Is there such a thing as too much choice? Audi clearly doesn’t think so. The German firm’s range already consists of 20 different body styles, and now there’s a new one to choose from – the new, Mercedes CLS-rivalling A7 Sportback.
There can be no denying the A7 is striking. In fact it’s arguably Audi’s most beautiful car after the R8. Inside, the A7 is just as stunning. The dash, with its wraparound effect, the cool-looking instruments and the layout of all the buttons are all incredibly well executed.
Video: watch CarBuyer's video review of the Audi A7 Sportback
The A7 impresses in the back too. While it’s a strict four-seater most adults will find it no less comfy than an A8. There’s enough space to stretch your legs out, and despite that sloping roofline, only those well over six foot will find head room a squeeze.
As for practicality, the boot is quite shallow but it does goes back a long way which means there’s about the same overall volume as the current A6. However, that hatchback tailgate means the space is more useable. Plus you can always fold the rear seats down to increase capacity from 535- to 1,360-litres.
On the road, the A7 is very good to drive. The car is based on an entirely new platform, which incidentally will underpin the next A6, that uses 20 per cent aluminum to help keep weight down. However, tipping the scales at around 1,700kg, the A7 is certainly no waif.
Despite its size it handles very well with almost unshakable poise. Our test car was fitted with the optional air suspension, which constantly adjusts to deliver the best balance of handling and comfort, and Audi’s famed quattro all-wheel-drive which gives seemingly endless grip. Barely any noise enters the cabin at any speed, allowing you to waft along in a cocoon of tranquillity.
The A7 will be available with a choice of two petrol and two diesel engines when it hits UK roads early next year. We drove the 242bhp 3.0-litre TDI. It comes with the latest version of Audi’s dual-clutch seven-speed S tronic paddle-shift gearbox as standard and betters the equivalent Mercedes CLS and BMW 5 GT model for performance, economy and emissions.
But whichever version of the A7 you go for, you’ll be able to personalize it with an almost infinite array of options, including internet access and a satellite navigation system that now uses Google Maps and is linked to some of the car’s key controls so that it can do things like automatically dip the headlight beam when it recognizes that you are about to drive into a town.
A word of warning though, if you were to select every conceivable extra, you could bump up the cost of the A7 Sportback to £94,020!
The A7 isn’t perfect. The electronic tailgate is more of a hindrance than a help, the fuel-saving stop-start system cuts the ignition entirely if you stay still for too long, which can be annoying, and the electric power steering lacks feedback. But all these are minor complaints as overall the A7 is a very impressive car.
* Price: £46,180
* Engine: 3.0-litre V6 diesel
* Power: 242bhp
* Torque: 500Nm
* 0-62mph: 6.3 seconds
* Top Speed: 155mph (limited)
* Economy: 47.1mpg
* Emissions: 158g/km CO2
For an alternative review of the latest Audi A7 Sportback visit our sister site carbuyer.co.uk
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I've seen one of these in the metal and it looks amazing!
The car looks great and has a practical boot space but why is Audi doing all there range with just 2seats in the rear, this crazy a car that size not giving the option of 3rd seat is insane. Could some one tell me why its such big deal to put a 3rd seat in? Talk about limiting your market.
looks like an A8 or an A4 - all the same looking. build quality might be good but just wish they would be more imaginitve. Seems like they had a £500m budget, £250m gets spent on designing the funky front headlights, £249m gets spent on designing the rear tailights and £1m got spent on the body.
I don't get hatchbacks of this type (let's not get carried away with the marketing dept's naming conventions, it's a hatchback :-) )
what's the point? if you want a boot an a sleak look get a nice saloon, if you have a dog or lots of stuff to move get an estate
either that, or let's see the demise of the saloon as truly impractical and just make true coupes (you know, two doors), sports cars, hatchbacks, and estates
it's almost as if the car industry has come to the end of the road (ha ha) with ideas to get us to buy new cars so they do little pointless tweaks to make a "niche market" car to appeal to the 48.5 - 49.2 age-group with 0.784 children a share in a small dog and a granny in staffordshire - I'm sure if I was one of that select band I'd think this car was great
btw - I have owned quite a few Audis and they are smashing cars, but I find the amount of choice from their stable just pointless nowadays
If they could have given it a lower snout, like the R8, it would have really been a stunner. Interior looks pretty fab too, with a bit more flair than most of the others.
