Audi A8 L review: the quiet, tech-first choice against the S-Class in Bahrain
4/5motorssouq Editorial Team
Buy the A8 L if you want to be driven in genuine comfort and appreciate technology like predictive active suspension that reads the road ahead and adjusts each wheel individually — a feature that makes a real, feelable difference on Bahrain's less-than-perfect secondary roads. Accept in return that fewer people will recognise what you are driving, and that resale sits meaningfully below the S-Class.
Pros
- Predictive active suspension delivers a genuinely superior ride on rough roads
- Long-wheelbase A8 L is the only Bahrain spec, and rear space is excellent
- Four-zone climate handles Gulf summer heat with ease
- Quattro and mild-hybrid V6 are smooth and effortlessly quick
Cons
- Resale trails the S-Class and 7 Series noticeably
- Fewer people recognise the A8 for what it is
- Smaller Audi dealer network than Mercedes' or BMW's in Bahrain
- Options load quickly on top of an already high base price
Audi has never sold the A8 in the volumes of the S-Class or the 7 Series in the Gulf, and the D5 generation has not changed that — which is a shame, because it is genuinely the most technologically interesting car in the class. The party trick is predictive active suspension: a camera scans the road ahead and raises or lowers each wheel independently to absorb bumps before they arrive, and on the patched sections of highway between Manama and the causeway it is the difference between feeling every seam and gliding over it.
Living with the size
The long-wheelbase A8 L is the only version worth having in Bahrain — rear legroom is the entire point of a car like this, and the standard-wheelbase A8 sold elsewhere is not offered here. The 3.0-litre V6, with mild-hybrid assistance smoothing the stop-start behaviour that hybrid systems can make clumsy, is quick enough that outright pace is never the conversation; refinement is.
Quattro is standard, and 45 °C summer heat does not trouble the climate system or the cabin electronics in any way an owner would notice — Audi's four-zone climate control keeps rear passengers as comfortable as those upfront on the drive back from the airport.
The honest trade-off
Where the A8 loses to an S-Class is recognition and resale. Mercedes still owns the mental shorthand for chauffeured luxury sedan in the Gulf, and a three-year-old A8 depreciates harder as a result, regardless of how genuinely good the car underneath is. Buy it as an ownership decision, not an investment one, and it rewards you every single day you are in it.