COMFY, SPACIOUS AND SOLID BUT SOME FEATURES MISSING
Step into the airy interiors of the A8L, especially from the rear, and you can be forgiven for thinking you've shrunk. Space at the rear is massive: minimum and maximum legroom are 13cm and 10.5cm more than in an S-class.
Even with front seat passengers seated comfortably, it is possible to really stretch out. The slouch is another position those seated at the rear can adopt without knees coming into contact with the rear of the front seat. The rear seat cushioning feels a touch flat, but back and under-thigh support are spot-on.
What grabs you next is the solid, high-quality build. The interiors feel indestructible, even better built than those of the S-class, and that's saying something. The extremely stiff body structure has been tuned so that it has a very high natural frequency for low vibration. In addition, to help insulate the cabin of this limo better, the A8's windows are five millimetres thick, so that little external noise filters in.
Mildly retro in design, with solid sections of wood and heavy sills, you're unlikely to confuse the interiors of the A8 with anything else. The central console is almost totally wooden, a solid panel of wood runs around the dash and onto the doors and even the deep-set dials are stuck into a wooden instrument panel.
Also unique is the sporty steering wheel with its tiny boss, a clear indication of the sporting intent of this car. The column stalks are the same ones as used in sister-brand Skoda’s Octavia — not befitting this car. The central console is strewn with a number of pretty, knurled-metal knobs, and all of them function with a slick precision that adds to the overall feel-good factor provided by the interiors.
Audi's on-board computer, used to control functions via the central console-mounted screen is known as MMI or Multi-Media Interface. There is a small bank of buttons to ease access to menus, so it is more intuitive and simpler to use than BMW's iDrive, and the radial control is similar but has fewer functions.
The Audi A8L has a number of unique features available as standard, like its Bose surround system, paddle-shift on the steering wheel, electric sunroof, Xenon-plus headlights and auto boot lid.
Some, like automatic lights and wipers, retractable head-restraints, electrically adjustable steering column and even lumbar support are missing. But on the whole, feature-loading seems favourable.