The 2020 Audi S8 is really Fast and MORE Comfortable than a BMW or Mercedes

I'm Jacob. I'm Yuri. And we're going for a drive. 2020 Audi S8. Quattro Technic with launch control. Okay, very thrusty. But it's like smooth fast. It's very smooth fast. Zero violence. Yes. Horsepower and torque. 563 horsepower, 590 pound-feet of torque from a twin-turbo 4-liter V8 with a mild hybrid system. So an 8 from Audi is equivalent to a 7 Series from BMW and an S Class from Mercedes, right? Yeah, and the base would be the A8. So this is the S8. So this is the fast one. And there's no RS8 yet. That's right. And I don't know if there will be because there never was. Floor it. Let's see if we need it. I mean, it would help, but this is still really fast. But let's talk about the crazy stuff that this has, specifically with the air suspension. First of all, it scans the road. So if it sees any bumps coming up ahead, it can brace for them and it'll know what to do. And based on the front wheel, it'll also change the rear wheel. So you always get the softest suspension in Comfort Plus mode. Yeah, I was driving over some train tracks and it, like, felt like nothing. Yeah, this is one of the smoothest cars I've ever driven. Like, definitely comparable to a 7 Series and an S Class. Like, this is really good. Might be near the top now. And the next thing with the air suspension is how it handles. So I'm going to send this in Comfort Plus through Cliche Corner. And so what it does is it'll actually lean into the corners if it needs to, but it tries to keep you as level as possible. And honestly, driving this thing through Cliche, it's just dead flat. Yeah, it's very comfy. It feels like I've got dynamic bolsters. But if what you're saying is correct, it's just the car pushing the bolsters against me while I stay straight. Well, the bolsters being the air suspension system, not the actual bolsters. Yeah, it's actually a wild system. I'll get more handling stuff later, but that's just with the air suspension. And the next cool thing about the air suspension on this is when you get in or out, it drops or raises the car so much. And especially raising, it raises the car so fast. Yeah, so when you open the door, you're trying to get in, it makes it so easy to get in. And it's crazy how fast it does it. I guess they can't drop it as fast because if you put a hand in there or something, it'll, like, crush it. But there's also no reason to make it go down. It's fast, that's what you want up because that's when you open the door to get out or in. But, like, what if you want to dump it, like, on air ride? Yeah, I mean, that'd be pretty cool. And the final thing with the air suspension that we can't show you because we don't want to get crashed into, it can actually brace for a side impact by raising one side. Very interesting. Yeah, so the car that's going to potentially hit you hits more body than it does the window area. So now a proper send-through cliche corner in Dynamic. Okay, this will oversteer, which is nuts, and it's all-wheel drive, and it really doesn't understeer. It has all-wheel steering, and honestly, this feels so much smaller than it is. This is probably going to be, like, a good bad guy car for the next transporter. Oh, for sure it will be. Like, this handles incredibly well. One of the best Audis I've actually driven. RS5 takes the cake for me. Like, I felt so fast in that. I just think that thing understeered so much. So the next gimmick that I'd like to talk about is the rear entertainment. Yeah, it's actually really good. We've got a bunch of tablets back there. Okay, potentially really good. So we do have the tablets on the back, and they show the infotainment kind of, and then you can also swipe over, and then it's just a regular Android tablet. And you can also remove them and take them with you. So on those tablets, you do have YouTube. You've got pretty much everything that's on an Android tablet, like games. You can download more stuff. But the problem is you need to use Wi-Fi to see everything. Yeah, which this car has. And apparently, it's all connected. We checked everything, but we couldn't get it to work. And then it says you need to activate MMI to play audio, which we couldn't do. Yeah, we actually did try to do everything that it told us to do, and it still wouldn't play the audio through the system. It played the audio through this little dinky speaker right here. Good thing we got all these extra speakers in this car. But there is, like, a headphone jack, too. But there's so much going on, us two, who do this for a job, couldn't figure it all out. Yeah, I actually had to pair it to different Wi-Fi, and then everything started working. But then it made me sign in, which I didn't want to sign in because this isn't my car. So if you own this, a lot of these issues wouldn't actually exist once the Audi specialist