Audi A7 vs Maserati Ghibli

What's the difference?

The Audi A7 is a really likeable car, one that is heavily focused on style but also emanates substance. The 55 TFSI model will appeal to many, but my initial impression is that the best buy in the range could well be the entry-level 45 TFSI. I can't wait to sample it sometime in 2019.

The Maserati Trofeo Ghibli is a very strange beast, but there's no doubt that it is a beast. Fast, loud and capable on a race track, and yet still closely resembling a classy, expensive Italian family sedan, it is genuinely unique. And genuinely strange, in a good way.

If you can't find something interesting about the design of the Audi A7, there's a good chance you're visually impaired.

The original A7 Sportback was perhaps ahead of its time in the way it blended the lines of a coupe with the practicality of a big sedan, and the new second-generation version pushes the envelope even further into the future. The vision, according to chief designer Andreas Koglin, was "a clear form with sharp lines and tight shapes", including the distinguishable 'boat tail' at the rear.

This is a technologically advanced looking car - big, long, sleek and stylish. From the LED headlights (or matrix LED and laser lights - yes, frikkin' lasers that have the same 5500 Kelvin as the sun, according to Audi) and daytime running lights, to the long, lean LED tail-light assembly, there's an illuminated, enlightened air to the A7.

Plus, with the matrix lights, both ends of the car do a sort of disco sequence as part of the start up and shut down procedure for the car.

There are a few carefully balanced lines across the body of the A7 that help catch the light, which is something you can't really say about its closest direct rival, the Mercedes-Benz CLS. It still retains the 'big-metal-small-glasshouse' look of the existing model, but there are definitely more angles and interesting elements to this new-generation car.

There are two exterior types offered for Australia - the S line that you see here is the version that'll be fitted to the two higher grade models, while the entry-grade model gets a less aggressive look to its front and rear bumpers. To my eyes, the base car actually looks more luxurious, where the S line models - when not fitted with the optional black exterior styling pack that deletes the chrome trims outside - have a slightly uneasy look in the grille area. With a black edge to the single frame grille, it looks a touch more convincing.

The A7 is still large, at 4969mm long (-5mm) and riding on a longer 2926mm wheelbase (+12mm), spans 1908mm wide (2118mm including mirrors), but it's also a little bit taller, at 1422mm (+2mm). According to Audi, the interior space has been increased by 21mm in this generation, making for a more luxurious cabin than before.

Things are a little edgier in terms of design in the cockpit, too. Gone is the appealing wraparound dashboard design, with a more driver-focused treatment evident. It looks sharper, more shapely, and has improvements to the usability inside, too.

The Ghibli Trofeo is an alluringly beautiful car from just about every angle, with a genuine sense of occasion and presence about its nose, a sleek side profile and a much improved rear end, where the light clusters have been redesigned.

The Trofeo special touches are impossible to miss, particularly from the driver’s seat where you look straight into two vast nostrils on the bonnet. There are also carbon fibre pieces on the front air duct and the rear extractor for a sportier, wilder look.

The red details on the air vents on each side are the highlight, though, while the lightning bolt on the Maserati trident badge is another nice touch.

The interior is simply beyond special and feels even more expensive than it is. Overall, I’d say it again, it’’s alluring. Italian style at its best and the Ghibli is the Cinderella point in the range, because the Quattroporte big brother really is too large, and the Levante is an SUV.

According to Audi, the A7's interior is said to offer a "futuristic lounge type ambience". And if your vision of a lounge in the future includes beautiful textile finishes, quality trims, and your choice of three crisp screens to look at and interact with, it certainly lives up to that.

Unlike the existing model, which seemed to draw a bit more inspiration from the world of watercraft, the new model isn't as luxe looking, with a more tech-focused approach inside. The wraparound finish on the dash is gone, and everything is more driver-centric in its orientation - the screens are tilted just enough towards the pilot and the design of the dashboard helps anchor the person in the driver's seat as the most important in the car.

As a driver, I still struggle to come to terms with climate controls that require you to use a screen, and I think it's distracting, too. At least with the Audi screen there's the possibility to slide up or down on the temperature display to make quick changes, rather than having to tap the screen repeatedly.

The haptic feedback on the screens is something that does take a bit of getting used to, because the response time isn't as instant as some regular touchscreen systems, but the menus are all pretty logically laid out.

And of course, all the storage considerations are dealt with, including good cupholders between the seats, decent door pockets, some loose item caddies and so on. In the back there's a flip-down armrest with cupholders, bottle holders in the doors and map pockets on the seat backs. One really neat addition is illuminated seat belt buckles - clever!

Space back there is mostly good, but it's better if you're short. There's enough legroom and shoulder-room for three adults, but anyone taller than me (I'm 182cm) will likely lack some headroom due to the curvaceous roofline.

The boot is good at 535 litres - enough to deal with two golf bags, the brand claims. The shape of the boot means tall items mightn't fit, but the length and width is good, and you get tie-downs with a mesh net to keep things in order. And there's a space-saver spare wheel under the boot floor.

From the driver’s seat, the Trofeo Ghibli feels spacious indeed, and while it’s not as vast in the back as a Quattroporte, there’s plenty of room for two adults, or even three small children.

The move to throw sportiness at the Ghibli has led to it having firm but fabulous seats. They’re comfortable, and the leather is luscious, but the actual seat back is constantly letting your spine know that this is no ordinary Ghibli. 

Throw it around a track, though, and the seats feel just right, providing the kind of support you need.

