Audi S8 Review & Prices

Need luxury car comfort and refinement but want to occasionally take a Porsche or Ferrari to the cleaners? Then the Audi S8 is the car for you.

Whereas the BMW M760e and Mercedes-AMG S-Class are now plug-in hybrids, the S8 sticks with a turbocharged V8 engine (albeit with mild-hybrid assistance). Sure, 571hp isn’t as much as you get from the rival German super-limos, but thanks to the S8’s relative lightness, it’s enough for some serious performance.

The Audi S8 doesn’t shout about its performance on the outside, though. In fact, it’s astonishingly easy to mistake for a regular A8 saloon, so subtle is the styling. If the standard A8 is the road-going equivalent of a Gulfstream business jet, then the S8 is an F-22 Raptor fighter ‘plane — fast, capable, and almost invisible.

Up front, the updated S8 cabin is truly gorgeous, with beautiful quality and exceptionally comfortable front seats. The twin touchscreens are relatively easy to use, but they don’t quite have the wow factor of the infotainment systems that you’ll find in the BMW and Mercedes. Storage space up front isn’t great either.

You do get a nice new three-spoke S8 steering wheel, and those seats are heated and cooled to perfection. There are some other subtle S8 touches, such as ‘S’ badges on the seats and the door sills, while the engine start button gets a red surround.

The comfort levels extend to the rear, where the electrically adjustable seats are just divine, but the fact that you can’t have the S8 with the optional long-wheelbase of the regular A8 means those in the back won’t be quite as cosseted as they could be. Still, the materials used in the back are lovely, and the big fold-down armrest with its multiple controls for seats, blinds, and climate is terrific.

Behind those seats, the 505-litre boot is decent, but it is beaten by the boots of the BMW and Mercedes, into which you can squeeze just a few more golf clubs.

Power comes from a 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 engine (shared with Lamborghini and Porsche) which develops a hefty 571hp, driving all four wheels (this is a quattro, of course) through an eight-speed automatic gearbox. Audi claims 3.5 seconds to get to 62mph, but we did it slightly quicker than that, so this is a seriously quick car, helped by the fact that it’s not carrying the hybrid battery heft of its plug-in alternatives.

That lack of bulk helps the S8 get to 100mph in just 8.1 seconds, and cover the quarter-mile sprint in just 11.5 seconds. And yet from the back seat, you could carry on a business call with Kuala Lumpur. Amazing.

Thankfully, given that potent performance, the S8 has some weapons-grade brakes, but they are standard steel versions and not the carbon-ceramic brakes which S8 buyers can specify in Europe.

While the S8 can race along the drag-strip like a supercar, it’s also incredibly good at being the comfy limo that it looks like. The standard air suspension ‘reads’ the road through a camera in the windscreen, and it can pull an individual wheel up out of the way of an oncoming bump, which helps to keep the ride comfort really smooth.

Even though it’s a big car, the S8 isn’t even that hard to swing around in tight in-town spaces, thanks to rear-wheel steering. That turns the back wheels the other way to the fronts at low speeds, which tightens up the turning circle, or the same way at higher speeds, which makes the S8 more stable on the motorway.

All of which contributes to the S8 being a bit of a hoot to drive, even on a tight and twisty British back road, where it will humble many lighter and supposedly more nimble cars.

The S8 is, as you’d expect, a supreme long-distance machine, with that incredible ride comfort and an engine that fades into the background on motorways. If you want one, check out Carwow’s Audi S8 deals, or get a great price on other Audi models from our network of trusted dealers. You can also browse used Audis for sale, and when it’s time to sell your current car, Carwow can help with that, too.

The Audi S8 is actually quite sharply priced. In fact, it costs about the same as BMW’s new M5, which admittedly has more power and is sharper to drive (and is a plug-in hybrid), but is quite simply a smaller, less luxurious car. It’s also vastly cheaper than the AMG versions of the Mercedes S-Class (which, again, have way more power) and is quite a bit cheaper than BMW’s M760e plug-in hybrid. While it may lack the power of those rivals, the S8 matches them for luxury and comfort, and is arguably rather more restrained in its styling than any of them. As standard, you get ‘predictive’ air suspension, 21-inch alloy wheels, and a head-up display, so it’s well-equipped too.

