A42B

I hear ya... is the S8 lowered vs. the A8? The A8 looks a little jacked up to me, where the S8 looks just right.

Galco

I think you biggest concern should be the lower power you'll get in the A8, which is nicely adequate for daily commutes IMO; but since you're coming from M cars, you may be disappointed. In any regard, you may wish to consider the A8 Sport if you go the A route, as it is lowered about 10mm vs the non-sport and i believe very similar to the S8 in its suspension set up. The sport package has some other goodies like firmer suspension setting in the dynamic mode and paddle shifters (later years i believe that may be stock on all versions). It's a bit closer to the S8 than a standard A8 (i did say a "bit")...

The one thing that disappoints me is the S8's interior, to an otherwise very nice ride which is somewhat novel due to its limited supply. I prefer the Amaretto interior and i don't believe its available in a S8. I could be wrong but i haven't see one.

Good luck with your search.

Cheers,

MP4.2+6.0

Yes, with an S8 or A8 with Sport suspension, both are lowered in the basic position compared to an A8, BUT it turns out they have less total range of adjustability than a non-sport version via MMI if that matters. They also have stiffer air spring units. True S8 have the stiffest antiroll bars, then A8's with sport suspensions and W12's (both share same bars), then non-sport A8's. The rollbars make the S8 suspension another notch stiffer/tighter than the A8 sport suspension.

On S8 interiors, just glancing at the 2008 order guide, you could get non-typical S8 interiors that are among the common ones on A8's and W12's including amaretto, light grey and espresso brown. From what I've seen around though on the road and when new back at the dealer, it seems like a lot of S8's were shipped/sold with the bilcolor (silver and black or silver and light gray) interior flavors, or else straight black. Thus, effectively as Galco was suggesting you may have a harder time finding something like an amaretto interior on a used S8 if that's the interior flavor you really want.

EHLO

My S8 has the amaretto leather interior, and I almost didn't buy it because of that, as I have always gone with black.
I did some research on the web looking at various color combinations and decided I could live with it, but after a short while started really liking it, especially with it's matching amaretto alcantara headliner.
Highly recommended.

modernperf.

my s8 has the black with silver leather inserts, haven't seen too many two tone interiors, but i don't see too many s8's. i have the all canon fiber option, i would have preferred the black wood, but its not bad.

this may sound funny, but i wouldn't get the a8, if i wasn't gonna get the s8 power, id buy a s550

xradman

Why not get the S8 and buy an extended warranty?

Bigbottlebob

I have both (but my S8 is an 07)
The A8L has the sport package and 20" wheels. Handles pretty well, and has adequate power while sounding pretty good. When I first drove it I was surprised at the amount of power that it had.(My previous 4.2 was a C5 A6 with fewer HP than the 8L.) All that said, if I go from the S8 to the A8 you definitely miss that extra 100HP. It is a noticeable difference if you drive both a few minutes apart. Both are great cars. You can't lose with either choice, just depends on priorities.