2022 Audi S8 Video Review: MotorTrend Buyer's Guide
This is the 2022 Audi S8
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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.