The Audi S8 manages a remarkable balance between limo-like comfort and hot hatch handling

In town

In spite of its massive performance potential, the S8 is lovely and luxurious when you’re just driving it around town. The air suspension has a Comfort Plus mode, which is ideal for town use, as it effortlessly soaks up pretty much anything you can throw at it. The suspension also uses cameras to ‘read’ the road ahead so it can pre-load the air springs to deal with specific bumps and potholes. It’s quite brilliant, and it’s a shame Audi doesn’t offer it for lesser A8 models in the UK. The suspension even raises itself up by 25mm when you unlock the car, to make it easier to get in and out.

The steering is nice and light, and the S8 is quite manoeuvrable for such a big machine — the turning circle’s only 11.4 metres. That’s helped by standard-fit rear-wheel steering, while there’s also an optional City Assist safety pack, which can warn you of oncoming traffic at a blind junction, has pre-sense collision warning for rear impacts, and which has lane-keeping steering that can guide you around multi-lane city centre roads. The eight-speed automatic gearbox is so smooth that the S8 might as well be an electric car — it almost feels as if it doesn’t have any gears.

On the motorway

If you’re just cruising along, the S8’s adaptive radar-guided cruise control, and its lane keeping steering, work really well together to take the strain off the driver on a long journey. The cruise also automatically adjusts for speed limits. The S8 is also every bit as comfy and quiet as you might hope. This is a car designed specifically for annihilating long distances.

That’s especially true if you happen to be on a German Autobahn, where — free of speed limits — the S8 easily runs up to its maximum speed limiter of 165mph, and does so on a tide of glorious V8 engine noise. However, do that and you’ll be making plenty of stops for fuel — the S8 averages around 15mpg if you’re making full use of that mighty V8. Fuel economy on a slowly-slowly British motorway will obviously be better, but even so 25mpg is pretty optimistic.

You don’t quite get a return when it comes to noise. The V8 does make some nice sounds, but it’s a bit neutered for drive-by noise regulations, and by a soft-limiter which prevents you gunning it in neutral.

On a twisty road

The S8 is a big car, and it’s not exactly light, even if it’s not electric car-heavy. So you have to allow for that on really tight and twisty roads. The thing is that Audi’s engineers have given the S8 such good steering, and such inherently sharp chassis balance, that you can really enjoy yourself on a twisty road, and it’s way, way better to drive than the comfy and luxurious interior would make you think.

Normally, on a twisty British B-road, a less powerful — but more nimble — hot hatch would show a big limo like the S8 the way home. However, the S8 is so good that even then, a hot hatch would have nowhere to hide. The road-reading suspension helps again here, as it stops the S8 getting thrown around by bumpy roads, so you can enjoy yourself even more. It’s a fantastic performance car, and it’s spectacularly quick, almost as fast to get to 62mph as the new BMW M5.

The back seats are spacious and luxurious, but front seat storage is surprisingly limited

Practicality in the front of the S8 is a little mixed. The door bins are roomy, but a little on the shallow side, while the storage area under the front seat armrest is actually surprisingly small, although it does have the handy clip-in wireless phone charger. There are two cupholders under a sprung lid on the centre console, but that’s actually it — aside from the compromised glovebox, there’s a bit of a dearth of front-seat storage for such a big car.

Space in the back seats

The back seats of the S8 are just lovely, especially if you’ve specced the quilted leather option. There’s plenty of space for heads, knees, and feet — as you’d expect — but Audi doesn’t offer a long-wheelbase S8 model, so the BMW 7 Series and Mercedes S-Class both have it beaten for the ultimate in rear seat luxury.

You do get nice window blinds all-round, though, and the control panel in the fold-down armrest is great — it allows you to fiddle with the rear seat climate control, as well as electrically adjust the seats. Annoyingly though, the control screen is now fixed to the armrest — it used to pop out as a tablet. There are also cupholders, USB sockets, and even a second wireless phone charger. The best bit is that the rear armrest uses a damped hinge — so you just flip it lightly upwards, and it folds back away by itself. Lovely.

