What's the difference?
Audi’s flagship is the A8, a long, luxurious sedan where being driven is often as important as doing the driving.
To put this ultra-premium machine in context, it competes with other German heavyweights like BMW’s 7 Series and, of course, the Mercedes-Benz S-Class as well as Porsche’s Panamera. Not to mention the Lexus LS or Maserati’s Quattroporte.
What’s life like at the top of the Audi pyramid? Stay with us to find out.
Imagine a car that can pretty much drive itself, if you let it. And it’ll do that while you get a massage, pump some Beyonce, and enjoy the fragrance of a field full of flowers… And then, it can teach you to do stretches and exercises in the driver’s seat.
It may sound like fictional fiction, but it’s factual fact. And it’s the Mercedes-Benz S-Class 2018 model, which has taken the so-called ‘wellbeing’ of the driver to a new level.
The facelifted model has seen plenty of styling changes and some tech upgrades, and while making the flagship car in a particular brand’s line-up is often a task fraught with issues, the German company’s big, expensive, luxurious, limousine is undoubtedly a more thoughtful car for 2018.
But just remember, its predecessor was considered - at least for a little while - as the best car in the world by some automotive journalists.
Now Mercedes-Benz has updated it, and it reckons it’s better than before, bringing a bunch of new technology, new engines, a reworked model range and, perhaps not essentially, but still pleasantly, lower pricing.
Read on to see how Beyonce factors into the equation.
The Audi A8 swims in a luxury car shark tank where those paying the big dollars expect top-shelf everything. It delivers a serene driving experience whether you’re in the front or the back, in a superbly engineered and executed luxury sedan package. Not perfect, but very, very impressive.
The 2018 Mercedes-Benz S-Class remains a technological tour de force, a luxury sedan to be reckoned with - one that has safety, technology, comfort, finesse and performance all rolled into a stylish package.
It's hard to see why you'd need anything more than the S 350 d, which is now much more attractively priced. It'd be my pick, but I'd have to get the Energizing Comfort Control package, and probably the AMG styling pack, too. And even then it would cost less than its predecessor.