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.
It’s finally happened: Rolls-Royce has become so divorced from the everyday world of common folk that it's no longer even sharing the previously agreed meanings of words. Rolls has its own meanings, possibly its own language, which must be spoken with a plum on the tongue.
They’ve been heading here for a while. For example, at Rolls, “affordable” means the car we're driving today, the Rolls-Royce Ghost Series II, which is yours for just $680,000 (an indicative price, bumping to $800K for the Black Badge). And “iconic British marque” means, obviously, “BMW bought us in 2003, so there might be some German bits”.
It turns out that “driver-focused” means something different at Rolls-Royce, too. Thanks to a smattering of chassis innovations, Rolls says this updated 2025 Ghost is “the most driver-focused V12 Rolls-Royce ever”. Which is “a side of Ghost’s character that our clients increasingly and enthusiastically embrace”.
Don’t fall for it. The Ghost’s extra focus is not actually very focusy, and its additional dynamism is really only more dynamic in the way that a bed that could corner at all would be more dynamic than a normal bed. None of that matters.
The reason it doesn’t matter is because the Ghost Series II is wonderful. Indeed, it is very nearly perfect. Which is a word that even Rolls won’t quibble over.
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.
In a disruptive era when the coachbuilder has pivoted to SUVs like the Cullinan, a sort of London black cab that’s been dipped in opulence, and succeeds despite itself, and the brand’s grand, million-dollar EV, the Spectre, the Ghost is a safe and familiar space.
A beautiful, long, broad, immaculate land boat. It’s a space Rolls inhabits with relish.
The Ghost Series II feels nothing like a track-day option when you’re behind the wheel. But it might do if you were stepping out of a Phantom. Or a Cullinan. Or a Wraith. Especially if you’re stepping out of the back doors.
It’s the perfect driver’s car. As long as all your other cars are also Rolls-Royces.
The A8 is close to 5.2 metres long, yet instantly recognisable as an Audi thanks mainly to its evenly weighted proportions, gently curved roofline and overall high-waisted design. Worth noting its drag coefficient (Cd) is an impressively slippery 0.25.
The characteristic look is accentuated by the brand’s signature, six-sided grille, in this instance highlighted by a matrix of high-relief chrome accents. And typically angular LED Matrix headlights sit either side.
Check out our video review for the carefully orchestrated animation they run through when the car is unlocked.
The car looks equally svelte and contemporary from the rear, with just the right amount of chrome lifting the tone and multi-spoke 20-inch rims filling the wheel arches nicely.
As you’d expect, the top-shelf look and feel continues inside with the seats trimmed in aniline leather, perforated on the front and outer rear positions, with genuine hide also covering the centre console, door rails and armrests, steering wheel and upper dashboard.
Fine grain ash wood inserts sit alongside brushed metal elements and a meticulous attention to detail is obvious… everywhere.
For example, the interior door handle design has been thoroughly thought through, requiring a simple underhand tap to open the door, rather than the more conventional, and ergonomically convoluted, ‘over the top’ movement.
Three sleek screens dial up the tech - a 10.1-inch multimedia interface at the top of the centre stack, an 8.6-inch display below it for heating and ventilation, and a 12.3-inch version of Audi’s ‘Virtual Cockpit’ in the instrument binnacle.
And the spacious rear is the epitome of cool, calm Teutonic form and function. You feel relaxed the moment you get in, and isn’t that the primary aim of a car like this?
Yes, its exterior is more monolithic than before. The previous iteration was hardly fiddly, but the (apparently client driven) evolution here edges ever so gracefully towards what Rolls-Royce might secretly think of as brutalism.
The Ghost Series II’s generous 2148mm width is further emphasised up front, stretched across its upright prow, with slimline headlights adding definition and — surprisingly — a touch of villainy.
New, Spectre-inspired tail lamps and a discreetly inscribed double ‘R’ monogram add a reserved flourish from behind, and buyers can choose from two new 22-inch, nine-spoke wheel designs.
It’s subtle, no doubt. But it’s also impeccable.
Space is luxury, be it a large house, a first class seat or a spacious car, and at nearly 5.2 metres long with a close to 3.0m wheelbase the Audi A8 measures up.
Even before you get in, the doors have an amazing sense of solidity and quality. It’s like opening and closing a bank vault… if that huge circular door had a power-assisted soft-close function.
There’s copious amounts of space for the driver and front passenger with lots of storage including a lidded box between the front seats, complete with a two-piece longitudinally split top design, so you can sneak your half’s open without displacing your neighbour’s elbow.
