Test drive | luxury with quality What are the highlights of SAIC Audi Double Star products that attract me?

In China's auto market, the dual joint venture has a very long history, such as SAIC Volkswagen and FAW-Volkswagen have coexisted for more than 30 years. Today, the dual joint venture has also been extended to the field of luxury brands, and SAIC Audi has also come more than 30 years after the establishment of FAW-Volkswagen Audi.

Different from today's trend of more and more luxury brands becoming more and more low-end, SAIC Audi first chose the A7L, which is more expensive than today's domestic Audis, and the pure electric SUV with a size larger than the domestic Audi SUV - Q5-etron. As the saying goes, a good start is half the battle, and for the car,The product strength of the first model is particularly critical to the future reputation. So can the strength of SAIC Audi A7L and Q5-etron meet expectations?

A7L static experience

The front face of the SAIC Audi A7L is basically the same as the imported version of the Audi A7 Sportback, still using a hexagonal intake grille, and the interior of the front mid-mesh adopts a new design, and the grille changes from the original horizontal to horizontal and vertical staggered layout.

As a "lamp factory" circulated in the anecdote, the A7L's headlight specifications are unambiguous, and the whole series is equipped with matrix LED headlight sets as standard, and the high-end models are also equipped with laser headlight systems.

The biggest difference in the appearance of the whole comes from the side, the A7L abandons the Audi A7's sneakback shape, adopts a sedan design that is close to a regular sedan, and the wheelbase is also lengthened by 98mm, which does not make the side of the A7L very weird, but appears more stretched and slender. The length, width and height of the body are 5076, 1908, 1429mm, the wheelbase reaches 3026mm, and the overall size even exceeds the A6L, which is mainly positioned for business, but the height is a little shorter.

As a luxury four-door coupe, the choice of tires is of course not ambiguous, and the whole series starts at 19 inches. The test drive model uses 20-inch two-color wheels, and the tires use the Goodyear Eagle F1, which measures 255/40 R20.

The overall design of the rear is consistent with the imported version, and the iconic through taillights are retained, and the embedded 13 LED light groups support dynamic lighting, which is highly recognizable. The only drawback of the entire appearance is the use of a hidden exhaust design, although the rear surround sides are similar to the exhaust decoration, but for a coupe-shaped car is still a little less pure.

The interior of audi A7L follows the design style of the imported version of the A7, continues to adopt the design of the virtual cockpit, equipped with a 12.3-inch LCD instrument, 10.1-inch and 8.6-inch central control dual screen to form a three-screen combination, and equipped with a new generation of infotainment systems MIB3 and Asterix, through access to the tencent, Ali ecosystem under the application, the owner can use QQ music, Tencent map and other services on the car.

The flat-bottom steering wheel is not only sporty in shape, but also small in size and delicate in the hand.

After the wheelbase was lengthened by 98mm, the legroom in the rear row had an immediate increase; and after the cancellation of the lift, the head space in the rear row also increased to a certain extent, and the overall space caught up with the level of other extended wheelbase C-class.

In addition to the large space, the A7L's rear comfort feature is also a highlight, not only equipped with independent air conditioning in the rear partition, but also controlling the adjustment, heating, ventilation and massage functions of the rear seats through the screen of the rear center armrest.

A7L dynamic experience

The test drive of the A7L was a 45TFSI (2.0T) and 55TFSI (3.0T) model. The first thing to experience is the 45TFSI, which accelerates unexpectedly briskly, has no feeling of a small horse-drawn cart at all, is more than enough power to cope with daily driving conditions, and even has a little passion. At the same time, the 7-speed dual clutch maintains a super high standard as always, with extremely high gear change speed and a very focused feeling of the driver's intentions.

Although the 45TFSI has good power and a good price-performance ratio, from the driving experience, I recommend buying the 55 TFSI model, even if it is a good choice to buy a minimum match. In addition to the stronger power reserve due to the large displacement of 3.0T, more importantly, the 55 TFSI series is equipped with a dynamic all-wheel steering system and active air suspension as standard.

Dynamic all-wheel steering system is also commonly known as rear wheel steering, it can be at low speed when the rear wheel reverse rotation, reduce the turning radius, even if the A7L car length of more than 5 meters, open up is not bulky at all; and at high speed the rear wheel in the same direction rotation, improve steering stability; and the active air suspension can be based on the speed, driving mode and road conditions of each air suspension can be individually adjusted in height and damping of the soft and hard automatic adjustment, the fine bumps on the road surface can be easily resolved, the filter performance is more advanced, At the same time, the body posture is stable and calm.

Fast, stable, flexible and comfortable, this bunch of contradictory-sounding combinations, combined with dynamic all-wheel steering, active air suspension and intelligent quattro four-wheel drive technology, it's all incredibly achieved. It is no exaggeration to say that in terms of driving texture, the A7L 55 TFSI is not at all inferior to the higher-order million-class sedan.

Q5-etron dynamic experience

In addition to the A7L, at this event, I also briefly test-drove another model of SAIC Audi, the Q5-etron, which was a 50-tron quattro equipped with dual front and rear motors. From the power data, the maximum power of 225kW and the maximum torque of 460Nm are close to the level of 3.0T, which has a completely sufficient power reserve in any road condition. And when climbing on slippery terrain, the quattro system can also precisely adjust the torque on each wheel according to the needs, making off-roading more convenient.

The Q5-etron is not small in size, but the turning radius is unexpectedly small and not bulky at all; at the same time, the chassis texture is very good, it is very tough when driving at the limit, and the body posture in extreme road conditions such as the hump on the side slope is not very awkward. It is worth noting that its brakes, although the rear wheel drum brake has a high controversy, but in fact, after dozens of rounds of rapid acceleration and deceleration of multiple groups of media, the braking efficiency has not felt degraded, and there is no need to worry about thermal recession in daily driving.

Write at the end

Like many people, when the A7L was first released, I thought that its lengthening was a sign of complete compromise with the market, but after the test drive, it upended my view. Yes, it's longer and more practical, but as a coupe, the A7L still retains its pursuit of driving. It did not launch the entry-level 40TFSI version because of the deliberate reduction of the starting price, and the 55TFSI series is equipped with air suspension and dynamic all-wheel steering system as standard, to know that these two were previously equipped on the imported A7 but the top model will be equipped, and the optional price on the secondary top model adds up to 47,000 yuan.

From the official release of the first model to the listing of the second model, SAIC Audi only took less than a year, behind the amazing speed, but there is no trace of rushing, still showing a high degree of perfection. In addition to products, SAIC Audi is also continuing to cooperate across borders, upgrading the service template under the new retail model to create a different unique luxury experience.