I say go for the A8L W12. Unbeleivable car.
If you want more speed buy the new R8 when it comes out.

 

The S8 was disclosed the week I got delivery of my SWB (available in Europe) W12!... so, you can imagine I felt a bit frustrated, but after due consideration, I think the W12 is a more homogeous car, being about low down torque rather than up there horsepower and much more comfortable. The sports suspension, extra low profile tyres and sports seats (none of which I took) all make for a VERY hard ride and turn this remarkably rigid and light (for its size) limo into a sports car... Personally, I prefer to have the sportscar AND the limo (at the risk of sounding like a brat!). Am lucky in having several cars so I stick to the effortlessness of the W12... It would probably be dfferent if I had only one car, then the "Stealth" factor of the S8 and the wonderful sound of its engine would be irresistible!

 

Not sure about in the states but in europe there was the option of getting the w12 in swb form up until the d3 s8 was released.

Then the w12 only became availble in the L configuration. I actually thought it was the same in the states.

The swb w12 is very rare over in the UK. I actually have one and I can tell you there are a couple of reasons to get one over an s8. Firstly its slightly faster than the s8 in swb configuration. Secondly it came more highly speced as standard with a longer options list. The final point is that if you are buying a used car d3 s8s have only been out for a year or so they are very rare on the used market and residuals are still high.

 

dupe

 

Having driven both the S8 and W12 models, i would say if you want pure sex inside the car go with the W12, but if you want more grunt go with the S8.
You would think the W12 would be faster, but its not even close.

 

Hello Guys,

Ihave several questions from you, becauseI will buy a 2005/7 A8 W12 from Audi AG. They told me, everything is OK with the car. So my question is what are the problems about this type of vehicle. We own some several BMW, and we dont have any problems with them. what are your experiences with this car? this model year has also problems, or these was fixed? because the BMW AG also offered a 2004 645Ci on lower price... I dont know what to do...

 

I haven't really seen too many W12 A8's come into my shop with the exception of maintance.
They seem like a pretty solid automobile, but if something ever did go wrong expect to shell out some major money to get it fixed, that motor is shoe horned in there.

 

I asked these, because I saw that many problems was with these a8 model. The MMI, one friend had with the climate,the keyless system... etc...

 

Yes the MMI retracting motor has problems, buttons tend to stick from spilled drinks, minor electrical problems with the radio/navigation unit but nothing that major. I would still use it over BMW's crazy set up they got, i can never figure out how to use that thing.