Audi's A8 is a top range executive car that serves to match the Mercedes Benz competition. It has style, features and comfort, plus a genuine luxury feel that gives it appeal to the elite drivers. But is it a real contender against Mercedes Benz, BMW and Lexus? Michael Moroney took the A8 to the roads for his own verdict, read on.

STEP up to the Audi A8, and you know that you are about to enter something special. The big range topper from the Audi family is in the limousine class.

Audi has shown diesel power supremacy with its 4.2 litre V8 Audi A8. This luxury limousine grade car shocks with its acceleration and economy, not to mention the price at over €125,500 on the road.

This is a seriously impressive big car, without the big car looks of the S-Class Mercedes Benz, but with all the space, performance and more from under the bonnet.

I had the pleasure of driving the Audi A8 4.2 TDI Quattro in recent weeks and it was a real experience. And if you're bowled over by the looks you will be left in awe by the car's performance. This car is rated as being the most powerful production diesel car built with a massive 326bhp engine rating. That puts it well ahead of its luxury class rivals and allows it to deliver stunning acceleration performance.

Audi has achieved this massive power from a V8 turbo diesel, which uses two turbo-chargers one for each side of the V design to maximize the engine performance and economy. This car has typified diesel engine performance at the highest level.

Despite its relatively big size, the car compensates for this with an aluminium built vehicle body to lower the overall weight. The car weighs in at 1945kg and despite this, can achieve an acceleration figure of 5.9 seconds in a 0 to 100km/hr sprint. That's sports car performance from a diesel powered limousine!

To appreciate the luxury feel of this big Audi you have to include its air suspension, automatic transmission, comfort memory seats and space. The test car came with an adaptive suspension system that gave options in terms of sport or comfort driving with an automatic function and lift available. The latter gives the four wheel drive Quattro car extra ground clearance for rougher road conditions, but this car does not pretend to be an off-road vehicle.

The air suspension system acts on all four wheels to give the maximum level of comfort or harshness depending on your driving needs. Couple this with the Quattro system and you have a car that can handle almost any road conditions, that is until you are unlucky enough like me, to get a puncture. Then, its take out the manual, follow the guidelines on the SatNav/control panel screen and you should be up and running with the full size alloy spare wheel in the boot. Not just as simple as that. The spare is big and heavy with its massive Continental 255/40 R19 tyres. Releasing the jacking kit was even a bigger challenge and once released operating it at close quarters to the ground was the final hurdle that I faced and surmounted.

Changing the wheel of an Audi A8 is not for the fainthearted. The exercise reminded me to ask why car designers have not come up with a simpler and less stressful idea for a car jack! Let's spend a little more to ease the wheel change on a car that has a price tag of over €140,000. That was my hard luck I suppose but it also provided me with a lesson.

While the wheel change demand brawn, the rest of the cars functions demand brains. This car is packed with technology from seat and steering wheel adjustment, heating controls, radio, Sat Nav, suspension, Audi's Multi Media Interface (MMI) and the latest Audi side assist and lane assist technology.