On the road with the Audi A7 Sportback

 

Sometimes you get what you pay for. With the super-cool Audi A7 Sportback you pay a fair whack, but you get a hell of a lot of bang for your bucks.

By Nick Bradshaw

I'm putting it down to the lights. There's something about the lighting configuration, the strip of 18 small daytime LED running lights on all the current breed of Audis, that makes the cars look like they're not just being driven around our highways and byways but that they're on the prowl.

If aliens invaded and were metal and car-like, I'd want them to look like top-end Audis.

And if Audis were aliens, the Audi A7 Sportback would be a Lieutenant Colonel - fast-tracked for promotion owing to their strength, speed and adaptability.

It ain't cheap, but by God this is a magnificent car.

The exterior is distinctively Audi: low, wide angular nose; long sleek, smooth profile; powerful flat rear with twin tailpipes. Big, but not clumsy, thanks to the extensive use of lightweight but sturdy aluminium.

This is a car that will never need to be pimped. It stands out by not looking as if it's trying too hard to stand out.

But you're involvement with the outside of the car will only ever been fleeting: either as you approach it, with a broad grin, or as you walk away from it, casting a look of admiration over your shoulder every now and then until it goes out of view. For the most part, the exterior is your car as seen by other people.

The interior is where you get to interact with the car. This is where you can stop admiring the beauty and get down to business.

Not that the A7's interior isn't handsome and cool to look at. The leather upholstery and wood-effect dashboard are classy and understated. The gadgets and gizmos, however, throw the idea of understated right out of one of the electric windows.

There's a built-in 3D SatNav and a touchpad user interface where you can spell out the name of your destination using your finger. There are heated front seats, a Start/Stop system with energy recovery and there's cruise control - all of which you'd expect on a car like this. If you've got a chauffeur (!), they'll love the fact that there's a button next to the driver's seat to electrically open the car's boot.

But that's only the start. Naturally, the car I've been given the chance to take for a spin comes with buckets of extras. These include a refined Bose sound system and a full-colour rear-view camera that engages as soon as you put the car in reverse. Coloured lines on the screen give you an indication of where you're going to end up - the car doesn't reverse-park itself, but it offers a fairly decent helping hand.

A lot of cars now have cruise control, but this one has adaptive cruise control which will have you shouting at people who cut you up and force the car to slow down (it aims to stay at your requested cruising speed, but will slow down to match the car in front if you get too close), but which you get used to very quickly.

Then there's the nightvision. Sadly, the nightvision display behind the steering wheel doesn't replace looking through the windscreen at night - you still need to drive as normal - but it can recognise the shape of people and flags up their existence in a little yellow box on the screen.

Beep

Down an unlit lane, or even a badly lit city street, it will generally see if there's someone sauntering down the street before you notice them. If people get too close or step into the road in front of you, the yellow coffin-shaped box turns an ominous red and a warning beep is emitted.

Out on the road the taught sports suspension comes into its own. If you need it to have the presence of a State vehicle as you pull up in front of a five star hotel, it'll deliver. But if you want to go for a drive...

There's the power of a big car and the presence of a big car but with an ability to go from 0 to 100km/h in 6.3 seconds, this is a big but nimble beast. I took the A7 out on the N57 across Connemara not once but twice, just for the fun of it, and smiled all the way. And even after a long drive with lots of swerving and braking I didn't feel a bit tired.

The A7 Sportback is basically an elogated coupé with fully functional rear seats. The Quattro all-wheel drive system with sports differential means the connection you'll get with the road will be about as good as it gets, and there's not even a hint of understeer as you corner at speed.

This overall level of brilliance does, of course, come at a price and that price is a cool €87,250. Of that, €20,350 is for the options that as well as the Bose sound system, rearview camera and the nightvision wizardry also includes such goodies as a leather-covered multifunction sports steering wheel with shift paddles and smart but easy-to-scuff 20" alloys, part-polished in anthracite.

The A7 range has a starting price of €62,010. The fuel efficiency is a respectable 6 litres/100km and your road tax is in Band D. That's an annual charge of €447.

But if you are lucky enough to be able to afford an A7, then that's hardly going to stretch you, is it?