A8el

Hi all, Took the A8 to Seattle Wa. from Regina Saskatchewan on it's first major drive. Pros and cons; Pros: Easily the most comfortable long distance drive I've ever had in any car. Car was quiet, handled well and got astounding fuel economy even in the mountains. With the V6, it passed cars with authority. After a 10 hour stint, I wasn't completely shot at the end of the day.

Cons: The adaptive cruise control is absolute rubbish. I lost count how many times the car suddenly without explanation, dropped speed, disengaged, displayed the incorrect posted speed for hours. Idiotic messages like "curve" would appear etc. On the way home, my wife dug into the display, found the correct screen and started disabling all the driver "help" modes. Car was much more enjoyable to drive after that. The sat radio is pretty useless in the mountains if there are mountains to the south of your location. Plenty of blue sky above, but the satellite's are clearly far to the south as mountains to the north do not affect a thing. Phone charging pad under the armrest is asinine. I do miss the trunk space of the Mercedes as the A8L trunk is crazy small for a car this size.

A stone flew up from a passing car and ruined the windshield which is a drag but clearly not the cars fault. Overall, the car is far from perfect,( no car is) but once we got all the assist modes eliminated, it was much more enjoyable to drive. The front bug screen I installed worked great! I just cut 2 openings for the forward cams.

DallasDave

Oh my, I can totally relate. The adaptive cruise was borderline dangerous. My journey was only four hours, but it was ridiculous how much it regularly interfered. Like you, I found the settings (thanks to this forum) and made the appropriate changes, Whew, what a difference.

I'm in another thread complaining about the charging pad in my 2020 S8. I don't mind the location, but it doesn't charge my phone quickly enough. As a matter of fact, the phone's battery is consumed more quickly utilizing CarPlay than the charging pad can replenish.

pcc125

Glad to hear about your pleasant drive, minus the rock and the windshield. I also have turned off all the driver assist garbage. May be I will turn all that back on when I am 95 years old...

enGage

I'll report on my longer term driving experience after I take my D5 from MI to So. Cal drive in December (I winter in CA). I'm liking my new ride, but haven't decided if I like it better than my D3 yet. D3 seemed more organic.

But, what I seriously don't like about the D5 is the trunk. It only fits a single golf bag and I have to take my driver out to boot!!!! I should be able to pick up 3 buddies in this car, put their bags in the trunk and drive to the golf course. The shame of it all!!!!

DallasDave

It's funny you mention not liking the D5 more than your old D3. I'm still in the honeymoon stage and currently don't like the D5 as much as my old D4. Not sure why just yet, the D5 does so many things my D4 couldn't do but I still miss it and sometimes even regret trading it in.

sfelisio

For me it is the same but related to rear seat individual entertaiment. The D5 2019 had perfect match between front MMI and rear MMI, the new 2023 D5 rear individual seats screens and MMi is really bad. But is costs to me 23.000€.
Very disappointed.

enGage

Well, to be accurate, I said I wasn't sure. It takes me awhile to bond with any car and I haven't even put 1,000 miles on my D5 yet.

What got me to say what I did was being surrounded by so much tech. The D3 is also a high tech car, especially for is day, but when I drive the D5 I'm constantly trying to remember the various settings. For example, I set the * button to open my garage door. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. The manual isn't a lot of help. I think I read the first push shows what it programmed to and the second push runs that function, but lately I'm not so sure , seems the first push does it, which is how it's supposed to be. Keep in mind I'm a true propeller head - I love technology (I designed and developed large scale software systems for a living -retired now). But, it seems like when I drove my D3 I was focused on the drive, but now I'm focused on the technology.

This is where time comes in. I need to get past the learning curve before I pass judgement. I'm not there yet. When I teach CA in December I suspect I'll be there.

KK22

The star button takes time to boot up. If you have shortcuts that are assigned in the HVAC screen, as soon as you see them appear it’s booted up.

angrypengu

While I absolutely love my D5, I couldn't even begin to explain to a rational human being why I miss my B7. (yes, B). That POS ran rough, had excessive carbon buildup, and had a HPFP that liked to explode. But yet, all of these years, I miss it. Hahaha.

pcc125

Here is why lol...

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