Eric - Plug Guy

Of course everyone here is entitled to their opinion. Audi of today is a far cry from Audi of 10-20 years ago. I owned 5 MB vehicles from the late 80's (560SL) to 2006 (S500). Wife drives it more than I do, since I'm a Porscheholic. But....after the Daimler deal, MB quality went into the toilet. Technology was also crap - we had 3 Comand units in the S500. It was a nice car, but nothing compared to what replaced it: Audi A8L. That thing is just hell on wheels. Corners well for its size, plenty of power from the 4.2 and quattro drive, all aluminum body, and more technology than I'll need. Plus I can go with the paddles or leave it alone to hum along.

Took one long road trip in the middle of the night last year, about 300+ miles round trip at one time. NEVER once was I sore or tired. Ventilated seats, great fit/finish on all panels and interior far above any other vehicle I've seen lately.

So before you write off Audi on the sedan front, take a closer look. Of course, it's no sports car, but for a larger sedan, WOW, it's the cat's meow.

agdamis

Eric,

Agreed and your A8 illustrates my point that Audi has made huge progress in the quality and sport front and MB is making a push on the sport front. You have to admit though Audi and MB realized that BMW had the right stuff and they needed to cater a sportier, funner and better quality product to compete.

The support vehicle to the 997S is a 02 540i. I went with a pre-Bangle design, but man it was the only car that fit the bill for me. You just can not argue with a solid 4 door sedan that has a 4.4L V8 mated to a 6spd, driving the rear wheels with a proper sport suspension. The only thing the this car lacks is a LSD. There are plenty of better cars I am sure but for $28K I paid 3 years ago (with BWM warranty) it puts a smile on face and gets the job done everytime!

The A8 is beautiful though it really is. I need to call you on this Dension thing by the way that 997 needs ipod access!

Likemystoppie?

Not taking away from the A8L, which btw is a beautiful car; against the S500- It's no match. The A8L will win hands down in ALL the criteria that you mentioned above.

However, the S500 was the last of the "S" Class with the Bosch electronic botch work. The Mercedes Benz S550V and V4 is hands down the supreme 100k luxo-sedan. While the A8L's sport the cool paddles, the car it's self is showing it's true age against the S Class. Drive an S back to back against the A8 and you'll see exactly what's going on with Dailmer AG.

That having been said, b/c of that, and slow sales, you can own an A8 on the cheap.

And as far as quality goes; when I started with MB back in '02 they were ranked around 25th overall with JDPOWERS- Now, as of MY07 they were ranked (the company as a whole) 5th over all. Audi wasn't even in the top ten. Nor was BMW.

MB is poised to take the world by storm. Mark my words.

PS: Eric your A8 is one hot looking car. Gotta say I'm partial to that exact color combo!! Cheers!!

PAULSPEED

Hi,
I peck at certain things. I started reading about the six and seven speed boxes and I started getting excited. My 997 S 2006 tip has a 5 speed box. I hope no one is counting reverse as a speed. I always
wished for a additional gear. Six gears would be sweat but seven might be better. On the track, I only use four gears. I never get going fast enough to shift into fifth gear. I am not even close to the rev limit doing 125MPH in fourth gear.
Paul

JMAGOLAN

"Nissan's DSG is a 6-speed unit, not 7."

I stand corrected.

Jerry

Likemystoppie?

Talking to one my tech's (he's our Master Tech) just come back from Germany I bounced my idea off of him. He agree's.

The 987/997 tip is a Mercedes Benz unit. Even the 6 speed manuals are NOT German. (read Japanese).

He got the impression that GETRAG and Porsche don't get along too well..........from the facial expressions they made when prompted about GETRAG being the PDK contender.

Their comment was that they've worked successfully in the past with Mercedes Benz.

Sooo....we'll see if my theory is correct.

Le Chef

The Tiptronic technology is sourced from Mercedes-Benz, but I thought the gearboxes were made by Aisin.

It's more likely that VAG will have developed the PDK/DSG technology but that the gearboxes themselves will continue to come from Aisin.

Not every car will be sold with PDK - some will still come with stick, and to begin with some cars will still have Tip (Boxster and Cayman base models?) so it makes sense to share gearboxes across all models and have the shift components and clutches be modular to suit demand.

Likemystoppie?

Aisin does the m/t for the current 987/997 chassis. As for the 987 Cayman/Boxster you're correct; They won't see the 'upgrades' until next year which includes PDK.

The Tips are sourced completely from MB.

cgfen

this is a good thread.

your comment above might explain the disparity between what we know of VAG DSG now and proposed 7 speed PDK.

cheers

Craig

dhud

For those interested, pick up the May 2008 issue of EVO issue #117. There is an article on page 113 called "Changing Times" that discusses "DSG", "SMG", "AMT", & "DCT". It is quite informative. In the defense of "JMAGOLAN", an industry insider who has worked extensively with Porsche, Nissan, Acura, and Audi told me that Porsche had "input" into the development of the Nissan DCT transmission in the GT-R. What that means, I am sure, we will never know. Either way, it is a fabulous technology.