How to spoil your kids, part 1
The A8’s cavernous rear cabin o ers all sorts of luxury and control, as the children are now discovering. By Tim Pollard
I’VE NEVER LIVED with anything bigger than a 5-series for an extended test so it’s taken a while to get used to having a 5.2metre luxury leviathan on my driveway.
Gaps have to be judged more carefully and country lanes approached with circumspection, and my family is resigned to me parking in the largest, most remote bays of car parks. It spills out of most spaces like an overweight passenger sprawling beyond the confines of an airline seat.
The flipside is that we have oodles of space inside. My children can’t quite believe the legroom in the rear of our long-wheelbase A8 L, complete with the comedic little footrest blocks nestling in the rear footwell. I’ve spent most of my time up front, where it’s equally roomy, but the rear compartment is where the Audi flagship makes most sense.
Our car comes with the Rear Comfort Pack which bundles in those footrests, double glazing, electric rear seat adjustment and power door-close for a chunky £2195. The acoustic glass makes the A8 recording-studio hushed, and the large fold-down armrest lets you choose between four-seater limo spec and occasional five-seat taxi duty.
Note also the removable micro-tablet in the armrest; back-seat drivers – sorry, passengers – can use it to adjust temperature, check the trip computer or even re-tune the stereo. Parents should note the potential for familial chaos on long journeys, as infotainment control is inevitably ceded rearwards.
It’s not all about the newly-entitled passengers in the back, though. Up front I too have become accustomed to sitting in the lap of luxury thanks to the extremely comfy armchairs. There are no massaging or ventilating tricks here, but these are inherently well designed, pampering pews.