SA Road Tests

Welcome

This is the home of automobile road tests in South Africa. We drive South African cars, SUVs and LCVs under South African conditions. It also just happens that most of the vehicles we drive are world cars as well, so what you read here possibly applies to the models you can get at home.

*To read one of our archived road tests, just select from the alphabetical menu of manufacturers' names on the left. Hover your cursor over the manufacturer's name, then choose from the drop-down menu that appears.

*Please remember too, that prices quoted were those ruling on the days I wrote the reports.


We look beyond the hype in the 2014 Audi A8 4.2 TDI Quattro

It doesn’t need more

Posted: 7 June 2014

Schoolboys hang on the editorial fence and ogle it with pre-pubescent lust, car guards expect bigger tips and everyone else pretends not to notice. To a casual observer it’s just another big Audi, but the subtle A8 bootlid badge gives it away. One of the most hyped cars in modern times, it’s the one that 99-percent of fans would commit felonry for.

It is pretty special. To begin, it’s an Audi with all the build quality, opulence and luxury kit the brand believes in. Then there’s its distinction of being possibly the only big-name model made with an almost-all aluminium skin over a space frame chassis. Only fibreglass kit cars and hand built rally raid racers are created that way. And if you have to know, the body weighs just 231 kilograms. There are people who weigh more.

Appearance-wise, not much has changed since its previous generation: Outer styling has become more expressive with bonnet, single-frame grille and front bumper being more sculptured while the lower edges of the headlight units have straightened. Rear LED lamps have also become flatter and in all models except S8, the redesigned bumper houses two rectangular tailpipes. New chrome strips and high-gloss black window frames round off the differences.

There’s more power too. Three-litre diesel cars gain 6 kW and 30 Nm, while the 4.2 diesel in our test unit was fed a further 25 kilowatts to step it up to 283 although torque remains the same at 800 Nm. It doesn’t need any more; seriously.

Because it’s always nice to be able to see where you’re going on long, dark and unlit country roads, but you can’t use high beams because there’s an almost continuous stream of vehicles coming toward you, our review car had a useful option in the form of matrix LED headlights. 

Each high-beam comprises 25 individual light-emitting diodes. These are automatically switched on and off or dimmed individually depending on the situation, enabling the system to react appropriately to other vehicles while always brightly illuminating the road ahead. Additional features are intelligent cornering lights, new-look daytime running lights and dynamic turn signals.

The A8’s lighting setup uses predictive route data from the navigation system to adjust light reach and spread in response to current driving situations. Together with Navigation Plus and MMI touch, it recognises route data such as curves and road classifications contained in the mapping program. All this is yours for R38 180 – not dirt cheap, but worth it in soothed nerves for regular travellers. 

Also useful is Night Vision Assistant that detects, using radar technology, pedestrians or larger animals hovering in the dark just beyond your beams. Hitting a pedestrian means an expensive and traumatic court case in which the driver is usually assumed to be guilty until proven otherwise, and anyone who has centre-punched a cow or horse will tell a tale of major damage or even hospitalisation. Tick the relevant box and have your accountant sign off a further R28 500; it’ll be worth it.

Less compelling added extras were an Audi design selection in brass and beige colouring, Audi exclusive exterior paint and a head-up display. The various design selections offer exclusive materials, including Valcona leather, and colours to tailor the inside of the car to suit your taste. At R137 409 over and above the cost of the original trim, this SQ item sounds like the kind of thinking that drives tenderpreneurs to drink Johnny Walker Blue all the time – it's because they can.

Also per special order only was the paint job. Called Palace Blue, it looks like an attractive shade of Navy but up close and in sunlight, it glints in many colours. Cute; but at R49 310, we’ll pass, thanks. Finally there was the heads-up display at R22 110. Many people swear by these and in some cars we quite like them, but the Audi version appears suspended somewhere over the side-centre of the bonnet where it’s just irritating. It needs to be “inside.”

We would take the R208 829 just saved and get the au pair a nice little car to do the shopping and fetch the kids from school. But then we prefer beer anyway.

Driving impressions: Some reviewers complain that the regular version (there’s a long one too) isn’t as roomy as it claims to be, but our standard tall backseat passenger found adequate head space, acres of knee room and sufficient clearance for his feet under the lowered driver’s chair. Power-wise, it’s huge. Our only complaint on that score is the one we level at most VW/Audi diesels – intrusive turbo lag.
 
While it may have all-wheel drive, stacks of electronic handling aids and tuneable air suspension we weren’t happy with its handling. No matter which setting you choose, it feels loose and floaty. That’s probably the price paid for supreme comfort, but other manufacturers – and other Audis - manage to find a firmer and more reassuring balance.

Summing up, we reckon it’s a grand car with just a couple of flaws; but too expensive and with overpriced accessories. The hype doesn’t get past the fence.

Test car from Audi SA press fleet

The numbers
Basic price: R1 390 000
Engine: 4135 cc, V8, twin-turbo diesel
Power: 283 kW at 3750 rpm
Torque: 800 Nm between 2000 and 2750 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 4,7 seconds
Maximum speed: 250 km/h governed
Real life fuel consumption: About 11,1 l/100 km
Fuel: 50 ppm diesel; cleaner if you can get it
Tank: 82 litres
Boot: 490 litres
Warranty: 1 year unlimited km
Maintenance: 5 years/100 000 km Freeway Plan

They only had pictures of the 'Long' version. Sorry about that.

What We Do

This is a one-man show, which means that every car reviewed is given my personal evaluation and receives my own seat of the pants judgement - no second hand input here.
Every test car goes through real world driving; on city streets littered with potholes, speed bumps and rumble strips, on freeways and if its profile demands, dirt roads as well.

I do my best to include relevant information like real life fuel economy or a close mathematical calculation, boot size or luggage space, whether the space is both usable and accessible, whether life-sized people can use the back seat (where that applies), basic specs of the vehicle and performance figures if they are published. In the case of clearly identified launch reports, fuel figures are of necessity the laboratory numbers provided with the release material. If I ever place an article that doesn't cover most things, it's probably because I have dealt with that vehicle at least once already, so you will be able to find what you want in another report under the same manufacturer's heading in the menu on the left.

Hope you like what you see, because there are no commercial interests at work here. As quite a few readers have found, I answer every serious enquiry from my home email address, with my phone numbers attached, so they can see I do actually exist.

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