Try driving a new sports coupé around Irish roads these days and you can feel like a pariah. Audi's eye-catching A7 avoids that fate – and is a worthy rival for the pioneering Mercedes CLS, writes MICHAEL McALEER, Motoring Editor
EXCUSE A DIGRESSION to the world of the flat screen for a moment, but after watching “Ireland’s best and brightest businesspeople” struggle to throw together calendars, organise play days and advertise coffee machines can I suggest a more direct route for Bill Cullen to find his next apprentice? Simply stick the lot of them in a showroom for a week and ask them to sell a few €70,000 cars.
After yesterday’s Budget even the most optimistic and quick-witted sales staff will struggle to persuade potential buyers to part with €70,000-plus for a new car. Can you imagine the reaction on the other end of the line as you work your way down a list of cold-call numbers compiled in 2006?
If the new Audi A7 had arrived 36 months ago it would have been greeted with a fanfare, a bulging order bank and probably a price tag of €80,000 or more. Instead it sits imposingly in the car park like a symbol of a bygone age in a land where we struggle to comprehend what went before.
Politicians and foreign commentators are wrong to tar us all with the brush of madcap spending in the noughties, but it’s hard to review credit-card bills from that time and not baulk at how freely we spent on eating out and travelling abroad.
The one thing to be said for recession is that it makes people everywhere from the dole queue to the dinner table at the Merrion Hotel take a closer look at their living costs. Even luxury-car buyers are feeling the vice-like grip of economic austerity. Sales have fallen off the proverbial cliff.
But (and it’s a very important but) budget cuts are all relative to what you have in the piggy bank and in turn what you think is a good buy – or even a bargain. We’re not for a minute suggesting that any luxury car should be regarded as a bargain buy, but when you consider what you get for your money, and what you would have got for it three years ago, the A7 starts to show some distant glimmer of sense.
This Audi is the four-ringed brand’s first proper foray into luxury four-door coupés, a segment of the market launched in its modern guise by the Mercedes CLS, back in the heady days of 2004. It was a masterstroke in motoring engineering, a car that offered coupé looks with saloon-car space without compromising too much on either trait.
It might not have been the pioneer, but the A7 is the most eye-catching presentation of the format to date. And on the road it seems to garner respect and admiration rather than derision and spite.
That’s no mean feat in the current climate. Try driving a new sports coupé around Irish roads these days and you can feel like a pariah. Thankfully for our sake, the A7 doesn’t provoke such vitriolic bile.
It did provoke one common statement from everyone who saw and sat in it: this is the car the new A8 should have been. It makes the larger luxury saloon look dowdy and dated, despite being less than a year on the road. Where the A8 looks like an overblown A4, the A7 is a work of art from virtually every angle.
ASIDE FROM ITSgood looks, the A7 is a very sharp performer on the road. Although the optional sports suspension on the test car was a little hard on country roads, particularly when riding on 20in alloys, it could be softened through the car's on-board computer, which lets you adjust steering feel as well. The difference in settings is relatively minor but good enough to spare your spine.
The A7 offers a sporting coupé drive, with sharp, direct steering and a suspension system that tucks this big car tidily into corners in ways that really shouldn’t be possible given its size. That’s partly down to the Quattro four-wheel drive, which saved our blushes – and costly repair work – when the snow descended the weekend before last. Until then it was a grippy sporting ride.
Once the snow descended it tiptoed around the ice and snow in a way that belied its bulk. It’s no SUV, but four-wheel drive was a blessing.
The test car came with Audi’s well-regarded 3-litre diesel engine, putting out 245bhp that hurtles you down the road with no fuss. You only really appreciate its pace when you notice how quickly you come upon traffic that seconds earlier was but a blip on the horizon. Credit must go to the S-tronic seven-speed automatic transmission, which seamlessly works its way through the cogs. It’s only when you drive an automatic car from four or five years ago that you appreciate how far these gearboxes have come.
We don’t need to say much about the interior except that Audi is still the benchmark others need to follow. It’s replete with much the same array of gadgetry that features in the new A8, so owners make no sacrifice in terms of comfort or technology. Some of it, like the night-vision alert in the central console, is a useful safety feature; other bits, like the MMI touch pad, are little more than gimmicks.
If we have one qualm it’s that a hatchback luxury car still seems rather odd; although the boot is long, the sloping rear window eats into its height. Then again, people who buy these sorts of cars have others to do deliveries.
So it ticks the coupé boxes, but what about luxury-saloon functionality? It’s not quite on a par with the A8 in this regard, but you don’t need to be double-jointed to get in and out, and legroom is ample for average-sized adults. Headroom is also surprisingly good, so it’s a viable family saloon.
In terms of competitors its only real challengers are the A8, from within its own family, and the Mercedes CLS, a new version of which arrives in Ireland next spring. There are other four-door coupés from the likes of Aston Martin, but they simply don’t have a foothold in Ireland, or a similar price tag.
As a curve ball, might we suggest the VW Passat CC? Petrolheads will howl at the thought of comparing these two cars. It doesn’t hold a candle to the Mercedes or Audi in terms of handling, image or prestige, but it’s perhaps the most relevant choice in IMF-land.
Invariably the sort of people who buy luxury cars will not make such a seismic leap to a mainstream brand, and for them it will be between the A7, CLS or, more likely, the full-sized A8.
In the A7 you have a stunning-looking car that carries arguably more status and cachet than the A8. It also offers the same level of creature comforts and build quality, plus sharper handling and performance, and all for at least €25,000 less than the equivalent A8.
Luxury buyers tend to be loyal to their brands, and the crossover from CLS fans will be limited, but there’s no doubting that A8s have suddenly become a monumentally hard sell, the ultimate test for Bill Cullen’s best apprentice.
Factfile
Engine2967cc V6 TDI diesel engine generating 245bhp with seven-speed auto transmission.
Performance0-100km/h in 6.3 sec; max speed 250km/h.
SpecificationsStandard features include 18in alloys; alarm and immobiliser; Bluetooth; cruise control; driver information system with seven-inch colour display; front and rear park assist; heated front seats with electric lumbar support; light and rain sensors; MMI satnav system; rear retractable spoiler; auto start-stop; xenon headlights with LED daytime running lights. Options include 20in alloys; four-zone climate control; adaptive cruise control; Bose surround-sound system; leather sports steering wheel; MMI touch; night-vision system; rear-view camera; sports suspension.
L/100km (mpg)urban 7.2 (39.2); extra-urban 5.3 (53.3); combined 6.0 (47.1).
CO2 emissions(motor tax) 158g/km (€447).
Price€66,900 (test car final price €87,250).