The door bins are decent but there isn’t a specific cut-out for bottles, so it’s more a case of laying them down than standing them up. There’s also a handy covered cubby at the end of the door armrests.
The glove box is a good size and there are two cupholders under a pop-up cover in the centre console.
Of course, the back is where space really counts, and there’s as much room as you’d find in, well… a limo.
Sitting behind the driver’s seat, set for my 183cm position, I enjoyed copious amounts of head, shoulder and legroom.
There are electric sunblinds for the rear and rear side windows, controlled by buttons in the door as well as the rear seat remote, a 5.7 inch OLED display housed in the beautifully trimmed fold-down centre armrest (which also has a soft close function!). The remote also allows adjustment of the lighting and climate control. Classy.
There’s a shallow storage box and twin cupholders in the armrest, medium size door bins and hard shell pockets on the front seat backs. The rear armrests also feature a small lidded cubby.
In terms of connectivity and power options there’s wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, a USB-A and USB-C in the front, and an identical pair in the rear, as well as a 12-volt socket in the front and two in the back.
Boot volume is a useful 505 litres (VDA) and the lid is electric, with gesture control. It’s able to easily swallow our three-piece luggage set or the bulky CarsGuide pram. And while the rear seats don’t fold there’s a ski port door to accommodate long items. Just make sure you use the tie-down anchors in the boot to ensure they’re properly secured. There’s a handy netted section behind the left wheel well and a cargo net is included.
Maximum towing capacity, for a braked trailer, is 2.3 tonnes (750kg unbraked) and in more good news, the spare is a space-saver rather than the increasingly prevalent inflator/repair kit.
Inside, yes, there are bonkers touches in this most refined of automotive spaces, such as upholstery pinpricked by 107,000 'Placed Perforations' of 1.2mm in diameter, each individually examined, that replicate the shape of some clouds spotted over Rolls-Royce's Goodwood HQ.
Beside those flourishes of lunatic opulence, the more practical features feel pedestrian, but they’re comprehensive. The wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, the seamless 'Central Information Display' and the 18-speaker 1400-watt audio, the upgraded Wi-Fi hotspot and the unobtrusive USB-C ports. The rear-seats flush with giant, streaming-optimised screens and heated and ventilated massaging seats.
Rolls acknowledges the generational movement of its clientele from back seat to front, with over 90 per cent of buyers now opting to — gasp! — steer themselves in a Ghost. But with back-seat savoir faire in its DNA, Rolls simply extends its hospitality to every seat.
With an entry price of $202,700, before on-road costs, the A8 is in the thick of it amongst its full-size primo sedan competitors from Europe and Japan. Specifically, BMW’s 740i MHEV ($272,900), the Lexus LS500h ($195,920), Maserati Quattroporte GT ($210,990), Mercedes-Benz S450 ($244,700) and Porsche’s Panamera ($207,800).
By definition, a luxury car should be loaded to the gunwales with features that make life on the road that little bit easier. And aside from the performance and safety tech we’ll cover shortly, the highlights from a very lengthy standard equipment list are - 20-inch alloy rims, metallic paint, adaptive cruise control, digital matrix LED headlights, digital OLED tail-lights, full keyless entry and start, power-assisted door closing, power boot lid (with gesture control), a panoramic sunroof, heated, ventilated and massaging electrically adjustable front seats, heated front armrests and extended leather trim (centre console, door rails and armrests, steering wheel and upper dashboard).
Also included are ambient interior lighting (with 30 colours and six colour profiles), four-zone climate control, electric sunblinds for the rear and rear side windows, ‘Audi Connect’ navigation and multimedia (with voice and handwriting recognition), wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, 17-speaker 730-watt Bang & Olufsen audio (with digital radio) and a colour head-up display.
There’s a lot more, and the A8 can hold its head high in terms of pricing and features relative to its $200K price tag and the competition.
The Ghost Series II is yours for an indicative price of just $680,000 (or $800K for the Black Badge) plus substantial on-road costs. The Ghost Series II extended (which we didn’t drive at the international launch in Provence) will slip in at around $20K less than the Black Badge before additional charges.
If they seem like big numbers, you’re probably the sort of person who looks at price tags, or who shops in shops that put price tags on things. These are not common traits of Rolls-Royce buyers, who may only be vaguely aware of the actual price of their vehicle, and whose historical impression of guillotines is generally unfavourable.
So, high six-hundreds is table stakes.
