Did you watch the video at all? Lighting gimmicks inside and out. Car moves up and down, at different speeds for some reason. By the time the car raises up you're already in the thing no one is going to wait for that nonsense. That's just getting started. IMO there is a big difference between luxury and what Audi has done or should I say overdone.
First off, there is nothing at all wrong with being a fan of a certain auto maker or in my case mostly of the technology Tesla bring to the table. Secondly, everything you mention doesn't take away from the vehicle one bit, doesn't make it slower, doesn't make it less efficient. Doesn't help other auto makers compete better now does it. Yes the Easter eggs Tesla has are silly but you get to CHOOSE if you want to see them or use them. In the Audi the fun house experience is baked in.

You love the fun house mirror tour? Awesome, good for you I am not going call you out and complain about it. And do you really have to drag Tesla into every discussion?

 

since i posted it, yes i did watch.

Ok let's talk about the raising up and down. It raises when you unlock the car so most will do that from afar as they're walking to it, or even remote start the car from far away. I know i do. So when you get to the car, it's already raised up and you get in more comfortably. It lowers more slowly because once IN the car, you don't want to be quickly 'dumped' to the driving height. Pretty simply, eh?

Plus i'm sure with settings you can choose not to use or customize all these things. And trick lighting is a very nice creative touch. And customizable ambient lighting inside is useful as well as aesthetically pleasing.

agreed. Didn't state otherwise.

Neither does lighting and raise/lower on the audi.

It was relevant to you considering luxury features on the audi gimmicks. Tesla has written the book on gimmicks, but that doesn't take away from their obvious awesome innovations.

 

Well you can go even further back and say its the new $10,000 lol

 

Lexus has been doing this for a while. LX and LS have these features. Nice, but useless once they wear out.

 

The LS has the rapid rise, the LX does not. The LX has a more traditional air setup where the vehicle lowers down into a park position, but it doesnt do it rapidly the way the LS and this S8 do. It was a new feature in the LS for 2008, my LS460 does not do the rapid ride but does have height settings.

As for wearing out, 57% of these vehicles are leased and its a luxury car, cool features are part of the appeal. Who cares what happens when they wear out. When I spend that money, I want some gimmicks.

 

1990 LS400 inflation adjusted was $78,467.94, LS500 starts at $75,450. S8 starts at $129,500 that makes it a different class of automobile.

 

The LS400 rapidly increased in price too.

 

It did not. Last production year LS400 was $53,605 that's $77,649.72 inflation adjusted. I checked other years same pattern withing a few thousand of the first year LS. Inflation adjusted of course any other comparison is meaningless.

 

There were big price increases for the LS from 1990-1993, the sub $40k starting price for the LS didn’t last long was my point. In general I agree with you that it has kept pace with inflation, if anything many cars are cheaper today adjusted for inflation

 

The point is still the same, in 30 years the LS price has doubled, so cars near or above $100K aren't THAT rare any longer.

 

I would be curious to know what the most expensive Mercedes was back in 1990. Today, some Mercedes models are clearing $200K Yes, $100K cars are not that rare anymore. I think Ford and Ram get their heavy duties to the $100K mark

 

Oh I totally agree

 

And? There has to be more to the point you are trying to make because as I've clearly shown when factoring inflation the actual cost (not the just the raw number) is nearly the same. The Model T cost $850 when it came out, are you telling me cars have increased in cost 25x or more?

 

The price hasn't really doubled, its just the money is worth half as much today as it was then.

 

We have to take inflation in account. From another Doug video I remember, i.e. the one on the Rolls-Royce Silver Seraph, it sold for $180,000 in 1996, what translated to 300 grand today. So if Doug is right, and the dollar has a bit more that doubled since, a modern entry-level LS would be a bit cheaper than one costing $40,000 in the 90s.