It’s a crisp morning with the mist still wedged in the gullies and the moisture in the air hanging on the trees in droplet form. But you’re ready for the road, and your steady pace across the pebbly driveway quickens as you see your brand new steed, and the crunching that your shoes make as they grip into the stone chip gets louder startling a few blackbirds in the Oaks overhead. Your drive is the brand new Audi Coupe, the 2018 Audi A7 Sportback, and it quietly sits in waiting for its new owner to board the stylish luxury interior. The Audi A7 has made its mark as a gorgeous sweeping Coupe design known in some parts of the world as a Sportback or Fastback. Here in Australia we’ll take whatever Audi choose to call it; it’s a top notch drive and one that eats up the miles with glorious ease.
Finding an open stretch of road in Australia isn’t too hard, and within moments of climbing into the low-slung Sportback you’re quickly gaining speed and enjoying the refinement of the all leather interior, very modern dash design – possibly the most modern looking – particularly with the all virtual driver’s cluster panel, and instant engine response. Travelling in the new A7 Sportback is very quiet, as the acoustic glass does a superb job of keeping outside noise out and inside noise in – as it were. Deceptively quick the 3.0-litre TDI version completes the 0-100 km/h sprint is around 5.5 seconds.
Audi’s new A7 Sportback is exceptionally comfortable. The redesign has the 2018 model feeling much roomier in the rear seats. Head room might be tighter for people over six feet but there is heaps of leg and shoulder room. Three guys can happily travel across the rear bench, and if it’s just the two of you in the back seats you have the centre arm rest folding out of the back seat between you which reveals a nicely padded arm rest. Flip the padding up, and you have some handy storage space inside, and there is even two cup holders to sip a cocktail on the journey. Even the back seat occupants have heated seats and digitally controlled climate control for the two separate zones. Two USB ports enable you to enjoy your own entertainment gadgets for the journey, while there is also a 12 V socket for larger electronica. Onward James!
Luggage space is very good – well the car is almost 5 metres long! With the rear seats up there is 535 litres but drop them and the luggage space grows to 1390 litres. Just don’t say it’s an Audi A7 Hatchback – it doesn’t sound quite as cool! Audi says it can hold two golf bags horizontally – just so you know.
Front seat occupants get the works so comfort is second to none. Seat memory is a nice function as are the vast array of comfort features available via the large touchscreen infotainment system. Hands-free telephone, satellite navigation, digital radio, premium surround sound, interior background lighting effects, wireless smartphone connection and charging, luxury leather sport seats, and the list goes on. The car shares a lot of the interior styling of the A8 cars, so breath-taking style and finish is what you get.
The 2018 A7 Sportback feels really cool and expensive, especially when the car’s beautiful design is lit up with all the amazing lighting options and features. One of the big advancements is the central touch screen which is large and very clear. The high definition electronics is superb and it’s backed up with some very quick loading times. Also, the driver’s cockpit display is awesome. The virtual display can have the speedo and rev counter over the top of the satellite navigation map in the background so as you can easily glance down to get your bearings. There are a range of settings, and even the driver can use the buttons on the steering wheel to select between phone, audio, satellite navigation and more without having to take their hands off the steering wheel.
Front seat occupants get a second HD touchscreen below the infotainment system for adjusting things like seating settings and your zoned climate control. If this takes too much attention away from what the driver should be focusing on – driving – then there is also Audi’s excellent Voice Control commands which can easily manipulate various on-board functions without the need for the driver to take their eyes off the road ahead.
There are some options with the ride quality. You can have your new Audi A7 Sportback with the normal suspension which does a great job of holding onto the road and providing good compliance over road undulations. You can choose a tuned sport suspension which really keeps the coupe hugging the road. Then if you can’t make your mind up there is an adaptive suspension which gives the driver a wide range of suspension settings to flick between should the mood take them. And finally there is the premium air suspension system which does everything very well including giving the occupants a carpet like ride. Your choice of rim sizes will affect the way bumps may protrude through to the cabin – but that’s nothing new.
Safety features are arrayed in mass, and only the best are available. So things like adaptive cruise control, 360 degree vision, emergency braking, Quattro AWD and Lane Assist are all standard. One cool feature alongside all the parking sensor weaponry is the ability of this long car to make city driving a breeze thanks to its rear wheel steering which makes turning much tighter than if it didn’t have this feature. Actually, the new Audi A7 Sportback can pretty much drive itself – in part anyway, because legality gets in the way.
Powering the latest Audi A7 Sportback are two quick engines: the 3.0-litre 250 kW petrol V6 and the 650 Nm 3.0-litre V6 turbo-diesel. Both cut the mustard beautifully. The huge torque available in the TDI engine does suit the GT side of the sexy Sportback. Europe gets a 2.0-litre TDI engine, but Australia misses out on this one. If we cheep louder then maybe they’ll sneak it in!?
Arriving home, you’ll love to look over your shoulder as you lock the car remotely. Why? Because the new Audi A7 Sportback has a really cool headlight and taillight close-down display where the LED lighting will dance and flicker in a sequence which will mesmerise any onlooker.
The finer things in life are to be enjoyed, and the beautiful new 2018 Audi A7 Sportback is one of them.
The 2018 Audi A7 Sportback model series includes the:
For any more information on the 2018 Audi A7 Sportback or, for that matter, any other new car, contact one of our friendly consultants on 1300 303 181. If you’d like some fleet discount pricing (yes even for private buyers!), we can submit vehicle quote requests out to our national network of Audi dealers and come back with pricing within 24 hours. Private Fleet – car buying made easy!