2024 Audi S8 Review and Test Drive

Delivering expected luxury and refinement with a dash of excitement and modernity.

Mark Takahashi | 

Jul 10, 2024 | 10 min read

Mark Takahashi

Back in 1998, Audi introduced the United States to a new large luxury sedan. Aimed at the well-established BMW 7 Series and Mercedes-Benz S-Class, the A8 made waves with its lightweight aluminum construction and enjoyable driving character, and those traits have defined the car ever since. As Audi's flagship sedans, the luxurious A8 and performance-oriented S8 continue to showcase the automaker's latest technological and mechanical advances.

Audi last redesigned the A8 in 2019, ushering in the model's fourth generation. A year later, a new S8 arrived. More recently, both cars received a minor refresh in 2022, and now the 2024 Audi A8 and S8 are unchanged except for adding new remote vehicle monitoring and control features.

Having spent a week driving a 2024 S8 in the Los Angeles area, my opinion is that anyone looking for a stylish, comfortable, and refined luxury car should consider this Audi. In many ways, the S8 — and by extension, the A8 — successfully occupy a delicate middle ground between the extroverted BMW 7 Series and the conservative Mercedes-Benz S-Class. According to my experience, the 2024 Audi S8 is the most agile and engaging to drive among this distinguished trio, making it especially appealing to performance-minded drivers.

Mark Takahashi

The 2024 Audi A8 and S8: Luxury and Performance Don't Come Cheap

Unlike many of Audi's other models, its long-wheelbase luxury car does not come in different trim levels. Instead, the A8 and S8 feature a generous list of standard equipment to which you can add several option packages. Base prices range from the low $90,000s to the mid-$120,000s, including the destination charge.

For this review, Audi provided the more powerful S8 variant. Equipped with the optional predictive active suspension, a high-end audio system, a Rear Seat Comfort package, and an Executive package, the test car had a manufacturer's suggested retail price of $141,845, including the $1,095 destination charge to ship it from the Neckarsulm, Germany, factory to your local Audi dealer.

Mark Takahashi

Understated Elegance With a Hint of Aggression

Audi styles the A8 with an understated elegance that is neither flashy nor drab, and the S8 adds an appropriate amount of angular styling flourishes. Both versions are as stately as the Mercedes-Benz S-Class but with sporty, angular touches to give them an edgier personality. In my eyes, the Audi is more appealing than the current BMW 7 Series with its blocky shape and oversized grille.

Inside, the Audis continue the theme with a broad dashboard and a high-tech but ultimately conservative design. Display screens and piano-black trim dominate the cabin, with brushed aluminum accents breaking up the monotony. Still, all of those glossy black and metallic surfaces can cause annoying sun glare and reflections.

The quality of the materials is excellent and comparable to rivals from BMW and Mercedes. Impeccable quilted and stitched leather covers the seats, and the plastic elements all have a sturdy feel. Owing to the Audi's solid construction, there's no hint of squeaks, even over rough pavement.

Mark Takahashi

Lots of Creature Comforts Enhance the Overall Comfort

The Audi S8's front sport seats come standard with heating, ventilation, and massage. Plus, with 22-way power adjustment it's easy to find your preferred seating position.

There's plenty of lateral space, and effective side bolsters hold you in place when threading the car through S-curves. As expected of a sports sedan, the padding is firm, but the well-shaped cushions are comfortable for many hours behind the wheel.

The rear seats provide ample legroom and enough headroom for slightly taller-than-average passengers. This test car also came with the available Rear Seat Comfort package, which adds power adjustments, heating, ventilation, and massage. In addition, it equips the car with a separate rear infotainment control touchscreen.

With all those upgrades, the Rear Seat Comfort package gives the S8 a modern, sporty limousine feel. You can further upgrade the car with the four-passenger version of this package, which includes a center console and folding tables.

Thanks to the test car's active suspension, accessing any of the S8's seats is easier. It instantly raises the vehicle's ride height by about 2 inches when you open any door, meaning you'll exert less effort to transition from pedestrian to passenger and back since you won't have to stoop down as much.

Mark Takahashi

Handles the Large Items Well Enough

Despite the S8's huge interior, there's a noticeable lack of storage for personal items. Audi includes a wireless phone charger in the armrest bin, but the bin itself is small. Besides that, you only have some moderately sized cupholders, door pockets, and a puzzling tiny bin in the door armrest.

Though the S8's trunk capacity is only 12.5 cubic-feet, the trunk is wide and deep and can easily fit larger suitcases and golf bags. The low liftover height also makes loading heavier objects easier. Unfortunately, the rear seatbacks don't fold to provide additional space, but there is a center pass-through for longer objects such as skis.

Mark Takahashi

Audi MMI Boasts High Tech and High Fidelity

Audi equips its flagship sedan with three display screens, including a 12.3-inch digital instrument panel, a 10.1-inch infotainment touchscreen, and a smaller 8.6-inch touchscreen for the climate controls. A head-up display is available as an option.

The Audi comes equipped with a wireless phone charger in the center armrest bin and wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity. Not only does it keep your phone secure and charged, it also features a signal booster. Setup takes only a few minutes, and Apple CarPlay functioned reliably the entire time I spent with the S8.

The infotainment system responds quickly to inputs, the graphics are easy to read at a glance, and Audi logically arranges the menus. The lower climate touchscreen can be distracting while driving, but once I set the temperature, I rarely needed to adjust it again.

The voice recognition system can accept natural speech commands, such as "Turn on seat ventilation." However, it takes a while to process commands, so it's less satisfying to use than what you'll find in a BMW or Mercedes. In most cases, I found it quicker to just tap the screen myself. It does come in handy for getting driving directions, though.

