2022 Audi S8 Video Review: MotorTrend Buyer's Guide

MotorTrend

This is the 2022 Audi S8

Transcript

00:00 (upbeat music)

00:02 Today, we're looking at perhaps the most under the radar car

00:14 that will ever feature on the Motor Trend Buyer's Guide,

00:17 the 2022 Audi S8.

00:21 It's a Q-ship.

00:22 What does that mean?

00:24 That means it's undercover, right?

00:26 It packs a ton of power.

00:27 It has a lot of performance,

00:29 but it doesn't necessarily look that way.

00:32 And that raises the only question that matters.

00:35 Is the new Audi S8 the ultimate sleeper?

00:39 The car you drive when you never want

00:42 to let them see you coming?

00:43 That's what we're gonna find out.

00:45 So what is the Audi S8?

00:50 Well, it's the classic sleeper formula, right?

00:53 You take a big sedan, you put in a hotter V8,

00:56 add stickier tires, improve the suspension,

00:59 and voila, you've got this really cool car

01:02 that again, flies under the radar.

01:05 It really is becoming something of a rarity in the market.

01:08 Now I should point out,

01:08 this is the fourth generation of the Audi S8.

01:11 It's just that the rest of the competition,

01:13 they're maybe focusing in other areas.

01:15 BMW has never built an M7.

01:18 They rely on Alpina.

01:19 You know, there's stuff like the Porsche Panamera,

01:21 but it's got the Porsche badge.

01:22 There's the Maserati Quattroporte,

01:24 but you know, that screams, look at me.

01:27 The whole mission of the S8 is the opposite, right?

01:30 It's supposed to be anonymous.

01:32 While it is a bit of a unicorn,

01:34 there is a lot to love about the Audi S8,

01:37 starting with the design.

01:39 Design-wise, I find the front end of the S8 fascinating.

01:46 That grill is massive.

01:48 This is a mega mouth of a grill.

01:50 Audi started that trend.

01:52 20 years ago, cars didn't have humongous grills,

01:55 but Audi started doing it,

01:56 and the rest of the industry follows suit.

01:58 That's all changing because electric vehicles,

02:01 they don't need grills.

02:02 This is sort of the last hurrah of the mega Audi grills.

02:07 As a student of design, I find it quite fascinating.

02:10 Audi also introduced LED daytime running lights

02:13 to the car world.

02:14 Coming down the side, it's rather dull.

02:17 Well, it's supposed to be.

02:18 What you really notice is that Audi,

02:20 they're the masters of bending metal.

02:22 Their line work is just impeccable,

02:24 and then you've got this classic C-pillar.

02:26 It's lovely.

02:27 We still get excited about seeing the S8 badge.

02:29 That's so cool 'cause it's such a rare beast.

02:31 We know what it means.

02:32 Same goes for the quad pipes,

02:33 but really, this car is kinda dull,

02:38 and that's exactly the point.

02:40 So I'm sitting inside the Audi S8,

02:44 and I gotta tell you, there's not much to critique here.

02:46 It's got a strip of carbon fiber

02:48 across the dash and down the doors.

02:50 It says S here.

02:51 It says S in the leather on the seats, kinda subtly,

02:53 and that's it.

02:54 Otherwise, it's just like the A8,

02:56 which happens to be a typical, wonderful Audi cabin.

03:00 It's the same nav screen we're used to.

03:02 It's legible, it's fast, it's got a lot of functionality.

03:06 This is what they're doing for their HVAC controls.

03:08 It's now on a second screen.

03:09 Super comfy, super roomy,

03:11 luxurious without being over the top.

03:14 Again, there's really not much to talk about

03:16 other than, wow, it's really, really nice in here.

03:20 As far as performance goes,

03:24 the Audi S8 is great, with an asterisk.

03:28 Under the hood, there's a four liter,

03:30 twin turbocharged V8 that's good for 563 horsepower

03:35 and 590 pound feet of torque.

03:38 Like most Audis, this one is all wheel drive.

03:40 They call it Quattro,

03:41 and all that power is routed through

03:43 a ZF eight speed automatic transmission,

03:46 perhaps the greatest eight speed automatic on the market.

03:50 It can hit 60 miles an hour in 3.7 seconds.

03:53 It can tear through the quarter mile in 12.2 seconds,

03:56 which all sounds great until you remember that

03:58 in the age of EVs, it's kind of slow.

04:01 Still, it's super fun to drive.

04:03 Plus, it's got air suspension,

04:05 so the ride quality is pretty good.

04:07 Now, efficiency, that's a different story.

04:10 It's capable of 23 miles per gallon on the highway,

04:14 largely thanks to that eight speed,

04:15 but around town, it only gets 14 MPG.

04:19 Safety, we don't know.

04:23 And we never will know because they never crash test

04:26 expensive cars like this that sell in low numbers.

04:30 What we do know is,

04:31 in terms of active automatic safety features,

04:34 the S8 comes with basically every one you've ever heard of,

04:37 including a novel one.

04:39 Because it's on air suspension,

04:41 if the car predicts that it's gonna be in an accident,

04:44 it has the ability to quickly jack up the ride height.

04:47 And what that does is,

04:48 it moves the safety beam from about here up a little bit.

04:52 That's a pretty cool feature.

04:53 And now, the question you've all been waiting for,

04:58 how much?

04:59 We can get you into a brand new 2022 Audi S8

05:03 for just under $119,000.

05:07 This one is sitting here as tested.

05:09 It's a bit less than 136,000 bucks.

05:13 That's not cheap by any metric, save one.

05:17 And that one is, let's look at the competition.

05:19 There is no S63 right now.

05:22 Mercedes AMG hasn't released one,

05:24 but I promise you this, it will cost more.

05:27 The BMW, the Alpina B7,

05:30 well, that begins life at $141,000 thereabout.

05:35 So it's much more expensive.

05:36 The Panamera GTS only makes 473 horsepower,

05:40 significantly less than this,

05:41 yet it starts at $136,000.

05:46 You do have the Maserati Quattroporte Trofeo,

05:48 but again, it starts at over $151,000.

05:53 So that means the S8 is the cheapest vehicle

05:57 in the segment.

05:59 That means it's a great value.

06:01 If there's one thing that I want you to know

06:05 about the refreshed 2022 Audi S8

06:09 is that it's still got it.

06:11 This really is the ultimate sleeper.

06:14 The Audi S8, after all these years and generations,

06:17 it's still hiding a ton of performance and power

06:21 in a conservative wrapper.

06:23 Yeah, okay, the front end has gotten really aggressive,

06:25 but the rest of the car,

06:26 it's just sort of a big gray sedan on black wheels.

06:30 You don't know that it's actually a beast

06:32 lurking under there, and that's exactly the point.

06:35 Now, gasoline-powered big super sedans, right,

06:37 they're being phased out.

06:38 They're being replaced by electrified big super sedans.

06:42 While they're still around,

06:43 let's embrace and purchase and drive them

06:46 because they really are wonderful

06:48 and just such a cool car,

06:50 and I'm glad that it still exists.

06:52 To see vehicle rankings and a complete buyer's guide,

06:58 please visit motortrend.com/cars.

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