There is enough space in the seat for three people, but the big transmission tunnel means that foot space is compromised. Optionally, you can have rear seat touchscreens to which a passenger’s phone can be mirrored and there are even ‘Matrix LED’ reading lights which can be adjusted to shine on specific parts of the cabin.

Boot space

The S8’s boot is fine. At 505 litres it’s roomy enough for some big bags, and it’s reasonably well-shaped, although the rear-seat recline mechanism does eat into the potential space a bit. There is a load-through hatch for slim items too, and you get some handy underfloor storage, but no spare wheel sadly. Both the BMW 7 Series (at 515 litres) and the Mercedes S-Class (at 555 litres) have bigger boots.

The S8’s cabin is gorgeous and beautifully made, but the tech feels a step behind the competition

The S8’s cabin is truly gorgeous, starting with the surprisingly small (for such a big car) three-spoke steering wheel, and carrying on with the long, lean, low dash design. It really is very elegant in here. It’s quite a minimalist design, but the quality is definitely maximalist — the S8 is beautifully made. The front seats, optionally upgraded to sports seats, are just wonderful.

The infotainment system is split across two touchscreens, one on top of the other. The top one manages your entertainment, vehicle settings, and sat nav as well as the various Audi connected services. The lower screen looks after air conditioning and climate control.

Generally, this all works well, and the menus aren’t overly complicated, but the way the screen ‘clicks’ back against your finger with its haptic function can be a bit confusing, as sometimes you get the haptic click even when you haven’t properly pressed the button you were looking for. Thankfully there are physical buttons for things like radio volume and Audi’s Dynamic Select driving modes, which helps to make life a little easier.

The digital driver’s screen is also nice and clear, and gets some unique instrument layouts for the S8, but none of what’s in here looks nor feels especially impressive if you’ve tried out the infotainment or instruments of a BMW 7 Series or Mercedes S-Class. Equally, the shiny black trim on the dash reflects horribly, and dazzlingly, on a sunny day, especially with a low winter sun.

Clearly, if you’re stropping down the Autobahn at high velocity, the S8 is going to be a thirsty beast. Back here in the UK, there aren’t roads where you can keep up that kind of speed, but even so average fuel economy is quoted at just 26mpg, and that will easily drop to 20mpg if you’re making much use of the mighty 571hp V8’s power.

This is a mild hybrid engine, which makes it a bit more frugal around town, but even so it’s a very thirsty car. CO2 emissions of 260g/km mean that the S8 is in the highest band for VED road tax, and you have to pay extra for buying a car that costs more than £40,000. BIK rates for company car drivers are high, too.

The Audi A8 nor S8 have been crash-tested by the independent safety experts at Euro NCAP, so we don’t have a precise idea of just how safe a car it is. However, it would be hard to imagine that the S8 is anything other than very, very safe indeed. For a start, any impact is going to take place almost in the next county, so big is the car.

Then there’s the list of standard safety equipment from Matrix LED headlights to radar-guided cruise, intelligent lane-keeping steering, a speed limiter, a head-up display, pre-collision warning, pedestrian and cyclist detection with automated emergency braking, and much more. Even the air suspension gets in on the act — if the S8 detects an imminent side collision, it will jack up the suspension on that side by 40mm, presenting more of the car’s chunky door sill to the impact, which offers better protection. It’s just a shame that some of the more advanced safety systems are on the options list.

There are only a handful of reported issues with the current shape of Audi A8 or S8. Rear suspension dampers were such a problem that Audi recalled the car twice for those, while issues with the front passenger seat adjustments, gearbox oil leaks, and the active headrests have also been reported.

The A8 and S8 didn’t feature in the most recent Driver Power survey’s Top 50 Cars To Own list, but Audi as a brand had quite a disappointing result, coming 27th out of 32 brands, with 21% of owners reporting problems with their cars.