SPIED: All-new Pics Of The Next-gen Audi A7 — What Does It NEED To SUCCEED?

What does it need? 100kWh battery.

My favorite Audi so I hope that at least in this case Ingolstadt does not change it too much. I like its hatchback design.

I fear that Audi will ruin its last great looking car. The A5 and A7 were their stand outs and the A5 was plunged into anonymity. The prototype does not look promising.

Yeah :-( I used to love the A5 and the R8. Today? Meh. I'm not at all warm to Audi's new direction.

Ultimately, all that matters to Audi is if their changes result in more profit (sales), or less. If their new stuff doesn't hurt their bottom line, then it'll be a success... just not what *I* buy.

Lets see - they have stopped selling gas powered ones - and they are still under a cloud for the diesel ones.

Maybe they need a trapdoor under the driver side floor - so they can be powered by the Driver - ALA - Dino-mobile!

What does it need to succeed? Buyers! Lots of buyers.

People criticize the look of the new A4 and Q7 but the sales are up double digits YTD. The new A5 has gotten a lot of flack but the sales surged more than 50%. Audi's been stealing market share every month for almost 7 straight years. When the A7 gets the A8's AI Traffic Jam Pilot and self-parking, I expect it's sales to also rise by double-digits.

Just as Steve said, as long as Audi gets more sales from its newer designs and rising profits, it doesn't matter if one or two people don't like it.

How high can you get your hand raised in your New Reich uniform?

Sorry, but this new model won't be a step up in terms of design. The front-end appears to be a slightly narrower version that just debuted on the A8. It looks like it will work better on the A7 than the A8. That being said, I'm not sure it will change the landscape of who is running to Audi dealerships. Granted it isn't going full-generic like the A5 coupe and sportback so it should remain the most stylish Audi sedan.

I don't think we're going to see a big difference compared to the new one. Spy pics show it will keep the rear end design which is what makes it stand out against the A6, which I think will keep looking very conservative.

Audi's original A7 design was very attractive and made the car a big seller in its segment. With that in mind, there was very little tweaking that Audi needed to do. However, there will be larger differentiation this time between the A7 and A6 consistent with Audi's new design strategy. Most importantly, expect the A7 to get the A8's AI Traffic Jam Pilot and self-parking features as options.

Audi is surely on a roll. U.S. sales growth has outperformed Mercedes-Benz and BMW over the last 5 years and now new models are on the horizon like the A8, A7, A6 and Q8. China has turned positive as well. 2018 should be a great year for Audi with the upcoming A7 playing its part in that success.

I think we've established there's no new design direction, you've also admitted that so let's not keep beating this dead horse

Audi took an already-successful design and made the requisite changes to it. Is it new? Yes. Is it radically different than before? No and it never needed to be.

We've seen this play out at Mercedes-Benz and BMW too many times over.

Not new and you don't know how different the A6 will be compared to the A7, which you claim to know in your comment. This is exactly like when you claimed the A4, Q7, A8, etc will all herald in a new era for design at Audi and then... nothing. So again, the horse was dead a long time ago. A6 will look like a big A4 / small A8 - all the same thing, and A7 will look like the current A7, nothing in the track record points to things being any different.

It's your opinion that the new design looks exactly the same as the old design. I certainly see the changes in the new A8 and I believe a lot of other people will too. The grille is a totally different shape and so are the headlights. The tailights have a brand new design with the long strip. The side has a more pronounced crease. The interior is completely different. There no longer is an MMI controller in the middle and instead the interior features touch screens. Same for the rear seats.

I see enough of a difference in the new A8's design where it won't be confused with the current model. Since the A8 is the vehicle that will usher in the new design era for Audi since it was the first model 100% overseen by Marc Lichte, we can expect these new characteristics to filter down to other Audi models. Notice this is a top-down approach like Mercedes-Benz uses and not a bottom-up approach like BMW uses (and Audi used to use).