Now that Audi have got the most integrated looking range, with that big a-frame grille on everything from A1 to A8, everyone seems to be trying to emulate it. But the downside is that rather predictable Audi style, where you need to look more than once to tell an A4 from an A5, for example.
At least it's not a hideous lump like the BMW 5-series GT. Looking forward to seeing one in the metal.
hey must say very good review, most honest review i have read in a very long time .way better then the autocar guys...
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If I see one more bloody car with those damn fairey-lights blazing in either daylight or darkness... Then I`m going to start a liberation group called Hammer Cars with Fairey Lights. (HCFL)
And the sodding brand responsible for this visual crud?
Bloody AUDI.... (The most over-rated and "German" brand in existence!)
Even witnessed a new Citroen DS3 with them twinkling like a Christmas Tree... DONT OWNERS REALISE THEY LOOKS LIKE COMPLETE ARSES DRIVING THESE PONCE-LIGHTS ON WHEELS?
LegioIXHispana....
Before you start your crusade, it's worth knowing daytime running lights are law in Germany on all new cars since last year.
well must say that i like this review ,autoexpress is way better then does guys over at autocar. very good very good
Barge I read your point and agree in the Rhineland that is obviously mandatory however....
This is the UK (and more importantly England) and there is NO need for "Hitlers chariots" to be charging around in the usual over-aggressive Germanic driving style, with the SS strobe lighting systems, tormenting the poor blighters in Blighty!
I thought that gits whom turn on fog-lights at every opportunity (day, night, rain or shine) were possibly the most annoying forms of pond-life possible, (again mostly directed via German marques arrogant driving ownerships) but NO, we now see the protrusion of "Mein Kampf" daylight-running fairy lights all over British Roads!!!
Those German cars should be treated like the Panzer's that they are and RPG`d of our roads!
LegioIXHispana!
You really don't like these lights do you?
Well please don't involve us Volvo drivers in your campaign. For the most part we have no choice but to have the lights on in daytime. I recently bought a Volvo XC90 with bi-xenon lights which are always on, day & night, whether I like it or not.
To the man in the street unaware that I hadn't turned the lights on myself, it looked like I was an attention seeking sad sack..."Check me out in my brand new car" but that really wasn't the case. I was fully aware I looked like a tit and conscious of it.
I discovered a software "upgrade" to have this feature disabled, so spare a thought for the poor souls who are yet to learn this software mod.
All the best with your campaign. Power to the people and all that!
Barge.
Who is going to buy a second hand car like the A7 with only 4 seats?
Funny but VW tried 4 seats in the 1st edition of Passat CC - didn't sell well. Now it comes with 5 seats.
LegioIXHispana
Just to let you know that daytime running lights on the front will be mandatory on all new models of car and light commercial vehicle from spring 2011 and mandatory on all new cars (new or existing models) from 2012 onwards. Audi just cottoned on to this early on and started intergrating them into all new models from the S6 and then A5 onwards. Daytime running lights have been proven to reduce 2/3 accidents whereby drivers did not see oncoming cars (at roundabouts and juctions etc). I drive a dark grey car and have got into the habit of switching my lights on as soon as it becomes overcast due to the amount of people that pull out on me.
All manufactures now fit halogen DRL's to their cars as standard and LED's on the higher spec cars with Xenon headlamps.
You can't blame Audi for wanting to at least make something mandatory look nice and besides, LED's use much less power and thus fuel than incandesent lamps.
As for all the boy racers who copy with stick on strips then yeah, I agree, they are pondlife.
So it looks like your new liberation group HCFL will be pretty busy!
SO THE A5 SPORTBACK IS REALLY AN A4 HATCHBACK & AN A7 SPORTBACK IS REALLY AN A6 HATCHBACK SO YOU JUST ADD ONE NUMBER FOR THE HATCH TO MAKE OUT THAT IT'S A DIFFERENT CAR GOT YA CLEVER !
I agree totally. Give it 5 seats and it makes sense. With 4 it is daft. If you want a 4 seater get an A5. The A7 SHOULD definately have 5 seats to make it credible, even if it means just an extra seat belt and headrest for the occasional use. After all, who wants a giant armrest with cupholders instead of an extra seat for the kids and granny.
