| 777 | Date: Thursday, 28 Oct 2010, 14.49 | Message # 1 |
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| Audi threw out a price on its all-new A8 sedan last night at Milk Gallery, a sleek art studio in New York’s Chelsea neighborhood: $78,925 for the standard A8, including destination charges, and $84,875 for the stretched-wheelbase A8L model.
Now all Audi needs is some customers. Audi’s top-shelf A8 has always been a tough sell in the States, despite its status as the first all-aluminum production sedan. As Johan de Nysschen, Audi of America president, is first to acknowledge, Americans still don’t quite consider Audi in the same country-club league as Mercedes, BMW or Lexus -- especially for models in loftier price brackets like the full-size A8 sedan, a perennial underdog against the Mercedes S-Class, BMW 7-Series and Lexus LS. That’s not a problem in Europe, China or other countries that have Audi well on the way toward what seemed like an impossible goal just a few years ago: becoming the world’s top luxury brand by 2015, measured by both sales and consumer image.
Audi gave journalists a run-through of the A8, highlights for which include its dramatic single-frame grille; a new PreSense safety system that includes auto-braking, night vision and pedestrian-detection alerts; a Web-based, Google Earth-enabled navigation system and Wi-Fi access; a 19-speaker Bang & Olufsen sound system and a sumptuous, chauffeur-worthy cabin that raises Audi’s already high standards for interior design. (The long-wheelbase A8L version adds about 5 inches of rear legroom.) Posh optional packages will include executive seating similar to that of the Lexus LS 470L, whose features include reclining rear seats with powered footrests and a pair of huge, 10-inch video screens.
De Nysschen noted that so far in 2010, Audi trails Mercedes and BMW in worldwide sales by only 50,000 or 60,000 cars, and reminded us that Audi has five years remaining on its plan to catch them and achieve its goal of 1.5 million annual sales. Around the world, de Nysschen said, “Audi has joined the triumvirate of BMW, Mercedes and Lexus. There are now four tier-one luxury brands.”
Audi’s U.S. sales are up an encouraging 25 percent this year, led by strong sales of its Q5 compact crossover and A4 sedan and easily outpacing gains of its main luxury rivals. While that puts Audi on pace for its first-ever year of 100,000 sales in the U.S., those sales still remain less than half the tally of BMW, Benz or Lexus. It's cars like the A8 and the upcoming A7 coupe, de Nysschen said, that are the keys to taking Audi upmarket where it can take on all comers -- even here in America.
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