If you don't think there is a new design, that's okay and it's your opinion. I don't agree with your view. We'll let the future sales results do the talking.

You certainly are entitled to your opinion. And you're correct, Audi's main competitors also use conservative design updates, as you've noted a number times.

Do you know what the big difference is? There isn't one, not one, other superfan / marketing bot who goes onto every BMW and MB article to proclaim that the next model from those companies will begin a new design direction, or that the design will increase sales, or that the design is going to be completely different from any current models, or that the company is on a roll when clearly they're in crisis mode. Post after post after post.

So my comments are based on your own ambitions in marketing Audi as something it isn't vs. what I can see with my own eyes with the design or what their competitors are doing. You'll keep posting your "views" which sound like marketing material but that's all it is. Your "views" aren't reality. Just like the marketing slogan "truth through engineering" isn't a reality.

I meant to post the top part of my reply here:

"Do you know what the big difference is? There isn't one, not one," Thanks for sharing your opinion. I have showed you the evidence and you're entitled to your opinion. I'm not sure how someone can seriously look at a picture of the old A8 dash and new A8 dash and think there is no difference, but that's up to you.

"You'll keep posting your "views" which sound like marketing material but that's all it is. Your "views" aren't reality. Just like the marketing slogan "truth through engineering" isn't a reality."

If you think what I post is marketing material for Audi, good for you (it's not). If you think my views aren't real, I'll just say that I think your views are also not real.

It's not my opinion that you're the only one trying to market your brand as hard as you do, you are the only one - based on the comments on every article.

I can't decipher what your second paragraph is supposed to mean? But anyway.

The way you take offense to my comments only adds to my opinion that it is marketing material because marketing material is so often not based in reality.

Not sure what "evidence" you've provided other than your marketing material but trying to say that my views are not real because I'm pointing out the efforts you're making at marketing your brand isn't a great argument.

First of all, Audi is not "my" brand. I do not own Audi nor do I work for Audi. If you can't decipher what I'm trying to say in the second paragraph, too bad. The "evidence" I provided was the MotorTrend article that shows very good comparisons between the existing Audi A8 and future Audi A8. I've provided you the link to that article and you can conclude from it what you wish.

If you think I somehow work for Audi, that's up to you. It isn't the first time I've been accused of working for Audi on here, but I will say that it is not true and never has been. I have never worked for Audi at any time, I have not received any compensation from Audi for any work whatsoever and the opinions I express are my own.

I'm done responding to you on this thread and in the future. I provide evidence that refutes your claims but if you don't believe the information, I'm not going to waste my time trying to get you to believe it.

This article was actually about the upcoming A7, not part of the current launch of the A8, which I do understand is currently at the forefront of the marketing pipeline for Audi.

MotorTrend just did an article with pictures of the old A8 vs. the new A8. I suggest you look at the photos of the interior and exterior in more detail. If you think the two look exactly alike, that's fine, but the differences that I pointed out above are certainly there.

http://www.motortrend.com/news/refreshing-revolting-2019-audi-a8/

Differences? Yes, new design direction? No

"Do you know what the big difference is? There isn't one, not one," Thanks for sharing your opinion. I have showed you the evidence and you're entitled to your opinion. I'm not sure how someone can seriously look at a picture of the old A8 dash and new A8 dash and think there is no difference, but that's up to you.

"You'll keep posting your "views" which sound like marketing material but that's all it is. Your "views" aren't reality. Just like the marketing slogan "truth through engineering" isn't a reality."

If you think what I post is marketing material for Audi, good for you (it's not). If you think my views aren't real, I'll just say that I think your views are also not real.

Whatever your definition of "design direction" is, it doesn't match my definition.

There was a dark grey S7 in a parking lot beside my truck last year. Very low, wide and mean. 4 twined pipes out the back mean business. A very cool car. Lucky are those who have a wife who likes style in the family auto pool.