But you might also think the ‘standard’ Ghost, like all Rolls-Royces, is considered by most buyers to be a mere starting point, from which they’ll typically up-spec their ride from a sumptuous and expensive options list.
Spending another 10 percent of the purchase price on customisation is a bare-bones outlay for most owners, but even so, the evolved Ghost’s out-of-the-box features are so comprehensive as to be almost overwhelming.
First, because the Ghost has been Rolls-Royce’s driver’s car since the first (modern) generation arrived in 2010, specifically to cater to a weird (for Rolls clientele) new generation of buyers who wanted to drive their Rolls themselves.
So that price gets you, above all, that proven but superb 6.75-litre twin-turbo V12 engine, massaged via an eight-speed transmission and an AWD system that’s as rich and viscous as Crassus’s last libation.
There’s its subtly tinkered 'flight on land' 'Planar Suspension System' (note the unspoken dissonance between the terms ‘flight on land’ and ‘driver-focused'), with an ingenious 'Satellite Aided Transmission' system that uses GPS to pick the ideal gear with which to launch out of turns.
It works hand-in-velvet-glove with Goodwood's 'Flagbearer' camera system, which tracks the road ahead to chide potholes into submission in advance.
Because it’s a Rolls, though, that’s barely even the start of the story.
The coachwork is extraordinary, with new trim options including natural open-pore 'Grey Stained Ash' design elements, a sumptuous new bamboo rayon textile called 'Duality Twill'.
There a night-sky inspired illuminated fascia that apes elements of time-lapse celestial photography, part of the central glass panel that stretches the length of the dash.
Sure, you might expect that level of detail for the outlay. But for the outlay it’s far from missing anything you’d expect.
The Audi A8 50TDI is powered by a 3.0-litre turbo-diesel V6 engine sending 210kW (from 3500-4000rpm) and 600Nm (from 1750-3250rpm) to all four wheels via an eight-speed automatic transmission (with ‘Tiptronic’ sequential manual shift function) and Audi’s quattro constant all-wheel drive system using a self-locking centre differential.
It also features a 48-volt electrical set-up for mild hybrid functionality built around a belt connected starter/generator, AC to DC converter and a 48-volt lithium-ion battery.
With energy recovery of up to 12kW from regenerative braking, it enables the A8 to regularly coast with the engine switched off and helps the extended stop-start system to operate smoothly.
Rolls doesn’t like acceleration figures — too gauche, darling — but armed with that proven 420kW and 850Nm V12, the Ghost Series II has serious heft. Delivering max torque from 1600rpm — just 600rpm above idle — the effect is genuinely of one endless surge, a wafting cloud of momentum that subtly slips between gears as it exudes itself across the countryside.
The Black Badge edition, like all of its, er, ‘disruptive’ ilk offers a ‘Low’ button (‘Low’ means ‘Sport’ in Rollspeak), which bumps gearshift speeds by 50 percent when you plant your foot, and delivers a distinctly non-Rolls-like pop and burble on overrun. It also provides an extra 21kW and 50Nm, because Black Badge is mean and tough.
Audi’s official fuel economy number for the combined (ADR 81/02 - urban, extra-urban) cycle is 6.6L/100km, the 3.0-litre turbo-diesel V6 emitting 175g/km of CO2 in the process.
Over a week of city, suburban, and some freeway running we averaged 11.1L/100km, which is acceptable for a 2.1-tonne luxury sedan.
Also worth noting the standard stop-start system works beautifully thanks to the 48-volt starter/generator.
You’ll need 82 litres of diesel to fill the tank and using the official number, that translates to a range of just over 1240km, which drops to around 740km using our real-world figure.
Provence is not entirely a driver’s paradise, with every stretch of slightly twisty tarmac only a counterpoint to a motorway lined with Marseille lorries, Depardieu-esque men in tractors who refuse to move to the verge, and small villages where each kerbside corners sit millimetres from the foot of an adjacent boulangerie.
Which is to say it’s neither a place for economy runs, nor a location at which to run up the consumption numbers with a madcap series of impromptu hill climbs.
Our Ghost II drive returned around 16L/100km, which feels about right with that gorilla-in-a-tuxedo 6.75L V12, and is only slightly above the official figures of 15.8L/100km. Not great, could be worse.
Despite extensive use of aluminium in the ‘ASF’ platform and body panels, the A8 tips the scales at a sturdy 2095kg, yet Audi says the A8 will accelerate from 0-100km/h in just 5.9 seconds. And with 600Nm of peak torque available across a flat plateau from 1750-3250rpm this big four-door gets up and goes hard when asked to.
