Tom Techie

I've been getting tons of great help from this forum during the 6 months since I ordered my S7, and finally got mine two days ago. Here are a few pics at the dealer when I picked it up. Of course the weather was nasty cold and starting to rain, so not the greatest shots with my cell phone. Hope to post better pics when (if) the weather improves. Here are a few initial observations and comparisons between the 2016 S7 and my 2010 S4:

Suspension - The air suspension is definitely a step up from the old S4. Haven't played around much but all settings are great. Dynamic is not too harsh and Comfort is still OK on corners and exit ramps. I'm keeping it on Auto for now. The ability to raise and lower is pretty neat.

Engine and Tranny - Fantastic! I'm trying to follow Audi's break-in regimen with no revs over 4K for the first 1000 mi. so haven't pushed it much, but the torque is always there, and the sport exhaust is just right for my taste. (Just enough snarl at startup and barely there when cruising on the highway, but definitely obvious when you step on the go pedal) I don't hear a huge difference between flaps open or flaps closed, but that may change as it ages. It take a lot of self control to stay anywhere near the speed limit. The throttle response is very good, but not quite as responsive as the supercharged S4 was. I was worried from reading the turbo lag threads, but I can say this 4.0TT is perfectly fine in that regard.

Interior - Just beautiful for my taste. Love the contrasting stitching on the black Valcona. The sport seats are super comfy, plenty adjustable, and even pass the wife test for entry and exit. The larger doors probably help. More comfortable than the old S4 sport seats with slightly more shoulder room overall. Pleasantly surprised to see the lighted door sills with S7 logo. I have really enjoyed the heated steering wheel with the crappy cold weather we are still having here in MA. I feel better about deciding not to go with the flat bottom wheel. Cup holders are better than the old S4, but still not perfect. Only the passenger one has the internal grippers.

MMI - This is a great improvement over my old S4. The Nav with Google maps is beautiful. Inrix Traffic seems much better than the old XM based system. Nice to have the local speed limit displayed when following a route. The ability to put the maps on the secondary display between the Tach and Speedo is also nice. The touchpad works pretty well and easily recognizes my entries. Glad the Nav finally defaults to displaying the last display when first starting up. The old S4 would default to the destination entry screen no matter what. All the available exterior camera views for parking are amazing.

Adaptive Cruise & Lane Assist - Played with these today for a while and I think I like the AC but not sure about the Lane Assist. Seems like you need to get really out of the lane for the steering wheel to react. It will take some mental adjustment to give up that level of control to the car. This is just the tip of the iceberg for autonomous driving cars. Time will tell.

HUD - Not sure if I like this. For now, I find the display in my field of vision somewhat distracting. It may take some adjustment of brightness and position to make it less so. Wearing polarized sunglasses didn't seem to make much difference, surprisingly.

All for now. I need to find more excuses to drive this baby!

ben_aip

Thanks - nice write-up and review. Absolutely gorgeous car - great colour combo!

Totally agree with your take esp with regards to the air suspension, engine and tranny as well as ACC.

Well, where we are it is the gorgeous weather we've been enjoying here on the westcoast with Spring having just sprung,,cherry blossoms everywhere....car freshly washed and broken in. Its time to embark on our first road trip with this S7!

Tom Techie

I actually ordered a 2015 S7 in Oolong back in Oct but Audi decided to stop production of 2015's and cancelled the order. Dakota became available for the 2016's and I switched. They are both beautiful if you ask me. Nice photo of yours. Can't wait to see cherry blossoms in this area.

palmerg

TT Thanks for the great initial review. The car is fantastic! We are so looking forward to getting ours in June (fingers crossed). We opted not to get the B&O as well. I'm really not concerned at all but wondering how you are liking the standard Bose system. With today's compressed media I am sure it will be quite enough for these old ears.

We do love our Bluetooth for the added accessibility to a huge selection after the XM trial expires - now with the built in hot spot we should be able to get Pandora, Spotify, Last FM and all the rest with no problem.

Tom Techie

Palmerg - My primary audio source is news radio, so the Bose is definitely good enough for me. I haven't loaded up any high quality digital music files yet, but for XM and FM sources this system seems to sound OK, but not as good as the B&O system in my old S4. I certainly was not ready to spend $4900 for the upgraded S7 audio system.

My wife is loving the hot spot for web surfing on our longer trips. It also comes in handy for checking on police activity using Waze.

Hope your delivery goes smoothly. It is definitely worth the wait!

palmerg

FYI - since we live in Italy until June (when our car is supposed to be at dealers) I am trying to visit the Neckarsulm plant in Germany in hopes of maybe (a long shot since its not international delivery) seeing the S7 in Germany while there. Still working that but while I was looking around the Neckarsulm site I looked at the Build an S7 there. Holy crap! did you know that in Europe the standard radio is a 180W Audi unit with 6 speakers. The upgrade to the Bose Surround is offered for 990 euros (over $1000.00) to get the 600W 14 speaker 5.1 system. The B&O system is offered for over $6K, yikes. Part of that is probably due to the 23% VAT. In fact, they option the cars a lot more over there and the base price is over $88K. We get a pretty good deal in the USA it seems.