2011 Audi A8L Complete Reviews and Price with Pictures

Luxury weighs heavy. Power weighs heavy, and the chassis systems to reign it in, they weigh heavy too. Strength, safety, quality: yup, they cost pounds. Audi has packed more -- in some cases much more -- of all these characteristics into the all-new 2011 Audi A8 quattro. But it's managed to shave about 15 pounds off the total weight from the outgoing car.

Now 15 pounds is just a hearty lunch for each of the five passengers, but it's a remarkable engineering feat in the face of all the above contra-indicators.

Change is coming to Germany--more precisely, to Ingolstadt--as Audi prepares to launch the fourth generation of its flagship A8 sedan. The 2011 A8 hits showrooms late next year, with a new set of aluminum body panels, a broad spectrum of drivetrain choices, and a new MMI system that goes the iPhone route for fingertip navigation. With a base price of about $75,000 and a top price over $100,000, the new Audi A8 competes with the BMW 7-Series and Mercedes-Benz S-Class, and will have the 2011 Jaguar XJ and Lexus LS also in its sights--and, Audi hopes, will vault its name and its four-ringed logo forever into the elite ranks of luxury sedans.
2011 Audi A8L Side view
2011 Audi A8L Picture
2011 Audi A8L Back view
2011 Audi A8L Front view
2011 Audi A8L HeadLights
2011 Audi A8L Inside view
2011 Audi A8L Seats
2011 Audi A8L Speedometer
2011 Audi A8L Interior
2011 Audi A8L Engine
If there's a way to access and store music in a car, the 2011 Audi A8 has it completely covered. There's a single-disc DVD/CD drive in the dash and underneath it are two slots for SD cards (and one for a SIM card for the 3G connectivity), while a six-disc CD/DVD changer is stashed in the glovebox. Up to 3,000 tunes can be loaded onto a 20GB hard drive from a CD, with the contents displayed using an Apple-like "cover flow" function.

An iPod can be hooked up using a proprietary cable that comes with the car and connects in the center console, but it doesn't use the same cover flow feature, although the usual artists, album and song menu structure is available. A USB port and aux input are also on tap, as well as Bluetooth audio for wireless music streaming from a compatible phone.

Reproducing the music from all of these sources in our 4.2 FSI test car was the optional Bang & Olufsen Advanced Sound System, which has been bumped up to 1,400 watts from 1,000 in the previous A8 and adds five more speakers for a total of 19. B&O's trademark Acoustic Lens tweeters rise out of the dash when the system is turned on and recess when it's switched off.