THIS is something new from Audi… a big executive express that turns heads.
We know they can do it with sports cars, TT and R8 have looks to die for, but saloons - well they are unadventurous with pretty conservative styling.
A hint of the new thinking came with the rakish A5 but the A7 Sportback takes Audi down a new road and into the premium coupe league created by German rivals Mercedes-Benz with the sensational CLS, a coupe that doesn’t look anything like a traditional Merc. Something else on their minds might be the success of the beautiful Jaguar XF whose shape is way ahead of the big rivals, Merc E-Class, BMW 5-Series and the A6 from Audi.
Whatever the thinking the Audi range is better for it with A7 going a long way to eliminating the notion that big Audi’s have absolutely zilch sex appeal. They would say they are not here for that with the company focussed solely on technical excellence with much of their innovation out of site.
Well A7 has certainly got plenty of technical excellence with all sorts of wizardry, from headlights that swivel every which way to a night vision screen that can pick out pedestrians before you can see them in your headlights. Much of what is available under A7’s skin, like news and weather information fed by Google, and intuitive automatic gear selection is linked to satellites. The sky literally has become the limit.
What is happening with headlights is fascinating. Automatic dipping has been around for a couple of years but Audi has taken it even further by adapting the beam to the contours of the road and driving conditions. So instead of dipping the headlights in the conventional way sensors employ a staged lowering of the lights to ensure the driver has maximum vision until the last second.
It obviously doesn’t cause a problem because I was never flashed by a driver ‘accusing’ me of dazzling by not dipping. With the sleek new look comes a new dashboard layout, the centrepiece a pop up 6.5in monitor which, if you pay extra can be upgraded to an 8in display. The hard disc for the multi media centre holds an astonishing array of information including enough music to keep a pop concert going for a week.
There are literally scores of bands and artists at your fingertips.
There is so much going on behind the scenes it is easy to forget that this is primarily a mode of transport with four wheels, an engine and gearbox. You would not expect anything other than perfection when it comes to performance and in this case the superb 240hp V6 diesel provided the thunderous pick-up helped on its way by a fabulous seven-speed auto box with paddle change. It is so efficient that seventh gear is engaged by 50mph with the engine ticking over at a mere 1,200rpm and that is why I averaged almost 40mpg.
Part of the fun of driving Audi’s is to thumb through the extras list and in this case they amounted to £16,000, and there was plenty to more to spend on if so inclined. Out of it I would certainly choose air suspension (£2,000) because the ride is superb, adaptive cruise control with stop-start function to help save fuel (£1,800), the ambient lighting package (£300) because it made the interior so cosy, and the air conditioned seats (£840).
Because A7 is such a looker this is arguably the best big car in the Audi stable. As a hatchback it is more practical than Merc’s CLS and still has all the elements that go towards making expensive Audi’s such formidable motors. In the past we have marvelled at the mind-boggling technology but had a quiet moan at the lack of adventure in design.
Well here’s one Audi that has got the lot.
A7 Sportback quattro
Engine: 3-litre TDI; 240hp
Performance: 0-62mph 6.3secs; 155mph
Economy: 47.1mpg combined
Emissions: 158g/km. VED £155
Insurance group 40
Price: £47,200