-motor combo, it’s quick enough to outpace both the more conventional engines.

In all versions, all four wheels are powered through an eight-speed automatic gearbox, which is a little bit hit-and-miss. In most situations, it slushes up and down the gears so smoothly that you barely notice it working. However, ask for a sudden burst of acceleration, and there’s an annoying pause before anything happens.

This is another area in which any limousine worth its salt has to really nail it, and the Audi A8 really does. All of the engines are impressively smooth and quiet, even when you rev them hard, but they have so much low-down muscle that you very rarely have to, and that keeps life very peaceful and relaxed. 

The hybrid version is even more serene when running on electric-only power, wafting you along in near-silence. Wind and road noise are also very well contained, which helps keep the peace, even when you’re blatting down a motorway at high speed. Every bit the luxury express it should be.

The Audi A8 hasn’t been crash tested by the experts at Euro NCAP, but it’s mechanically very similar to the Audi A7, which has achieved the highest five-star rating. If there’s a reason that the A8 should behave any differently in a smash, we’re not aware of it.

As well as all the usual airbags and electronic traction and stability aids, all versions have a head-up display, automatic emergency braking, lane departure warning, LED lighting at both ends of the car, camera-based traffic sign recognition and a semi-autonomous adaptive cruise control system. From S line trim upwards, you also get cleverer Matrix Beam LED headlights, while range-topping Vorsprung cars also get cross traffic assistants. 

Lots of further features can be found on the options list, including expanded autonomous features that make the A8 the first production car capable of level-two autonomous driving. This isn’t yet legal to use in the UK, but it’s very intriguing nonetheless. 

The official figures say that the 60 TFSI e plug-in hybrid version will do a maximum of 28.6 miles on electric-only power, given a full charge of the battery. This charge takes around six hours on a regular domestic three-pin plus, or two hours if you have a 7kW wallbox charger fitted. Bear in mind, though, that this theoretical range figure is from a laboratory test and in the real world you should only bank on around half that, especially if it’s cold.

Audi performed below par in the latest HonestJohn.co.uk Satisfaction Index placing 21st out of 30 manufacturers. We expect the flagship Audi A8 to be reliable though although it's a cheap car when it comes to servicing or maintenance.

If you go for a Vorsprung model, then your car will sit in the most expensive group of insurance, that being group 50. Other versions sit between groups 44 and 49, making them a little cheaper to insure, but premiums are never going to be cheap. That said, if you’re wealthy enough to buy an Audi A8, insurance costs are unlikely to worry you.

This is nice and simple, because all versions (with one exception) of this generation of A8 will cost you exactly the same to tax. That’s because the car was launched after April 1, 2017, when new rules were introduced that applied a flat rate of £150 for petrol and diesel cars, and a five-year surcharge of £325 was applied to any car costing over £40,000 when new. 

All Audi A7s were more expensive than that threshold, so used buyers (having already dodged the exorbitant ‘showroom tax’ first-year fee that buyers of brand new examples pay) will fork out £475 between years two and six of the car's life, whereafter it’ll divert back to the £150 annual rate.

The one exception is the PHEV version, because this version’s clever, environmentally friendly drivetrain earns it a discount from the exchequer of precisely a tenner. Brilliant. Why not spend the difference on a bottle of rubbish prosecco to celebrate?

Even an entry-level limousine needs to come with enough creature comforts to make its occupants feel spoiled, and the Audi A8 does exactly that. Audi A8 Sport trim comes with air suspension, four-zone climate control, leather upholstery, adaptive cruise control, LED ambient lighting, keyless go, heated front and rear seats, a powered tailgate and power-closing doors, not to mention all the infotainment and safety gear we mentioned earlier. 

Audi A8 S line cars add sports front seats, double-glazed windows and a host of styling upgrades, while the upgrades to Audi A8 Black Edition models are purely visual. The range-topping Audi A8 Vorsprung model adds loads, including a panoramic roof, ventilated front seats with a massage function, electric rear sunblinds, adaptive sports air suspension and all-wheel steering.