Video: 2011 Audi A8

Not long ago you had the redesigned 2009 BMW seven series, followed by the 2010 Jaguar XJ. And now we're here at the Detroit auto show with the 2011 A8, the top dog from German luxury brand Audi. We're gonna take you through some of what's changed and look at some of its more distinctive features. Clearly the styling is more evolutionary. There's a huge one-piece grill here and up-front are LED headlights, which we first saw on the Audi R8 super car. Audi's got 'em kind of arranged in this sort of curvy pattern here that houses the low beams. It calls it the wing. If you were young and hip, you might say it looks fly. Well, maybe 15 years ago. As you'd expect for a top tier luxury stand, the materials quality inside is really good. Audi says it designed its center tunnel, which is this section here, to be sort of an ergonomic stress-free zone, so your hand can kind of wander from the low mounted shifter over to the knob based MMI system. It's got a little touch pad here. You could do things like input your navigation destination with your finger, sort of like a stylist on a PDA. That was something I was never really good at, but maybe you will be. Plenty of head room and good thigh support and back from the seats. Not a ton of leg room. And this car is almost as long as the outgoing extended length A8. There's going to be an extended length version of this car coming along later on we're told and it'll probably have even more backseat leg room, so that could clear things up a bit. The car's standard V8 makes 372 horsepower and works through Quattro all wheel drive and an eight speed automatic transmission. No word on the cars pricing yet, but expect it to start somewhere near the current A8's $75,000 sticker when it goes on sale this fall. <v Announcer>For more car related news, go to cars.com or our blog kickingtires.net.