The standard audio system is a 17-speaker Bang & Olufsen unit, but my test vehicle came with the optional 23-speaker upgrade. As an audiophile, it's one of my favorite surround-sound systems as it doesn't sound as artificially enhanced or hollow as others. Instead, the 23-speaker Bang & Olufsen system delivers an intensely immersive experience with the kind of potent bass and clarity that encourages you to keep turning up the volume.

New for 2024, Audi Connect Plus is standard with a complimentary six-month trial subscription. It allows you to monitor and control some vehicle functions via a smartphone app and allows you to add apps to the native infotainment system. These apps include streaming music and video services, gaming, parking information, and news.

Mark Takahashi

2024 Audi S8 Safety Features Are Nonintrusive and Trustworthy

For flagship cars, the Audi A8 and S8 offer too few standard driving assistance systems. You must add the Executive package to obtain adaptive cruise control, lane-keeping assist, lane-centering assist, and a blind-spot monitoring system with rear cross-traffic alert. This package also adds an intersection assist system, a semi-automated parking system, and a traffic sign reader.

During my time with the S8, these systems worked as advertised in all conditions, with no false alarms. The adaptive cruise control is notably smooth in its actions, and the lane-centering assist doesn't fight you for wheel control. The systems worked well enough that I never needed to adjust their sensitivities from the maximum protection level.

One minor annoyance emerged when I was shoehorning the S8 into a very tight parking spot. The automatic braking tended to alarmingly engage the brakes when getting close to objects, even though there were still a few inches of space.

Mark Takahashi

A V8 for More Refined Tastes

The entry-level — if you can properly call it that — 2024 Audi A8 employs a turbocharged 3.0-liter V6 with hybrid technology. It produces 335 horsepower and 369 pound-feet of torque, channeled to all four wheels through an eight-speed automatic transmission. Audi estimates the A8 will accelerate to 60 mph in 5.6 seconds.

The 2024 Audi S8 spices things up with a twin-turbo 4.0-liter V8 that churns out an impressive 563 horsepower and 590 lb-ft of torque. It should reach 60 mph in only 3.8 seconds and reach a top speed of 155 mph. In addition to this added power, the S8 has a sport-tuned adaptive air suspension, a sport rear differential, and summer performance tires.

Mark Takahashi

An Impeccable Balance of Refinement and Performance

The S8 springs to life with a gentle but inspiring V8 rumble. From the start, it tells you this is no typical luxury sedan. Driven conservatively, it's as well mannered as its rivals, with smooth shifts and a comfortable ride quality. The predictive active suspension scans the road ahead to spot imperfections and adjusts accordingly to allow the S8 to glide over them. The cabin also remains blissfully quiet on a variety of road surfaces.

When driven with more sporting intent, the S8 eagerly switches roles. Acceleration is powerful, accompanied by the sonorous V8 growl, and the gear shifts are sharper. Switching to the Dynamic drive mode firms up the suspension for improved cornering and quickens engine response, but it doesn't drastically change the car's personality. Instead, it feels more at home on a twisty mountain road.

Mark Takahashi

Despite its more than 5,000-pound curb weight, the S8 drives more like a midsize sedan, delivering quite a bit of entertainment for driving enthusiasts. With grippy performance tires and all-wheel drive, there's an abundance of grip.

The brakes are up to the job of slowing the sedan quickly, but they can be a little too abrupt in the last few inches, resulting in an inelegant lurch. An engine stop-start system that isn't as smooth or quick as its rivals also magnifies the S8's lack of decorum as it comes to a halt.

While Audi tunes the S8 to go fast, it also excels at low speeds. The all-wheel-steering system allows it to maneuver into a tight parking spot with minimal effort and fewer multipoint turns.

Regarding fuel economy, the S8 earns EPA ratings of 15/24/18 mpg in city/highway/combined driving. The A8 is more efficient, increasing those figures by 4 mpg across the board. Considering how much more powerful the S8 is, that's a reasonable penalty. During my testing, I averaged 16.5 mpg in city and highway driving while having plenty of fun in the mountains near Los Angeles.

Mark Takahashi

2024 Audi S8: Striking a Balance

With the S-Class, Mercedes-Benz builds one of the best large luxury sedans. Its opulence, forward-leaning technology, and superior comfort are undeniably alluring, but my tastes have me seeking more performance and personality. As glorious as the S-Class is, it's a bit too conservative and stodgy for me.

Meanwhile, the latest BMW 7 Series definitely has personality, but I prefer a different kind. Its awkward styling puzzles me, and its infotainment system seems overly complicated when performing basic functions.

That makes the 2024 Audi S8 my favorite in the class. The S8 expertly balances luxury and performance in an attractive package, looking and feeling special as it appeals to a wide range of driver types, whether you're more inclined to cruise gracefully down the boulevard or slice through curves on a fun road.

If the purr of its stout engine and sharp handling call to you as much as they do to me, it may be a good idea to lock in an Audi S8 sooner rather than later. The next one will likely be electric to compete against the Mercedes-Benz EQS and BMW i7. There's little doubt the next Audi flagship sedan will impress with power, performance, and sophistication, but part of me will miss the visceral connection that comes with the 2024 S8's buttery-smooth V8.

Mark Takahashi

There's no such thing as a perfect car, but I'm convinced that there is a perfect car for you. That's why I've spent the last two decades reviewing every type of vehicle I could get my hands on. From economy hatchbacks to high-performance sports cars and pickup trucks to family SUVs, I've driven them all. I aim to deliver the most comprehensive evaluation possible so you can see for yourself which vehicle is likely to be the best fit for your life and budget.