Audi A7 Sportback 3.0 TFSI quattro Review: Sexy back

What we like:

Stylish and distinctive looks

unsurpassed quality on the inside

well-equipped

punchy performance

huge boot

relatively spacious rear

good ride quality considering it rides on 20-inch wheels

What we dislike:

Significantly more expensive than the base model and some might associate it with the Rover Vitesse SD1 but nothing else not to like about it

really

The A7's interior is every bit as stylish and exquisite looking as its exterior even though the basic cabin architecture is derived from the new A6's. The exterior's flowing lines are repeated on the wraparound dashboard and door cards. The 3.0 TFSI here comes with matte aluminium inlays on the dash, centre console and door cards but we've seen other A7s with textured wood inlays that look just gorgeous. For once, we'd prefer wood trim over matte aluminium for the inlays - for once we'd prefer wood over aluminium or carbon fibre trim!

It feels expensive, exquisite and special in here thanks to choice materials and surfaces that not only look good but also are tactile and soft to the touch. One look or touch and you are immediately aware that the interior boffins at Audi spent sleepless nights to deliver a cabin that is more than worthy for even a flagship saloon model.

Like the flagship A8, the A7 comes with Audi's latest MMI Touch operating system. The system is more intuitive to use than before thanks to more logical menus and graphics on the LCD screen that pops gracefully out of the dashboard when the car is started. MMI touch navigation comes with a touch pad next to the gear lever like on a laptop that you can use to input destinations and addresses into the navigation system by ‘writing' alphabets onto it. Audi says it can recognize the worse of handwritings as well as Chinese characters for the Chinese market. The touchpad is a really impressive feature and is a joy to use and it can even double up as radio preset buttons when not used in navigation mode. It's just too bad that you'd have to use your left hand in right-hand drive cars and this makes it slightly less intuitive to scribble letters on the touchpad.

At the rear, the A7 surprises once again as rear passengers will have little to complain about when it comes to head or legroom. The A7's rear will accommodate two fairly sized adults comfortably without the need for them to crane their necks to avoid their heads from touching the roof like in a first gen CLS. Legroom is also admirable for such a car.

The big sloping hatch opens upwards electrically to reveal a well shaped and voluminous boot. The vast load area can accommodate 535 litres of luggage but fold down the rear seatbacks and the boot area expands to a whopping 1390 litres. In comparison, the new A6 saloon offers 530 litres and 995 litres respectively.

A big advantage the Sportback has over an equivalent saloon model is its wide opening hatchback design, which makes loading and unloading bigger items easier. A two piece load cover is also present to guard your cargo from prying eyes. On the downside, the tailgate can't be opened in confined spaces like multi-storey HDB car parks.

The 3.0 TFSI's standard kit list includes a Bang & Olufsen infotainment system with an internal hard disk, SD card readers, iPod connectivity, Bluetooth handsfree interface, sat nav, DVD/CD changer, electric sunroof, four-zone climate control, ventilated seats up front, electrically operated boot lid, 19-inch alloys, cruise control, Xenon Plus headlamps, power assisted closing doors, Audi Park Assist with rearview camera and so on.

The A7's Park Assist system is the latest generation version that is a first for an Audi model here. The new Park Assist has an additional party trick up its sleeve - it not only can self parallel park the car but also reverse park as well. To activate Park Assist for a parallel parking maneuver, you'd need to press the Park Assist button on the dash once. Press the button twice and Park Assist will search and reverse park the A7 into the lot, with the driver only engaging the right gears and doing the braking while the system takes full care of the steering inputs. The system does need time to search for the lots but it does work pretty efficiently and effectively once it has decided that it has found a lot that can accommodate the A7. The system also works better in a parallel parking situation than reverse parking. The average driver probably won't need a device like this but there might be a minority that will find that the A7 might be too big a car for them to park and hence find Park Assist to be extremely useful.

I have to admit that when I first heard about the concept for an A7 Sportback, it was yet another excuse by a German car maker to cash in on what is basically a saloon model clothed in glamorous catwalk wear while creating a new segment or niche that was unheard of previously (with the BMW X6 being the most extreme example of this). How wrong I was, as the A7 Sportback is a really impressive car that fills its brief competently in many key areas. Audi claims that the A7 Sportback is a stylish and desirable coupe, a spacious executive saloon and a practical estate car or Avant in Audi-speak rolled all into one. Audi certainly did everything right when executing the A7 project.

Credits: Story by Raymond Lai Photos by William Whey and Raymond Lai