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Audi A7 Sportback details: Ingolstadt’s £44k hatch (sorry, coupé)

By Ben Foulds
Freelance Contributing Writer
29 July 2010

Like an A6, only lower and more expensive
It's a phenomenon of recent times, it's as baffling as anything you'll find in a rocket science laboratory, and it's spreading more quickly than you can butter your toast in the morning.

No, I'm not talking about the supposed global warming crisis. Or Jedward Bieber for that matter. I am of course referring to the current trend amongst car manufacturers for selling us squashed versions of hatchbacks and saloons which we have to refer to as ‘coupés’.

Mercedes started the whole shennanigans off in 2005 with the CLS bananamobile, with BMW joining the fray shortly afterwards with the brilliant-but-utterly-pointless X6. The blue propeller also has the Gran Coupé in the offing, while Audi recently gave us the A5 Sportback.

And it's fallen upon the Ingolstadt company to launch the newest competitor in the exploding coupé-but-not-actually-a-coupé sector: the A7 Sportback.

As the name suggests, it's the bigger brother to the aforementioned five-door A5 (think A6 with a lower roofline and you're about there), and is geared towards executive buyers who want a little more pizzazz from their wheels than a conventional saloon.

I can't imagine many people will be keeling over in shock in the face of the A5-goes-large styling; yes, it's undoubtedly swoopier than its A6 counterpart and that sloping roofline creates an interesting perspective at the rear, but otherwise it's Audi as we've known it for the last few years: chiselled and nicely-proportioned but unlikely to get pulses racing to dangerous levels. It looks like it will also be heavily reliant on colour and wheel choice, for which blame that fussy surface treatment.

The interior appears to be a more cocooned version of that found in the recently-launched A8, and will be available with such niceties as Google Earth, a touchpad for the MMI system which enables the driver to enter details by writing on it (and which, as on the A8, could be problematic for right-handed UK users), and – for the first time on an Audi – a head-up display.


A7: the interior


For the moment, horsepower will be provided by a choice of three engines: two FSI petrols and and a diesel (available in two different states of tune). As is the Audi way, both front- and four-wheel-drive versions will be offered, the latter in conjunction with a 7-speed flappy-paddle S-tronic 'box. Greenies will laud the inclusion of energy recuperation systems and stop-start across the range.

And the price? Well, the official starting point for the A7 is a not-inconsiderable £43,745; expect this to rise considerably once you've ticked a few boxes on the options list too – this is an Audi, remember.

You might question why anyone in their right mind would take one of these over an A6, given that you're essentially paying about £10k more to give your kids cramp. That's not the point of this car, however. Mercedes has proved with the CLS that there is a big market out there for the low-slung saloon/coupé/thing, and they ought to be looking over their collective shoulders at this latest effort from Audi.

I have two hopes for the A7. Firstly, that they can succeed where they failed with the A5 and give the driver a good time on the twisties. And secondly, that they see sense and give us an RS7. Lambo-engined CLS63 rival? Yes please.


It's a hatchback, Jim, but not as you know it



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