Audi A8 saloon (2010-2017) - Reliability & safety

Audi A8 reliability

Audi has a good reputation for reliability and build quality, but that hasn’t stopped it yo-yoing up and down the results sheet in our Driver Power customer satisfaction survey in recent years. A 13th place finish in 2015 was reasonably impressive, but our 2016 poll saw Audi fall to 21st place out of 32 manufacturers, with a 23rd place finish for reliability. The Audi A8 itself sells in too few numbers to feature in the individual model chart.

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Safety

You get lots of safety equipment fitted to the A8 as standard, including six airbags, electronic stability control, an advanced anti-lock braking system, tyre-pressure monitoring and Audi's PreSense system, which closes the windows, activates the hazard warning lights and tenses the seatbelts if it detects a crash may be about to happen. 

You can add even more safety systems from the options list, including a system that can brake the car for you and an impressive night-vision kit that can spot animals and people walking in the road when you’re driving at night.

One of the Audi A8’s most eye-catching features is the full-LED matrix headlights, which are optional on some models. These can project a bright white light for up to 250 metres without dazzling other motorists or cyclists, while an infrared camera cuts the high beam when it senses a vehicle coming in the opposite direction. 

Because of its high price, the A8 doesn’t sell in huge numbers, which may explain why Euro NCAP has never crash-tested this model. It’s a shame that there’s no independent evaluation, but we’d expect the A8 to score very highly and achieve the full five stars if it was ever tested.