The 340 HP Audi A7 Revealed

The “new benchmark” for sports sedans has finally been revealed. After weeks of teasing, Audi has revealed the new A7 and they seem quite proud of it.

At an event held at the brand’s new design center, head of design Marc Lichte, head of development Peter Mertens, and Audi CEO Ruper Stadler spoke about the latest iteration of the Sportback par excellence.

According to them, the new A7’s design is heavily based on that of the Prologue, a concept first shown in 2014. With a low, broad grille and slender new headlights, the A7 has a new face. “I’m particularly proud of the daytime running lights,” says Lichte, though his favorite bit, he admitted, was the light bar at the rear.

Like the A8, this new A7’s rear end has brake lights across the entire rear of it, though it does not have a chrome strip, like the A8. The beltline, meanwhile, has been lowered to highlight the car’s muscular wheels, said Lichte.

a7-rear

Peter Mertens, on the other hand, was more excited about the car’s technical features. Audi has worked on efficiency by adding electric coasting and a mild hybrid system, while performance gains were made possible by the car’s four-wheel steering system.

A new electronic chassis program, the updated air suspension, and a rear suspension effectively redesigned from scratch will also help make this the nimblest and quickest A7 to date. With up to 21” wheels also on offer and a sport suspension that lowers the car by 10 mm, this promises to be a blast when the road gets twisty.

Inside, owners will be able to control the MMI infotainment with either their fingers or their voice and ample space in the front and rear mean that all passengers will be in the lap of luxury.

Under the hood, the A7 Sportback will feature two V6s, both offered with a 48-volt “mild hybrid” system. The car will be launched with the 3.0-liter turbocharged V6, though. That engine makes 340 hp and 368 lb-ft of torque and will propel it from 0-60 in just 5.3 seconds and on to a top speed of 155 mph.

Static photo Colour: Florett Silver

Paired to a seven-speed S tronic transmission, the A7 will return up to 34 mpg. The A7 55 TFSI quattro S tronic will be followed by more 6 and 4 cylinder engines, in both gas and diesel. We’ll have to wait for the reveal of the S7 and the RS7 for anything bigger.

Once you’ve reached your destination, you’ll be able to press the AI button to engage the remote garage pilot function that can park the car without you even having to be in it, helping the car fit into particular narrow parking spots. This function can be controlled from a smartphone.

As the years progress the AI system will be capable of even more features, such as the Tour assist package. That will allow the car to help owners drive as efficiently as possible.

Assembly is being handled by Audi’s Neckarsulm plant and the A7 will launch (in Germany) in late February 2018, making it the perfect Valentine’s gift, truly. You’ll have to really love your significant other, though, because prices start at 67,800 euros.

The post The 340 HP Audi A7 Revealed appeared first on VWVortex.

from VWVortex http://ift.tt/2gmdftr
via IFTTT

Project SportWagen: Going Stage 2 with APR

When we last left you, the humble little SportWagen was fresh from the development process with our friends at AWE Tuning, sporting a new downpipe, exhaust and intake, allowing things to breathe a bit easier. The car sounded great, but there was no getting around the fact that our wagon was still quite, well, slow. While we realize that nothing we do to the Golf SportWagen at this point will make it a race car, we still felt compelled to do something . To put it bluntly, we had a fever, and the only cure was more power. Flash forward a few hours, and we found ourselves at Waterfest, staring down APR’s palatial spread and the numerous tuned vehicles surrounding it. Earlier in the year, APR had hinted to us that their 1.8 TSI files would be quite impressive, and based on what they were able to do with the 2.0 TSI found in the new GTI and our time in their Golf R, we knew it’d be worth the wait. So with this in mind, we lined our G...

Project Golf SportWagen- Intro

I’ve never really been one for SUVs and crossovers. The current offerings aren’t the body-on-frame, go-anywhere specialty tools I remember from my youth, and what they lack in capability, they also lack in on-road performance. The current crop isn’t terribly good at handling or being efficient, which in my opinion are major components of our ideal driving experience. So when it comes to space or utility, I usually look for something of the wagon variety- and it seems that I’m not alone. We hit quite a few shows around the east coast each summer, and we see modified Jetta SportWagens at nearly every event. Even amongst common consumers, these cars are highly sought-after. They don’t depreciate much, making even early Mk 5 2.5 versions expensive in comparison to other Jettas or Golfs of the same vintage. This year, Volkswagen launched their latest SportWagen, which is now billed as a Golf. In many ways, this latest SportWagen is the best yet and it has certai...

Volkswagen Group Records Best Ever First-Half-of-Year Sales

With 5.5 million vehicles in customer hands after the first six months of 2018, the Volkswagen Group is seeing the best performance of its history. Group deliveries increased significantly in all core regions,” said Fred Kappler, head of sales for the Group. “Our core brands recorded strong growth in the first half year.” For the year-to-date, all of Volkswagen’s brands had sales bumps. MAN, SEAT, and Skoda led the sales charge with performances 24%, 17% and 11% better than the previous year. The big sellers, too, had strong sales periods, with Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, Audi, and Volkswagen sales rising 3.5%, 4.5% and 6.3% respectively. That last figure is particularly good new for the board, since Volkswagen alone sold more than 3 million vehicles in the first half of 2018. As Kappler stated, the numbers are equally good when you break sales down by region. Brazil and Russia were the most improved markets (22% and 20%, respectively), while strong sales in Europe and China (u...

Vorderman Volkswagen

Search This Blog