Audi A7 Sportback 3.0 TDI 2011 review

THE large luxury sedan has slipped off shopping lists and everyone is climbing straight into pretend off-roaders.

Everyone, that is, except for a few hold-outs who buy pseudo-coupes instead. This is a segment that used to be called Jaguar. But about the time Jaguar stopped producing low-slung, four-doors cars and began making Mercedes S-Classes, Mercedes came up with the CLS.

The CLS is an E-Class in designer gear with a swing in its step. Less roomy than a real E-Class, it relied on its racy looks to sell. From the rear, it looked like a Ford AU Falcon, but no one told the rest of the world so it was a success.

Explore the 2011 Audi A7 range

• Audi A7 Sportback 2011 review
• Audi A7 Sportback 3.0 TFSI 2011 review
• Audi A7 Sportback 3.0 TDI 2011 review
• Audi A7 2011 review

The CLS effectively gave Mercedes two bites at the large sedan market for the price of one. Unsurprisingly, it liked the idea so much it will launch another one later this year.

Everyone else has been racing to catch up with what carmakers like to refer to as four-door coupes. That's a contradiction in terms - coupes have two doors - but it's nothing a marketing department can't live with.

Two years ago, Porsche joined in with the Panamera. Last year, it was the turn of Aston Martin with the Rapide and BMW with the 5 Series GT. Even Jaguar realised it had taken a wrong turn and made its new XJ more like the 1960s original in spirit.

For cars that rely so heavily on replicating the curvy appeal of a coupe but with more doors, it's astonishing that good looks are in such short supply. The Panamera is simply too big to be a pretend 911. The 5 Series GT looks good from the front but frumpy from every other angle, while the Rapide, although the slinkiest of the lot, cannot match the lovely proportions of an Aston two-door.

Jaguar's solution for the XJ was radical, but it has taken a bunch of Italians to show it what could have been done. Audi, with the A7, is the latest to join this stampede.

DESIGN

Like the others, the A7 has top-drawer fittings and technology in an elongated shape with a hatchback instead of a boot. It sits beneath the flagship A8 in Audi's range and above the A6. Audi says it combines ''the sporty elegance of a coupe, the comfort of a sedan and the practicality of a station wagon''. So, like the others, it's trying to be a jack-of-all-trades. Give or take a millimetre, it's as long as a Panamera and the same height, although not as wide.

Without seeing them side by side, it doesn't appear as bulky as the Porsche and sits towards the Aston end of the attractiveness scale. It's like a scaled-up A5 with more presence. As usual, the face is the easiest bit to get right and Audi has slightly varied its fallback headlight and grille shapes to good effect. But the designers were so committed to drawing the cabin in a single line that the tail ends up looking too long and fat. A curious single ''brow'' runs over the rear lights and defines the trailing edge.

Also at the rear is a speed detector, otherwise known as an automatically deploying spoiler that's set to rise at 130km/h. Try talking your way out of that one.

One benefit of the shape is an extremely long cargo area. You can even extend it by folding the rear seats. Audi says it can swallow 535 litres of luggage or 1390 litres with the seats down.

It's shallow at the loading lip, though, so not as flexible and accommodating as the numbers suggest. The hatchback itself is heavy, despite being aluminium, so power is standard and the hinges are huge.

INTERIOR

Potentially, the cabin shape could make rear headroom tight, although Audi has solved this with deep recesses in the roof. It's cosy and seating is strictly for four.

The cabin follows the recent A8 by having a bit more flair than we're used to seeing in an Audi. There's a thin veneer strip that curves around the base of the windscreen, just like in an XJ. The A7 gets the A8's toys, including a touchpad control that shows Audi isn't scared of gimmicks.

Debut technology includes a head-up display, unfortunately not on the cars I drove but already sampled in numerous BMWs. Despite its motto and hi-tech image, Audi is generally the last of the three Germans to adopt the latest safety or convenience systems. The A7 gets it up to speed on equipment such as night vision and the latest active cruise control, which can resume cruising from standstill.

TECHNOLOGY

The car's underpinnings are shared with the new A6, which arrives in July, although many of the other mechanicals are familiar. The Quattro system debuted on the RS5 and features a rear-drive bias and the dynamic trick du jour for performance brands: torque vectoring. This redistributes power across a single axle for improved cornering. If you pay extra, there's a sports differential and adaptive air springs instead of steel. The transmission is a seven-speed double-clutch unit with stop-at-idle technology and both the engines are direct injection with forced induction: turbocharging for the diesel, supercharging for the petrol.

The diesel unit is the older of the two but has been usefully upgraded and can still cut it with excellent torque and lively high-revving character. It doesn't sound as good as its BMW or Mercedes equivalents, but it's not unpleasant and largely muted here anyhow. Fuel consumption is an impressive 6.0 litres per 100km. The supercharged petrol is an alert engine with hair-trigger throttle response, making the car feel more alive and a little less weighty in the nose. It's nearly a second quicker to 100km/h, at 5.6 seconds, and not as thirsty as you may think at 8.2 litres per 100km.

DRIVING

Large Audis can be a let-down on the road and initially, at least, this one feels heavy and uncertain in its suspension movements, with the front and rear so far apart that it seems as though they're reacting to turn in at different times.

However, it improves with a little more familiarity, sport mode, and a lot more speed.

Before long, it has shed some of its 1.8 tonnes and is coming alive in the long-flowing corners that dominated the test route in Tasmania.

This is thanks in no small part to the steering. It's a new electric system and the best I've sampled on an Audi outside of its most focused sports cars.

Judging ride quality on unfamiliar roads is a trap for the unwary. Audi claims to have employed a unique ''comfort test bench'' in the A7's development to finesse this aspect of the car. I couldn't help but wonder, gratuitously of course, whether this was a euphemism on a par with ''Hollywood casting couch''. Suffice to say the ride was better on the smaller alloys and a bit suspect on the large 20-inchers.

Twenty-inch wheels are the platform heels of the motoring world and cars such as the A7 are designer clothing made XXL.

Despite this, it's a classy and sharply priced pitch at the executive barge market. It's also more interesting to look at and to drive than I was expecting. It would tempt me away from any SUV and, dollar for dollar, most of its rivals.

AUDI A7

Body: Large luxury hatchback
Engine: 3.0-litre turbocharged V6 diesel; 3.0-litre supercharged V6 petrol
Power/torque: 180kW at 4000rpm and 500Nm at 1400rpm (3.0 TDI); 220kW at 5250rpm and 440Nm at 2900rpm (3.0 TFSI)
Transmission: Seven-speed double-clutch automatic, all-wheel drive
Price: From $142,750 (3.0 TDI) to $147,800 (3.0 TFSI) plus on-road costs