Audi A7 55 TFSI S line (2018) review: it can't wait to drive you

Audi’s new A7 Sportback heralds new styling, new badges, a slick new multimedia system and cutting-edge autonomous tech. But is it actually any good as a car? 

New styling? This new A7 is hardly a reinvention...

Come on, this is Audi, a company whose pace of styling evolution makes the 911’s look speedy. But anyway, look closer and you’ll see some important cues first hinted at in 2014’s Prologue concept car. Did you not notice the wider grille? The pronounced swage lines? The tauter surfaces?

No? Okay, the new A7’s the one with a full-width light bar on the back that does a little beam-boogie when you lock and unlock the car.

Radical. Can’t wait to hear about the (yawn) interior…

Cut the snark, because here’s just one example where the A7’s A8 roots come into play. Where the old A7 got a fairly plain A6 interior this one feels much more upmarket – if not quite as special as Merc’s new CLS – and still offers plenty (in fact, more) room for four adults.

Audi’s Virtual Cockpit digital instrument pack is standard and the latest MMI multimedia system ditches the familiar scroll wheel for a dual touchscreen setup: top screen for media, phone and nav; bottom one for climate and heated seats. It looks great and has haptic feedback, but the fact that it’s a touchscreen and almost all of the car’s controls are now housed within it means taking your eyes off the road more than before. We’ll miss you, MMI.

But with all this autonomous tech you mentioned, who needs to look at the road?

True, the A7 is one of the most advanced cars on the road in this respect. You can park it in a garage or bay from the outside, and actually drive completely hands-free in traffic at speeds of up to 37mph. Rival cars still require you to touch the wheel now and again. How old fashioned.

The sticking point is that UK law doesn’t currently allow you to use any of that tech, so it won’t be enabled from launch. However Audi hopes the situation will change during 2018.

By which time we might have got our heads around the new naming strategy…

Yeah, we’ll admit it’s not the most intuitive. Though still called the A7, and listing TDI or TFSI on the rump, the new car uses a two-digit number to denote the power output.

It’s not the specific output, though. The 3.0 TFSI petrol is a ‘55’, for example, because it has 335bhp. The 282bhp 3.0 TDI becomes ‘50’. Other engines, including four-pots and an RS7 will follow, but for now that’s your lot.

Which Audi A7 Sportback is best?

If someone else is buying the fuel or paying your company car tax, the petrol. It’s smooth and quiet, so much better at highlighting the A7’s incredible refinement than the gruff diesel, and while it’s almost 90lb ft down on the TDI, it’s also 65kg lighter. That helps it get to 62mph in 5.3sec – 0.4sec quicker than its oil-burning alter-ego.

Both engines feature mild-hybrid electrical assistance systems that allow emissions-free coasting at speeds of up to 99mph. But they need them: this new A7 is actually fractionally heavier than the old one and even with the hybrid tech the 282bhp TDI’s 50mpg average is still some 5mpg worse than the 272bhp (but equally speedy) TDI it replaces.

The TFSi comes fitted with Audi’s new on-demand four-wheel drive system and operates in more efficient front-drive mode until you get excitable with the right pedal and the rear axle is pulled into play. The TDi, meanwhile, is too torquey for a dual-clutch ‘box so sticks with the eight-speed auto and permanent Quattro setup.

More metal means more messy understeer, right?

Not necessarily, at least not if you order the optional four-wheel steering system fitted to the test cars on the launch event in South Africa.

Unfortunately, stunning though the scenery is down here, traffic around Chapman’s Peak moves so slowly it’d be out-dragged by a Notting Hill Carnival float, so there wasn’t much opportunity to really push the A7. Enough though, to suggest the four-wheel steering system will be worth splashing out on, and enough to know that you have to be trying pretty hard to broach the front tyres’ grip on the road. It’s not fun like a more expensive, more powerful BMW M5 or AMG E63, but it’s capable and controlled in that typically Audi way.

Body control is good on the optional air suspension, at least in Dynamic mode, but the ride over sharp bumps is poor and shifting to Comfort to take the sting out of it adds too much heave without solving the problem. That’s on the mid-level 20in rim that comes with the S line trim. Our advice: go for Sport trim, stick with the standard 19s but spend on the air springs.

Verdict

The A7 hopes to pummel its rivals into submission with a blend of elegant styling and next-generation technology. It’s an appealing proposition, particularly in uber-refined petrol form with the four-wheel steering, though the noisier diesel still makes more sense in the UK.

But don’t forget the autonomous features aren’t available yet, and Merc’s latest CLS coupe will be on the next boat from Germany.

Specs

• Price when new: £55,140
• On sale in the UK: Now
• Engine: 2995cc 24v V6, 335bhp@5000-6400rpm, 369lb ft@1370-4500rpm
• Transmission: Seven-speed dual-clutch, four-wheel drive
• Performance: 5.3sec 0-62mph, 155mph, 39.8mpg, 161g/km
• Weight / material: 1815kg/steel, aluminium
• Dimensions (length/width/height in mm): 4969/2118/1422mm