showed you exactly how to use all this stuff. But if you log in, you can set a pin so nobody else can use it except for you in the back. So all your private information will be safe on those tablets. Yeah, so in case someone steals your car, you still have your pin. But I still don't think it's perfect because having your own phone is just, like, more convenient. No matter, like, who you are sitting in the back of whatever car. And then this doesn't even have preloaded videos. Like, we always say having the infotainment from an Air Canada plane would probably be the best. Right. Hondas kind of have that, but just cater towards kids. And then, like, every minivan always syncs up perfectly. There's, like, no risking this not working because those kids need their infotainment in the back. So would you want an iPad instead of anything? I honestly don't think we're at the point where anything you have back here is better than just having your own iPhone in your hand. That is true. But then having a larger screen and it connected to the car and being able to see features from the car is really cool. Yeah. From the back, you can see how fast the driver's going. You can see the health of the oil and everything. And then if we use the center little tablet, you can control a bunch of stuff like all your peasant blockers. You've got a bunch of peasant blockers, and I find them to be really quiet. Yeah. And then you can also control your massage, cooled seats, moving the seats around and everything from back there. Overall, the backseat room is very nice. Would you take the backseat of this over the backseat of the 7 Series? Well, the 7 Series had a tray table and stuff. Yeah. And the thing for your legs and everything. Yeah. So overall, I think that's a little bit better than this. But this has more points because you can play YouTube off the tablet, which we couldn't do on the 7 Series at the time. Exactly. So to sum all that up, the backseats are fantastic. Yeah, but at this point, it's not better than just having your own iPhone with you in whatever backseat you're sitting in at the time. From any manufacturer. In general, yeah. Just have your phone on you and some headphones. And we've also got our own sunroof at the very back and little mirrors to check your makeup. The next cool gimmick. It's not that cool, but it's kind of cool. So we've got carbon fiber everywhere, but the vents hide themselves when you start the car or when you turn off the climate. Yeah, it's a nice subtle little thing that happens. I guess if you shared this car with your wife, it would be nice to put a little I love you message when you park it. So when she gets in, she gets a nice reminder. Yeah. And then when she drives, it's not there. And then it's buried somewhere behind there. Yeah, it's going to fly by the firewall and just rattle for the rest of the life of the car. Exactly. The next thing isn't really a gimmick, but we do have massages here as well. Yeah, you can either click the button on the bottom side of the seat or click the seat on the bottom infotainment screen. Is Lane Keep and Radar Cruise a gimmick? I wouldn't say so, but I'd say it works very well in this car. It's a very good working Lane Keep assist. Quick little reminder, gimmick isn't a bad thing. Gimmicks are good things. And the other cool thing that pops up when you start the car, the speakers. Yes. Cool gimmick. And they sound really good. So we do have the optional Bang and Olufsen system, and it is fantastic. Yeah, but that awesome system doesn't help when the sound's coming out of those little speakers on the tablet. Well, I'm sure someone's figured this system out. This can't be the only way this works. I'm sure the dealer sets it up for you, maybe. Honestly, I don't even know if a dealer could do this. They must. Okay, the last gimmick, the wipers. Okay, the wipers are probably the coolest wipers I've seen, and I think they beat Mercedes wipers. So they're magic wipers, but the water sprays out on whatever side it's heading towards. Yeah, so the upside on the up and the down on the down. It's amazing. Revolutionary. And the last thing isn't an Audi gimmick. It's the straight pipe gimmick. Visor test. 3, 2, 1. Yes! Woo! All the way. Good job, Audi. Door handle. That's a gimmick. Send it for me. You get moments of, like, pure thrust, but it's, like, smooth in between everything. And the 0 to 100 kilometer per hour time is roughly in the range of the S63 and the M760LI, so it's all in the three-second, the upper three-second range. This one doesn't feel as aggressive, though. It definitely doesn't. And fun fact, this is the same base engine that's in the Lamborghini Urus. Wasn't the first S8 the same engine as another Lamborghini? Yes, the V10. So this still has a Lamborghini engine. It's just the V8 from the Urus now. I wish it had a V10. All right, let me hustle