Audi A7....UGLIER than the 5 GT?

I've seen print ads for the Audi A7 in British magazines and thought "surely, they won't send this model to the 'states?". Well, this morning I saw a REALLY stupid tv ad for the A7 (it shows A LOT of people out on the streets and highways fastidiously cleaning .....beyond being anal, to the point of "touching up" stripes on the road with itty bitty paint rollers, vacuuming the interstates of any loose "bits", and whole legions of people sweeping each city block) preparing for this "special" car.

If you haven't seen the ad or the car, it's another BIG, German 5 door hatchback. Sort of looks like an A5 but with an extra set of doors, and I could be wrong but I'm guessing the A5 is NOT a hatchback while the A7 IS a hatchback.

The "verdict" of CAR magazine is "pretty dull".

I guess just like in the U.S. one car company doesn't really look at what the other car companies are doing. If they HEAR "Brand X" is about to launch an SUV with a removeable roof, well "Brand Y" gets one to market, too. Even if "Brand X's" is a sales bomb.

I dig the A7. Looks far, far better than the 5 GT. Styling-wise the GT looks like it wants people to think it's a crossover (which is about 3in taller than the sedan) whereas the A7 is just a hatchback where a trunk would normally be. I see more than a little Aston Martin in the rear styling of the A7, and that's hardly a bad thing.

I saw a white one in a parking lot last week and thought it was REALLY good-looking. I'm a fan.

They make good-looking Audis?

I drove it at a winter thing at Mt. Tremblant. Handles real nice, that torque vectoring system works really well on ice – mind you it had studded tires. It's a little large for my taste, but I didn't think it was ugly, more like unremarkable. Personally, I preferred the RS3 Sportback

I think what bothers me about the A7 is the typical really huge Audi grille opening coupled with the narrow headlights. From the front, this looks like a metal catfish. And the pictures I've seen of the rear (BTW, ALL the pix I've seen so far show the car in white) make the rear end look like it's shrunk just a teeny, tiny bit. I guess it's the shape of the rear bumper or the colors in the photos.

I don't know about the U.S. (whether we get FWD, AWD, or both) but in Europe, if you get the "base" model it's a FWDriver with CVT. The Quattros are a "conventional" automatic.