I've never read so much hysterical emotive garbarge about how many seats a car needs in the back. What on earth is wrong with you all???? Its another of those [like to be] pseudo coupes, and pray tell who makes a 5-seater coupe?? NO ONE !! And where would 3 blokes jammed in the back of a 5 series be going.......to the pub. Not for bloody sure on a trek to the Fatherland.
Audi deserves the biggest gong going for putting 4 beautiful comfortable sculptured seats in the rear of the A7. Is there a shred of cold hard evidence anywhere that over the life of a car it used 5 seats for what........7% of its life.
So youre saying for that piss arsed amount of time anyone lucky enough to be riding in the rear of an A7 should have a much harder and very less shapely seat to sit in. Buying a VW CC now because VW finally worked out it had to have 5 seats turned the car into something for tacky posers only.
And might the garbage be about 2 seater coupes?? Oh theyre no good till they put a dicky seat in, to carry an extra 3 people?? Get PRACTICAL fellas. Think hard about real-time usage.....yours, if your can afford an A7, or the rest of the market. In the market segment this car fits into, seat count would well down the list of priorites!
And for the poor fella absolutely doing his nuts about daytime running lights, you want to remember a car maker called Volvo started putting daytime running lights on their cars, oh lets see, way back in the 80"s !!! And umm lets see, Volvo is from where??? That'll be Sweden.....NOT Germany. Those lights have simply technically morphed into LED's, which is where car lighting is going, whether you like it or not. Car makers can produce cars NOW with just LED's [not a 'bulb' in sight], but legislation prevents their usage yet.
Bring on the technology, and the new lights!!
I' m on a roll ha ha.
I've just read the article on the brand new A6, and was seriously impressed with the car with the 3 litre diesel engine. Now I'm confused tho, as it sprints to 60 in 7 seconds, and does , is it, over 50mpg. The equally new and beautiful A7 shares many oily bits with the A6, and with the same engine and quattro they both weigh about the same, yet the A7 belts to 60 in 6.5 seconds, but only 40 something to the gallon. Whats going on?? Is this different gearing in the cars or something?
While I'm digging, pray tell AUTOEXPRESS, why you refer to 'aerodynamic shapes and curves' yet never a mention of the cars cD. Even absolutely crucial to part of a cars economy, is it now an irrelevance in your articles??
Totally agree on the seats, a car in this class does not need 5 seats, the A6 caters for that. The full LED lights (for also dipped and main beam) have been available for some time now, they debuted on the R8 V10 as standard equipment and are an option on the A8, A7 and new A6. As for the 3.0 TDI engine, the engine is available in two different power outputs mated to two different gearbox technologies and drive train layouts (245ps S-Tronic quattro and 204ps mulititronic front wheel drive).
There is a slight difference between mpg of the A6 and the A7 but nowhere near as much as you have heard quoted. The reason for this is the A7 is a slightly heavier car due to the shape and layout (the huge boot lid, retracting rear spoiler, extra torsional bracing etc). The A6 also uses a little more aluminium in its body structure which also helps to keep the weight down slightly. Slightly extra bracing and more steel is used in the A7 to counteract the body flex which becomes more apparent when using frameless windows and a hatchback style tailgate rather than a smaller saloon style boot lid.
I am not sure Barina47 is married or has kids, or parents or any friends. The fact for me with 3 kids and liking sporting cars is that the current crop of large coupe or 5 door pseudo coupe cars with only 2 seat belts in the rear preclude me from buying them. In fact my brother in law has an A5 Sportback and is now ruing buying it as although he only has 2 kids ends up taking his wifes car as a friend of the kids normally goes with them to the park parties etc. When I was young myself and my sisters were ferried around in Opel Commodore Coupe, Opel Monza, BMW CS Coupe, Mercedes Coupes and OK no rear belts but at least we could all get in. Something that I can't do with this current crop from Germany!!
Jut looking a the A7 brochure... Having only 4 seatbelts and 4 head restraints is a no cost option. By the look of the photographs though the transmission tunnel will still need to be straddled by the 5th passenger, just like in the A6.
It wouldn't put me off.