A couple years ago when I wanted a larger car I test drove the A8 and 7-series. I like the A8 MUCH better and wound up going with the A8L. They are priced pretty similarly. I think they tried to make the 7 a bit too "sporty" for what I wanted (a comfortable daily driver) and I liked Audi's MMI better than iDrive. The 7 had way too many buttons all over the place also.
However, I have driven the 3 and 5 series and A4 and A6 also. And I like the 5 series a lot better than the A6 and the 3 series a little bit more than the A4. It seems that the A8 is a lot different materials wise than the A4 and A6 while BMW seems to be more consistent across its model range.
That said I think the Audi is going to turn into something different for me in a few months
