Walk into an Audi dealership, ask for the most expensive ride on the showroom floor, and your salesperson, suddenly bursting with overwhelming friendliness, ushers you over to a shiny long wheelbase A8 with the W12 engine. At about $120,000, it may indeed be the priciest model he's got (until the R8 supercar arrives), but you think it's a big too long for your tastes, and not quite sporty enough. Then, something with an S badge catches your eye – it's nearly identical, but a bit shorter and sportier. Plus, with its $94,420 base price (including a $720 destination charge and $1,700 gas guzzler tax), you can be confident that you've selected the second most expensive car in the joint.

It's the all-wheel-drive 2007 Audi S8, or the sport version of the regular, 115.9-inch wheelbase A8 sedan, which stickers for about $69,000. Passenger sedans of this caliber are typically well-equipped, and the daddy of the Audi family is no exception. Among the standard goods are heated headlight and windshield washers, a dual zone climate control system, a power sunroof, a power tilt and telescoping steering wheel with memory, heated power front bucket seats, leather upholstery accented by Alcantara suede-like fabric on the doors and headliner, and a voice-activated navigation system. That's in addition to a 12-speaker Bose audio system, a tire pressure monitor, rain-sensing wipers, break-resistant security glass, Audi's Multi-Media Interface (MMI) central control, Bluetooth connectivity, and OnStar telematics. Front-side, rear-side, and side-curtain airbags were included for good measure.

Still want more? That's cool – Audi's got ya covered. You can swap out the standard gray birch interior with carbon fiber inlays for $500, have the entire interior swathed in leather for $4,900, add a solar roof panel for $790, give your rear passengers some power adjustment buttons to fiddle with for $350, or drop $2,100 on intelligent cruise control that lets the S8 gauge closing distances in traffic. There's also a $3,500 Premium Package that adds rear sunshades, power trunk and door closers, a park-aid system, a rear heated seat, and keyless ignition. What Audi is most proud of is the Bang & Olufsen audio system. In exchange for $6,300, audiophiles are treated to 1100 watts of surround sound from 14 speakers, a subwoofer, and trick tweeters that rise from the top corners of the dash – try to find a Best Buy car stereo installer who can pull that off.