8 Ways the New Audi A7 Looks Better Than the Old One

If you're like this left-brained tech-focused observer, you probably feel an emotional preference for the look of the 2019 Audi A7 versus its forebear—which I always liked—but you just can't quite put your finger on why that is. At the car's unveiling atop the company's brand-new Ingolstadt Germany Design-Center, exterior design chief Andreas Mindt and exterior designer Sebastiano Russo helped put my finger on that "why." Mindt followed Audi design chief Marc Lichte to Audi from VW and helped design the Prologue concept that appeared at the 2014 L.A. show. That concept served as a manifesto for the direction in which this new design team intended to steer Audi, and the new A7 and A8 are the first road-going interpretations of that car's themes.

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We always hear about pushing the wheels out to the corners, and dimensionally there's a little bit of that happening here—the wheelbase increases 0.5 inch under bodywork that shrinks 0.6 inch in length, and the track width is increased slightly. But there's more to it. Russo explains that a lot of work was done to taper the rear quarter panels inward as they reach the back of the car while also giving the taillights a very three-dimensional shape so that they remain visible from a front three-quarter view. Mindt notes that the door panel surfaces are visually moved inward—all of which heightens the "Coke bottle" effect. Oh, and that wheelbase stretch separated the front and rear occupants by another 0.8 inch, improving rear legroom.

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The tire diameter for the various wheel/tire combinations basically increases by about 1.2 inches to 28.5 inches (globally some seven wheel designs will be offered within that diameter in sizes ranging up to 22 inches, probably on the S7 variant that is expected to roll out within months of the A7's arrival). These bigger tires also "hunker up into the bodywork more" says Mindt. Most folks prefer the look of tires that fill their wheel wells. Don't expect the A8's AI Active Suspension to migrate to the A7 because the space required to fit the actuators was not designed in.

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The original A7 featured a single continuous "A line" that ran the length of the body, positioned well above the pronounced wheel arches and door handles. The new car features a horizontal line at door-handle height that fades into the wheel arches and two separate "shoulder lines" meant to evoke the original B2 Audi Quattro rally cars. These serve to further accentuate the muscularity established by the bigger tires and broader stance.

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Probably the biggest design improvement to these eyes was raising the rearmost edge of the hatch/deck by almost an inch and a quarter. This sets the design up for a "faster" (more steeply raked) rear glass and puts a bit more "wedge" in the whole design. Overall height is up 0.1 inch, and rear headroom improves by 0.2 inch. Cargo volume is unchanged, but now two golf bags fit across the width of the cargo floor.

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My eyes frequently glaze over when designers talk about things that influenced a design—in this case, yachts, zeppelins, and black panthers were mentioned—but I do see something vaguely feline in the sophisticated new headlights. They're thinner than before and appear even more so by being bisected with low-beam and signature daytime running lights above and high beams below (including optional laser lighting that the U.S. is now able to get, albeit in lower-power guise). Twelve outboard-angling daytime running lamp elements per side outline each "eye's" pupil (the low-beam element), and they illuminate in a sequential manner along with the amber turn signal LED elements, performing a mini light show when approaching and leaving the A7 (the cross-car taillights perform a similar show).

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Fastback shapes often require some sort of aerodynamic device to encourage the wind to separate cleanly at the tail, otherwise nasty rear lift can result (remember the hurried fix of the original TT?). Both A7s have movable wings that pop up at speeds where this can be a problem, but the new car's wing breaks over the back surface, hiding its rear gap out of site under a character line. This hatch/wing area will prove challenging to the assembly team in Neckarsulm, Germany, because these early-build cars indicate. Note the difference in curvature of the hatch stamping and the wing, which results in an under-flush condition of the outboard edges of the wing.

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Sebastiano Russo introduced me to a new "golden ratio" type concept wherein, in order to lighten the apparent mass of certain surfaces, his team contoured them so that the light and shadow visually divide the panel in roughly this ratio.

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The new hood's surface had to move upward a bit to satisfy global pedestrian-protection rules, but Mindt points out one way his team managed to minimize our perception of it: The prominent "bow-wake" lines that angle outward from the grille to the A-pillars are curved, but because of how far inboard they travel, from the side they look straighter.