Let’s get the unpleasant stuff out of the way first. The Audi A7 has a rump that looks rather “despondent” and the more than $300,000 price is hefty for what is essentially an A6 in fancy clothes.
Other than these grouses, the A7 really is a nice car. We saw the first of these new four-door “coupes” when the A5 Sportback hit our roads last year. While it didn’t leave much of an impression (on me, anyway), the larger A7 made a much deeper one.
I’m not a fan of bigger cars, but this Audi didn’t daunt me one bit. You know how some cars seem to shrink around you as you drive, making it easier to navigate tight spaces and drive fast along narrow, single-lane carriageways? The A7 falls in this category – and it does so despite measuring almost 5m, which makes it just a tad shorter than the A8.
The quattro all-wheel-drive system (with ESP) contributes to this, as does the dashboard’s wraparound architecture which envelops the driver (and front passenger), making everything fall easily to hand. That’s not to say the cabin is small. The 2915mm wheelbase has been wisely utilised by the engineers.
And despite the two clearly defined rear seats, there’s ample shoulder room for another passenger in the centre if Audi wanted to make the A7 that way. The rear roofline results in less headroom, but the trade-off is a mesmerising silhouette.
The long bonnet, slim side windows, bulging shoulders and “tornado” line that runs along the flanks give this Audi its coupe shape – it’s a larger version of the A5, with much more road presence and a whole lot more attitude.
Seven-speed dual-clutch transmission complements the supercharged 3-litre V6 engine well.
Two variants are available, each with a different engine and equipment list. The one featured here is the range-topper, with the same supercharged 3-litre engine in the S4 but de-tuned in this case for slightly less power (300bhp instead of 333bhp).
Still, with 20 percent of the body (including the doors, fenders and structural cross members) made of aluminium, which makes the car lighter by 15 percent than if it were constructed in steel, the A7 is fast.
This is helped, no doubt, by the smooth yet highly responsive 7-speed dual-clutch gearbox. Acceleration is brisk, even at half-throttle. Floor it and the car will sprint from zero to 100km/h in just 5.6 seconds. Think about this if you will: In an all-out, pedal-to-the-metal dash, the A7 will outrun a Porsche Cayman or Volkswagen Golf R.
However, such hooligan-type behaviour is definitely not in keeping with the Audi A7’s spirit. It is more cruiser than bruiser, and its suspension pampers and cossets its occupants with the proverbial magic carpet ride.
This is the case even with the optional 20-inch wheels and tyres, and the standard Drive Select set to “Dynamic” – the harshest of three fixed settings (there is one more customisable mode called “Individual”).
In a bid to pull in and “silence” potential buyers, Audi has beefed up the list of standard equipment as much as it could. These include power-assisted closing for the doors, xenon-plus headlights, LED tail-lights, a head-up display, four-zone climate control, electrically adjustable “comfort” front seats (with memory function), a glass sunroof, Bose hi-fi and S line exterior package.
Even in such a fine list, however, there are bound to be a couple of headliners. For me, the park assist with reverse camera and the sat-nav take the cake. In fact, these two have set the benchmark by which all rival systems will have to be measured in future.
The former can be used for both parallel and perpendicular parking (a first for Audi), while the intuitive navigation system, which uses Google Earth, displays images on the pop-up display (which stylishly “appears” when you start the engine) in great detail.
Even coastlines and reservoirs are accurately reproduced, and there’s also a mode that displays 3-D renderings of buildings and other landmarks.
The Audi A7’s rear end projects a rather “sad” face but its sleek, knife-through-butter profile and high-quality cabin more than make up for this “shortcoming”.
Granted, the A7 does not have many direct competitors as four-door “coupes” are few and far between – the BMW 5 Series Gran Turismo is one, as is the new Mercedes-Benz CLS.
However, I have no doubt the Audi can more than hold its own against its peers. Like I mentioned earlier, the Audi A7 does not have any major “weakness” – in fact, it makes such a good case for itself that it should even be able to convert a number of premium saloon owners.
Audi A7 3.0 (A)
ENGINE 2995cc, 24-valves, V6, supercharged
MAX POWER 300bhp at 5250-6500rpm
MAX TORQUE 440Nm at 2900-4500rpm
GEARBOX 7-speed dual-clutch with manual select
0-100KM/H 5.6 seconds
TOP SPEED 250km/h (governed)
CONSUMPTION 12.2km/L (combined)
PRICE INCL. COE 321,038 (as of July 2011)
Check out the latest Audi A7
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