this through cliché corner real quick. And it really pulls you around. That rear steering does a lot. So before I talk about the rest of the interior stuff, like the infotainment, I want to get into the looks. Do you think that this looks good? Only from the rear angles. I agree. That's the best angle. It's not that it's a bad-looking car, but it's just a little bland. The front angle, it just blends into everything else, especially in this silvery gray color, which can pop sometimes. And we also have the black optics package, which blacks a bunch of stuff out, like the grille. And even the headlights don't stand out that much. And these are the optional laser lights as well. Like, I'm sure they're cool and work well, but it doesn't have a cool pattern like the A7 that we drove. No, I agree. And from the side, there's a lot of really cool overlapping body lines. And I really like these wheels. They're so clean. They do look good, but what is a Continental recommended tire? The Conti Sport Contact 5P. And what do you think of the brakes and brake calipers on this? Okay, so this has the carbon ceramics, which are an option. They're about $10,000. They look really cool. I really don't think you need them. Yeah, I guess that's kind of, like, the theme of the 2020s is, like, you're going to get carbon ceramic brakes. They're going to be a lot to change. Yeah. I just don't get them if you don't have to. And then now to the back end, our favorite part. We've got really cool taillights that come all the way around when they're on. But when they're off, it's not that good. Yeah, but I believe they are OLED taillights, which is pretty fancy. Yeah, OLED, just like my LG OLED TV that has an audio lag. Sorry, I just had to get that out there. Okay. Yeah, you've been ranting about that for a while, so I'm desensitized to it. And there's no way to fix it, and I don't know what to do. And then we have a pretty nice-looking diffuser. Nothing special, just really clean. Yeah, it works really well with the double dual exhaust tips. Yeah, the exhaust tips are so good. But they're not, like, super big double oval exhaust. They're just smaller ones because this is not an RS8. And since this is a gigantic sedan, we do have a ton of trunk room back there. Yeah. I don't need to add to that. You can't actually get the S8 in Canada as a non-extended wheelbase, so this is the extended wheelbase. Yeah, those rear doors are pretty huge. But what's cool about these door handles are they're all electronic. Like, you don't feel anything besides just, like, a little click. Yeah, there's no loud latch or anything like that. And they're soft-close. They are, which is pretty fancy. But, I mean, that's expected. You have to have soft-close here. You have to. So, overall looks-wise, how would you compare this to the 7 Series and the S-Class? There's nothing extravagant about it. So, if you don't want to stand out, I would highly recommend getting this over the S-Class or the 7 Series because I think both of those look better because they stand out more. How about the looks of this versus a G90? I think the G90 looks better from the front, but I think this looks way better from the back. I think the G90 looks cooler overall, but this is better every other way. Yeah, it really is. I would like to start off the interior section talking about all the gloss black. I mean, it's an expensive car, so there's no point of complaining about it because somebody else will clean it for you, right? Potentially at this price point. Potentially. There is a lot of gloss black, though. Like, everywhere. But there's also a lot of really nice glossy carbon fiber. I love this carbon fiber so much. I love how much of it there is. Then we've got leather and alcantara, a really good mix of dark interior colors. This is a solid, non-extravagant interior. And then what color are these seats? They are a cognac, I believe. I could see cognac. Yeah, yeah. It looks good. It doesn't stand out too much. It's just along with the whole muted look of this whole vehicle. And the seats are super comfortable, though. And we should probably check if this passes the cup holder test. It does pass a reusable cup of coffee just fine. Hmm. Both of them. Fantastic. Environment. So, obviously, we have two infotainment screens. Yeah, just like every other updated Audi, and I really like this system. Yeah, no real issues here. One thing I really like is Apple CarPlay is wireless and wired. It's up to you. But it has disconnected for me a whole bunch of times wirelessly. Like, I'll get in the car, and it doesn't kick in for a couple minutes. And Android Auto has been flawless for me. Wired Android Auto or wireless Android Auto? Wired. Not yet. Yeah, I still get to charge my phone. But what I really like about Apple CarPlay and Android Auto is because there's a menu on the left, you can always click