At more sedate speeds you’re occasionally reminded there’s a diesel engine under the bonnet, with that characteristic engine and exhaust noise only making their presence felt under pressure.
In fact, under normal circumstances, noise, be it the engine, tyres or wind is minimal, thanks to a combination of the car’s aero-efficient shape, thick acoustic glass and other sound-deadening measures throughout the car.
The eight-speed auto transmission is suitably smooth, with the central shifter or wheel-mounted paddles able to make snappy sequential ‘manual’ shifts.
There are four drive modes in the ‘Drive Select’ system - ‘Comfort’, ‘Auto’, ‘Dynamic’ and ‘Individual’ - enabling tweaks to the steering, transmission, throttle and suspension. Comfort felt most appropriate most of the time, although dialling up the throttle and transmission to more aggressive modes in Individual adds an enjoyable edge.
The suspension is five-link front and rear with an adaptive air system smoothing even high-frequency bumps and ruts amazingly well.
Push into a corner and the A8 feels nicely balanced, its wide track, sophisticated suspension, plus the quattro AWD system seamlessly distributing drive between the front and rear axles, keeping the big body under control. In fact, you feel the ‘big car shrinking around you’ syndrome from the get-go.
The steering is precise without being overly sharp and road feel is good. Again, with that 2.1-tonne kerb weight in mind, braking is appropriately powerful with big ventilated discs front (350mm) and rear (330mm).
It pays to remember the turning circle is 12.5m, and it’s worth picking your spot for a U- or three-point turn.
Although there’s a lot going on for the driver in terms of screens, buttons and switches it all makes sense ergonomically. The head-up display is helpful and there’s a common sense mix of digital and physical controls, the latter including an audio volume knob. Yes.
The Ghost Series II drives like a magic carpet, serene and untroubled; in almost any stable other than that of Rolls, calling it a ‘driver’s car’ would have you throttled by their skunkworks. Everything is relative.
Still, it hides its considerable dimensions well. There’s never any doubt that you’re in a large saloon, as you white-knuckle the Ghost’s impeccably appointed steering wheel, but there’s always enough power to deliver creamily instant throttle response, even in the case of initially misjudged cambers.
Nor can the Black Badge hide the shimmy of that characteristic ‘flight on land’ body drift. The upside is that its manners are impeccable, even through the worst possible pieces of corrugation Provence can deliver.
If anything, the Ghost Series II’s big-hearted bulk adds to the fun factor, especially in some of Rolls-Royce’s more garish colour options, when gasping South of France MAMILs stare in amazement as a bright yellow, five-and-a-half metre Rolls passes them on the outside, scattering their various baguettes and garlands of onions.
Even though the A8 hasn't been assessed by ANCAP, as you might expect, it goes to town when it comes to active safety tech, the car’s standard crash-avoidance features including auto emergency braking (AEB) (pedestrians/cyclists - 5.0-85km/h, vehicles - to 250km/h), ‘Active Lane Assist’, blind-spot monitoring, a reversing camera and 360-degree view (including kerb view function), front and rear parking sensors, ‘Collision Avoidance Assist’ (steering assistance in critical situations), ‘Turn Assist’ (monitors incoming traffic when turning right), and rear cross-traffic alert.
There’s also ‘Intersection Crossing Assist’, ‘Attention Assist’, tyre-pressure monitoring and an ‘Exit Warning System’ (detects cars and cyclists when opening doors).
If all that isn’t enough to avoid a crash the airbag count runs to nine, including front and side bags for the driver and front passenger, side airbags covering the outer rear passengers, full length curtains and a front centre airbag to minimise head clash injuries in a side impact. A first aid kit, warning triangle and high visibility vests are also on-board.
There are three top tethers for baby capsules/child seats across the back seat with ISOFIX anchors on the outer positions.
You get airbags, ESC, adaptive cruise, parking sensors and auto parking, and a rear camera. But don’t expect Rolls-Royce to allow the blighters at ANCAP to wreck one.
The A8 is covered by Audi Australia’s five-year/unlimited km warranty, which is now par for the luxury market course, and 24-hour roadside assistance is included for the duration.
Paint defects are also covered for five years, with rust (to the point of perforation) covered for 12. Nice.
Service is required every 12 months or 15,000km with a five-year capped-price plan for the A8 coming in at $3830, or $766 per year. That’s a fair wedge but not outrageous for the category.