D5 @ Frankfurt Motor Show.
 

Blink, and you would have missed it.

Historically, the Audi show hall was a dominating array of flashing lights and multimedia with huge queues of people bustling to get into the dedicated Audi for a peek at what was in there.

But not this year. This year, Audi just shoved some 4 ring tin in the same hall as Vw, seat, skoda, lambo, Bentley etc etc.

The all new D5 A8 wasn't even advertised. It didn't get so much as a banner, an arrow. Not even a mention. The A5 got a whole dot matrix video display banging on about how awesome it was.

There were 3 new A8's there. And a suspiciously large gap in the middle where it looks like they just didn't bother with the fourth. All were modest specs, nothing at all to write home about. Long gone it seems, are the days of showcasing the biggest and best that Audi can produce.

I say the 'new' A8 very, very loosely. As far an I'm concerned, its a D4 facelift, facelift.

There were more parts and design cues lifted directly from the D4 than I could count. I actually had to stand back and wonder if it was the new D5 at all.

The boot, boot hinges, cup holders, gear lever, door cards, grab handles, interior lights, seats were all basically identical, or ever so slightly changed in shape.

The big ticket items were the cockpit display, and the two new touch screen control panels for the climate and MMI which had collected so many finger prints, they looked awful.

One notable plus point is that they have made the boot big again by seemingly relocating most of the electronics that were behind the rear seat. There's still a big bump in the floor though, which makes it look a bit odd.

I'm really sad to say it did nothing for me at all. I can only hope that the drive has been massively improved over the D4 (which is vaguely possible given the adoption of the 48v damping system like the SQ7) but I wont hold my breath.

I took a few photos, but basically to save time, just google for Audi A8 D4 and squint a little and honestly, you've got it nailed....