Audi A8   Women's view

Vanessa Hinkley Checks Out Audis Latest A8

When I first heard that I was getting an Audi A8, I was rather caught on the horns of a dilemma. Part of me rejoiced in the fact that it was an Audi a brand recognised for its cerebral left field thinking. The flipside of this was that here was a car that costs around £55,000. Its not easy to step out of a car costing this much money without a tinge of embarrassment.

I checked the specification and noted the four-wheel drive transmission, the colossal dimensions of the body and the prodigious power output and began to feel a little intimidated. When it arrived at the office, the A8 largely put me at ease. The sleek, understated styling is a welcome relief from the look at me affectations of many of its prestige rivals. If I was in the market for a car and had just found £55,000 in loose change down the back of the Hinkley sofa, the Audi dealer would be the first place Id turn.

The latest A8 rectifies what many thought of as a flaw in the old cars make up. The key criticism levelled at Audis otherwise impeccable interior design was that buyers of the top line A8 werent getting anything markedly different to the rep whod lucked into an A3. The themes were all the same, many of the materials felt much alike and there were so many common parts. Great if youre the one with the A3, but not so good if you want something a little more exclusive.

Audi has recognised this and has given the A8 an interior quite different to the usual classy coalhole. The instrument dials are raked back and trimmed with a light metallic theme that is dotted about the cabin. Accommodation is better than the old A8, a car that, unless you opted for the long wheelbase version, was pretty tight on rear legroom. The rear seats lack side support and are quite hard, but theres plenty of space.

Headroom is acceptable without feeling as airy as an equivalent Mercedes S-Class, but this helps in making the A8 feel smaller than it actually is. I liked that.

Its here that youll notice the A8s other key development. Like the S-Class, it adopts a full air suspension set up with four different set ups to suit differing needs. The A8 feels lighter on its feet than before but ride quality has improved. This was the one big complaint with the old car, namely that the handling was good but you had to pay for it with significant bump and thump from the suspension.

The power steering has been retuned to offer more feel, but it reverts to fingertip lightness at parking speeds. I appreciated this when I came to pilot the A8 around a tight underground parking garage although enthusiast drivers may demand a little more heftnheave at high speed. Still firmly of the belief that car doors fall off and human lungs are unable to function above 70mph, Im quite satisfied with the A8s user-friendly tiller. The automatic gearbox was also smoother than silk, although the ability to change gears manually seemed a little superfluous.

It seemed that whatever gear the car was in, the 337bhp 4.2-litre V8 engine had more than enough power to make dignified progress.

Can any car priced at nearly £60,000 be described as good value? Discuss. It certainly doesnt offer twice as much of anything as, say, a £30,000 BMW 5 Series, but the A8 is wonderfully executed. When put into comparison with direct rivals from BMW and Mercedes it also seems to stack up quite well. There are more knobs, buttons and electronic toys to play with than in a Comet Superstore, although Audi has managed to integrate them into the fascia design without seeing brash.

If the price tag is a little beyond you, 3.2-litre versions are available from £50,225 but the real big spenders will want the 4.2-litre TDI or the 6.0-litre W12 at over £79,000.

Alternatively, theres the more sensible 3.0-litre TD and a 2.8-litre FSI for the budget conscious.

The Audi A8 is the luxury car for people who dont like luxury cars. Its understated yet elegant lines and lack of conspicuous ostentation make it something of a curio in a market where it generally pays to be as subtle as a thumb in the eye. In truth, I think there are plenty of better ways of spending £55,000, but thats just me. As luxury saloons go, its an informed choice.