Wednesday 8th August 2007

New Audi A8 Goes For Supergreen Gong

It may look the same, but this will be the cleanest luxury saloon on sale

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Meet the facelifted Audi A8. No honestly, this is

The new Audi A8...or is it?

it. And if that’s difficult enough to fathom, imagine our shock when Audi informed us that this is also going to become the cleanest luxury saloon on sale.

In order to achieve this worthy accolade, the A8 will be powered by the same 210bhp 2.8 litre V6 petrol engine currently used in the A6. With this unit, the A8 will do 34mpg, hit 60mph in 8.0sec and emit just 199g/km of CO2 - the new hybrid Lexus LS600h only manages 219g/km.

2.8 V6 petrol emits just 199g/km of CO2

Admittedly, Audi hasn’t meddled much with the looks but there are some dynamic revisions. The air suspension has been tweaked for a more comfortable ride, the steering is now more direct and the cabin is now better insulated against noise. Lane-departure and blind-spot warning systems are optional now, too. Sounds great, but shouldn’t there be more visual differentiation?

A8 may be green, but it will still be super-luxury

 

[Adam B]

some impressive stats and good eco-credentials

why change the looks? The A8 is already a great designa dn so much better looking than the awkward 7 series or S class.

[Bizzle]

Why does it say W12 on the front of the car?

[Brink]

Bizzle said:

Why does it say W12 on the front of the car?

Looks like that's a picture of the S8, with the Bentley engine!

[Targarama]

Rearrange these words: Rice pudding skin off couldn't pull

[mmm-five]

What isn't mentioned is that the Lexus has almost twice the power and still only produces 10% more emissions.

[stuartbuckell]

2.8 in that? Are you kidding! Getting beaten by a Focus 2.0 won't be much fun!

The Lexus is nearly twice as powerful as mentioned above, so a bit of a spin.

Probably for the new top of the range "company car" band.

Still, nice car though.

[peter450]

Oversized, an underpowered, why not go the whole hog an stick a 1.8 inline 4 in it

[AngryS3Owner]

Brink said:

Bizzle said:

Why does it say W12 on the front of the car?

Looks like that's a picture of the S8, with the Bentley engine!

Nope the S8 has the 5.2 V10, that's a A8L W12 Quattro in those pics.

[audidoody]

It's aluminium so is equivalent in weight to an A6

[AngryS3Owner]

stuartbuckell said:

2.8 in that? Are you kidding! Getting beaten by a Focus 2.0 won't be much fun!

Agree it's a bit slow, but it's over a second faster to 60 than a 2L focus.

peter450 said:

Oversized, an underpowered, why not go the whole hog an stick a 1.8 inline 4 in it

I agree it's not the quickest thing in the world, but there are a LOT of cars that can't drag themselves to 60mph in 8 seconds and lets face it, it'll probably be quick enough for the way most A8s are driven.

[Vodka Margarine]

Didn't Clarkson manage to get 44 MPG from the 4.4 diesel A8 when tested on Top Gear?

[AngryS3Owner]

Vodka Margarine said:

Didn't Clarkson manage to get 44 MPG from the 4.4 diesel A8 when tested on Top Gear?

Yep - bloody good episode too

[Ravell]

Oh, yes! Fantastic episode.

This thing seems a bit pointless to me 35mpg doesn't seem THAT much of an achievement, especially when a V8 diesel does better and is more fun to drive!

[bencollins]

when driven in real world conditions, not by a coasting specialist pro driver, this will need to be thrashed and more CO2. Pure marketing cowdung.

[Bodo]

Does the Audi press service state how many miles have to be driven so that the CO2 emitted for the production and recycling for this car are amortised? It's probably in the millions or even a lot higher
Better not serve the carbon footprint fascists with press releases that answers their mass media hysteria.

[E38]

Nice tech, but I reckon Audis tend to only look good during their period of manufacture. Always too contemporary a design IMO...

[MK4 Slowride]

I was wandering how long it'd take Audi to copy follow in BMW's footsteps on the eco-friendly boulevard cruiser front. The 7 Series is a much better purchase imo.

[Kawasicki]

Less than a seconds slower to 62mph than a Golf GTI and 2mph quicker than the Golf flat out. In other words quicker than 99% of customers will ever use. Still, be a hero, buy the S8 and sit in the same traffic jam, content that yours is faster/better.

shane

[Hendry]

Come on chaps, Audi aren't positioning this as some economy miracle - if you want fuel economy and low emissions you get a smaller car; who NEEDS the space in an A8? These sorts of cars are about making statements and if the statement you want to make is as a greeny then you'd go Prius and be done with it.

Why we are reading this press release is that Audi feels a sense of guilt that they produce big cars, so attempt to dress up such pure status symbols as being nowhere near as evil than the models they replace. This spec will win then greeny credits so they can then go and do the S8.

In reality, do you think many A8 buyers will opt for the 2.8? Let's not kid ourselves. But it shows Audi is "doing its bit".

[Kawasicki]

Hendry said:

Come on chaps, Audi aren't positioning this as some economy miracle - if you want fuel economy and low emissions you get a smaller car; who NEEDS the space in an A8? These sorts of cars are about making statements and if the statement you want to make is as a greeny then you'd go Prius and be done with it.

Why we are reading this press release is that Audi feels a sense of guilt that they produce big cars, so attempt to dress up such pure status symbols as being nowhere near as evil than the models they replace. This spec will win then greeny credits so they can then go and do the S8.

In reality, do you think many A8 buyers will opt for the 2.8? Let's not kid ourselves. But it shows Audi is "doing its bit".

loads of buyer opted for the previous 2.8 A8.

Maybe they were looking for a well built, plenty fast, prestige car.