2019 Audi A7David Booth / Driving OVERVIEW My kind of sedan PROSHandling, powertrain, interior décor, exterior styling CONSUhm, that new, totally unnecessary naming system VALUE FOR MONEYDecent for what it is, but optioning out an Audi will quickly break the bank. WHAT TO CHANGE?Could you make one for $40,000? No? Well then, I guess I’ll just have to get a real job HOW TO SPEC IT?I’d have the Technik model with BO sound system and the S-Line and adaptive air suspension packages, but I’d forgo the rest. Like I said, you can go bankrupt optioning out an Audi. I know road tests are supposed to be objective reviews of a car’s performance and utility, with personal prejudice and peccadillos put aside. But Lord almighty, I like this car. I like driving it. I like looking at it. I like playing with its technology. Actually, I pretty much like everything about the four-door coupe Audi A7. OK, maybe not the price — not having a spare $100,000 laying around, begging to be handed over to an Audi dealer, but that’s about it. I drove it around for about three weeks, and other than the need to sell my townhouse to afford one — oh, and a few minor infotainment wobbles — I struggled to find fault with the all-new A7. The look, for instance, is exquisite. Unlike the CLS, which Mercedes-Benz murdered in its second generation and the 6 Series Gran Coupe, which BMW never did get quite right, the second-gen A7 is as sleek and sloping as the original. A little longer, a little wider, the proportions of the A7 are just right, lending an aura of sportiness that the A6 and A8 can’t hope to engender, even though they’re built on the same platform. Inside the cabin, that same good taste continues. The Bang and Olufsen sound system remains my favourite in the business, and Audi has long been touted for classy interiors, using the finest leathers and tightest stitching in any of the categories they were competing in. Now that the competition has closed the gap, however, the company has turned its attention to the man-machine interface between the driver and infotainment system, this latest MMI system a dramatic step forward from the previous generation. With BMW gone off on a “gesture control” tangent, it seems like Audi and Mercedes-Benz will be fighting it out for pride of place among European infotainment systems. Mercedes’ MBUX — don’t call it “em-bucks” — put most of its marbles in voice control, while Audi‘s MMI is a further development of its touchscreen-based system. There is much that has been improved, however. For one thing, there are now two screens rather than one, the upper handling the true infotainment features — audio system, navigation and phone connectivity — while the lower one deals with more pedestrian duties like climate control and heated seats. The division works well as does Audi’s vastly improved handwriting recognition system, which is now virtually perfected; I wrote letter after letter right on top of each other and MMI glammed onto what I wanted right away. This latest MMI might not seem as “trick” as MBUX, but save for a few voice control wobbles, we got along just fine. Ditto for the powertrain. A development of Audi’s 3.0-litre V6, this latest version is turbocharged and pumps out 335 horsepower. It’s also mildly hybridized, a 48-volt starter/generator capable of putting 12 kW (about 16 horsepower) and 44 pound-feet of electrically generated torque back into the drivetrain. Audi uses this little boost to pump power back into the powertrain when you’re coasting at any speed between 50 and 160 km/h, saving you wasted gasoline and reducing emissions. Audi also activates the 3.0L’s automatic start/stop fuel saver — those sometimes annoying that shut down the engine when you’re idling at a traffic light — at 22 km/h. In other words, the motor cuts out long before you reach said traffic light. It’s supposed to further reduce fuel consumption and actually makes the system less annoying, as you’re less likely to notice the absence of internal combustion, what with other car-like noises filling the void. To make that work, however, the engine has to be completely disconnected from the wheels — less the now non-firing pistons become a drag on your coasting — which is at least one of the reasons that, for this second-gen A7, Audi has dumped the eight-speed automatic for a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission, the former always creating a little drag on the engine while the latter should, theoretically, be friction-free. I can’t say exactly how much this mild hybridization/engine deactivation saves in fuel, but the V6-powered A7 averaged just a smidge over 10 L/100 kilometres in my hands — not too shabby for a 335-horsepower, two-ton sedan driven by a chronically-late procrastinator with a lead foot. For the record, Transportation Canada officially rates the V6 at 10.7 in the city, 8.2 on the highway, and 9.6 overall. Part of the reason it’s rated so well is that Audi’s
Origin: Car Review: 2019 Audi A7