The striking Audi A7 has been in SA for a little while now and seems to be lying under the radar.

I’m very fond of the German inclination to be uber-rational and uber-literal at all times. Like when they invent new words for complex things no one has ever bothered to label before. Schadenfreude, for instance, it means ‘finding pleasure in the misfortune of others.’ Schaden means damge and freude means joy. It’s a word as clinically engineered as the autobahn itself. The fact that the Germans needed to create the word in the first place is perhaps a little concerning, but that’s not the topic of this story.

And so, onto with the latest vehicle from Audi’s high-tech product armoury, the long-awaited, second-generation Audi A7 Sportback. Defined Germanically, it’s a car for someone who wants the performance of a sporty coupe, the practicality of a station wagon and the stately presence of a luxury sedan. Hence the translation that’s so literal and so wonderfully German. My concern, as always with cars that seem cobbled together from different models, is one: they’re compromised, and two: they’re ugly. These cars often feel as if they lack totality, and are burdened by the mindset of compromise. Is the A7 Sportback unique?

First of all, and I know aesthetics are a subjective matter; it looks sumptuous in the metal. While the long, sloping backend can look ungainly from certain vantage points, I’ll admit, the boot itself is very elegantly designed, and it’s a hugely practical hatchback with the hinges at the top of the rear window. It can swallow surfboards, mountains bikes, golf clubs, you name it, it fits. Marc Lichte, Audi’s superstar designer, dedicated a lot of time accentuating the width and lowness of the car, hence the curvaceous bonnet and front flanks. The result is a car that’s both sleek and sporty and big and brawny, all depending on which vantage point you approach it from. Pillarless windows front and rear look as if they’ve jumped straight off Lichte’s sketch pad onto the car.

That said, the interior accompaniments are just as well synergized as the exterior. Lavish, tech-heavy, this is definitely no A4 interior. There’s nothing wrong with the horizontal emphasis layout, dual touchscreens and typically bulletproof Audi build quality. And the marque’s Virtual Cockpit cluster display livens things up, too. There’s an air of opulence to the Audi A7’s interior.

For the Audi A7 Sportback to prove its worth, however, it needs to deliver a sporty drive. And the big, svelte four-seater does so with little fuss; although athletic is the word that comes to mind to describe it ahead of outright sporty. To ensure it’s not overly sporty, smooth air suspension keeps you wafting over road imperfections no matter what mode you’re in. This model’s iridescent personality is well served by Audi’s Drive Select option that stiffens or softens the power steering and spikes the engine mapping at the flick of a button. The traditionally benign Audi steering feels anything but in the A7, instead it delivers fistfuls of responsiveness through the helm in the corners.

So it’s not an out-and-out sports coupe by any stretch but it does carry impressive cross country pace. The turbocharged V6 petrol 250 kW/550 Nm is the only motor on offer in South Africa and thanks to quattro all-wheel drive and a quick seven-speed S tronic gearbox it shifts from standstill to 100 km/h in 5.3 seconds, and onto a limited top speed of 250 km/h. It revs nice and high, it has tall legs on the highway and is whisper-quiet at slow speeds, too. There’s that Audi duality again. 

Overall, the new Audi A7 Sportback does manage to tick all the boxes it set out to, and its thoughtful, considered design ends up being more than just a cobbled together Quasimodo of a car. It’s a massive image builder for Audi; a distinctive four-door sedan that cuts a sophisticated line through the dreary sea of business sedans. The A7 is unique; a car people will want rather than need – a case it makes strongly thanks to persuasive and inspired design. It truly doesn’t matter that something else out there may offer better value when the desire to have it overrides necessity. Now surely that’s something the Germans should invent a word for.

Figures
Engine: 2 995 cc, six-cylinder turbo petrol 
Power: 250 kW @ 5 000-6 400 rpm, 500 Nm @ 1 370-4 500 rpm</span
Performance: 0-100km/h 5.3 sec (claimed)
Top speed: 250 km/h
Tyres: 255/45 R20 Bridgestone Potenza
Luggage Space: 535 L
Economy: 7.1 l/100 km (claimed)
Transmission: 7-speed automatic, four-wheel drive 
CO2 emissions: 157 g/km
Price: R1 356 500
 

Writer: Staff | Images: Supplied