to it with the click of a button. It makes it a lot easier because I complain in a lot of cars that there's too many clicks to get to the page you want to be on. That was the first thing I programmed in here. And this does have a winding satellite radio station. It does not have tune mix. I don't think it's going to get it, which kind of sucks, but whatever. And then we have our heated and cooled seats. We also have a heated steering wheel. All the settings are in the infotainment. And then we've also got, like, buttons for our shades and our garage door opener down there as well. It's pretty easy to use. And then below that screen, we have touch buttons, but you actually have to click these ones. So we have our drive mode selector there. So we have four different drive modes, auto, dynamic, comfort plus, and individual. To be honest, comfort plus. Yeah, all day. I mean, this is fast, but, like, it's more comfortable than it is fast. Exactly. That's the thing. But this does sound really good. Yeah, and it changes between the drive modes on the inside, but it also sounds really good outside. But the thing that sucks is that it's such a quiet, comfortable car that you don't hear the outside stuff unless you're rolling around with the windows down. Yeah, you really don't hear anything in here. You've probably noticed that our audio is extremely clean in this car because it's so quiet. And then through the infotainment, we've got ambient lighting as well. Yeah, and the ambient lighting is actually really nice. The way that it comes in through the interior looks really premium. The best part is even the seatbelt receptacle lights up. I don't think I've ever seen that in any other car. Is receptacle the right word for it? For sure it is. Nice. My thesaurus thing has paid off. And as all luxury cars should have, this has an amazing 360 camera and reverse camera. Yeah, I think this is the tightest one around the perimeter of the car. And then for our gauge cluster, we've got S-Performance and Sport. So S-Performance is like a tact that goes all the way across. Sport is the two bubbles. But what's nice is there's a reduced mode that'll get rid of the stuff on the side and gray out some of the features that you don't really need to look at. Reduced mode is pretty cool, but I wish it reduced it slightly more, kind of like Corvette Stealth mode. Yeah, I get that. But I've never seen any car company desaturate all the stuff at the top. Yeah, but then the bottom stuff is left. Yeah, I guess. But then how about the steering wheel? Steering wheel looks pretty nice, and it feels great. But don't you hate steering wheels like this? I do. I prefer three-spoke ones, but this one's contoured so nice that I don't mind it. Yo, do you think Audi copied the G90? I don't think so. I really don't think so. We're going to have to look back and find out. But what about these paddles? They're pretty much the same as every other Audi paddles, but the back feels kind of nice because they're metal. Yeah, but I think there are some new metal paddles coming like in the RS6, which we'll hopefully get to drive one of these days. Would be nice to drive that. So I guess that's pretty much everything with the S8. Let's get to the price. Well, it's obviously a lot of money. It starts at $151,600. Canadian. And this one loaded with options is $193,645. So that's kind of right along the ballpark of like the M760 Li and the S63 sedan. Yeah, those start in the 170s. Okay, so this kind of might be a better deal for the features you get. This is kind of in between the base models of those and the upper trims of those. Like they kind of split the difference. Because those get an S63. There is no M7 yet. And then there is no RS8. Yeah, and there won't be an S65 anymore. And then Genesis doesn't make fast cars yet. No, they don't. Overall, I think this is one of my favorites. I just feel so relaxed driving in all of these big body sedans. I love these things. But as the kind of person you are today, don't you kind of need a flashier luxury car? Like you're talking about looking at Rolls Royces. Yes, absolutely. Or Rollers, whatever the plural is. This is the opposite of that. I know. It's not for me right now, but it's for me later. I feel like the person who buys this is very confident in themselves. And they just want a comfortable car that's not flashy. Yeah, that is the definition of who would buy this. So let us know where this ranks in your big body, super luxury, super fast sedans. This, Mercedes, or BMW? And click this right here. It'll probably be a playlist. So maybe I'll put a video there. Maybe the 7 Series? Maybe I'll put the 7 Series. Or the S-Class. Yeah, it's been a while since we've driven that one. Just click this. Good. You guys think this is scripted? Yeah, yeah. This is the least scripted thing of my life. Let me get the script out. Got him.