Boot space is ample at 500 litres and the Ghibli feels like the sort of car you could take your family in, if only it didn’t make you feel like you were spoiling your children too much.

At a price of $265,000, the idea of “value” becomes a different discussion, but you only need to glance at the Ghibli to realise that it looks like four times that much money.

The interior is also spectacularly boudoir-like, with lashings of carbon fibre and a whole cattle stud worth of full-grain Pieno Fiore natural leather, “the best the world has ever seen”, as Maserati likes to say.

Perhaps most vitally, this Trofeo racy edition gets a Ferrari engine; a 3.8-litre twin-turbo V8 good for 433kW and 730Nm (the first time it’s been seen in the Ghibli), driving the rear wheels only through a limited-slip differential and an eight-speed torque converter automatic gearbox. You also get very nice, expensive feeling paddles to shift those gears with.

Speaking of nice, the 21-inch aluminium Orione wheels are dead classy, if reminiscent of Alfa Romeo cars.

Ghibli Trofeo models come with a Corsa, or Race, button for hard-core sporty driving, and a Launch Control function.

There’s also an MIA (Maserati Intelligent Assistant), featuring a rather large 10.1-inch multimedia screen with upgraded resolution.

The Active Driving Assist “assisted driving function”, which has been seen in Ghibli before, can now be activated on urban roads and ordinary highways.

All three drivetrains offered in the A7 have some form of mild hybridisation. The entry-level 45 TFSI engine is a 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo producing 180kW of power (at 5000-6000rpm) and 370Nm of torque (1600-4500rpm). It has a 0-100km/h claim of 6.8 seconds, and employs a seven-speed dual-clutch auto with quattro all-wheel drive. It employs a 12-volt mild-hybrid system to assist with stop-start traffic and uses brake regeneration, too.

The high-spec petrol is the 55 TFSI, a 3.0-litre V6 producing 250kW (at 5000-6400rpm) and 500Nm (1370-4500rpm). The 0-100 claim is 5.3sec, and it also uses a seven-speed dual-clutch auto. It has a 48-volt mild-hybrid system that uses a larger capacity battery and a belt-driven starter generator that recuperates energy in stop start traffic and, according to Audi, can also allow the car to coast for up to 40 seconds at speeds of 55-160km/h.

The same 48-volt tech is used for the only diesel model in the range, the 50 TDI. This powertrain uses a 3.0-litre turbo-diesel engine producing 210kW (3500-4000rpm) and 620Nm (2250-3000rpm), and unlike the petrols, it has an eight-speed automatic (not a dual-clutch). The claim for acceleration is 5.7sec from 0-100km/h.

This will be the last time Maserati gets to enjoy a proper Ferrari engine - a 3.8-litre twin-turbo V8 good for 433kW and 730Nm - before it moves to a more electrified future, but it’s certainly going out with a lot of loud bangs.

Deafeningly lovely, the V8, which drives the rear wheels, will shove you to a shouty 100km/h in 4.3 seconds (fast, but not stupidly so, although it feels even quicker) on your way to a very Italian top speed of 326km/h. 

We can report that it exceeds 200km/h with consummate ease and has epic amounts of torque on tap.

The mild hybrid tech in each of the A7 models help it offer miserly fuel consumption.

The 45 TFSI model claims 7.1 litres per 100 kilometres; the 55 TFSI model just a touch more, at 7.3L/100km. And as you might expect, the 50 TDI diesel model is the most efficient, using a claimed 6.0L/100km.

We only drove the 55 TFSI on test, and the dashboard indicated display of 9.1L/100km seemed pretty respectable.

Maserati claims a slightly inexact fuel-economy figure of 12.3 to 12.6 litres per 100km, but good luck ever achieving it. The desire to open the taps and really chew some fuel will aways be overwhelming. 

We drove it on a race track and would easily have been exceeding 20 litres per 100km, so our test figure is probably best not spoken about.

A lot of the time when we go on new car launches the test drive route is planned to highlight handling dynamism, with less focus on the day-to-day drudgery most of us will actually encounter.

The launch of the Audi A7 was primarily of that design, too, but (thankfully?) there was some disgusting traffic to deal with on our in and out of Brisbane, where it was clear the A7 is superbly comfortable.

Well, that is, if you get the air suspension system. The ride was impressively cushioned, untroubled by sharp edges and road joins, and the suspension eliminated pothole effects, too. All the cars I drove on the launch were the 55 TFSI model, and all had the air suspension - the cynic in me thinks there's probably a reason for that, and I'd love to sample one without it.

This stint of stop-start driving saw the engine cut out at speeds up to 22km/h when you're decelerating, allowing us to coast to a stop without the engine burning fuel.

Once we exited the city limits and found ourselves on the roads of Mt Nebo and Mt Glorious, the chance presented itself to push the A7 in some bendy bits. With the dynamic drive mode selected, the transmission in sport mode, and about a hundred corners to contend with, the big German luxury hatch showed its skills.

The air suspension kept the circa-1815kg model relatively flat in the bends, but the front seats lacked adequate side bolster support despite being called 'sports' seats. Obviously physics were at play here.

The steering was more eager in the four-wheel steer version we sampled, and that's definitely an option for the enthusiastic owner to consider. Otherwise, the steering was accurate, if devoid of meaningful feel.

And while the engine was strong in its response and the transmission clever in its shift speed and intelligence, it became clear that this was a car that seemed more adept at open road cruising than bruising a series of hairpins. It didn't disappoint in terms of dynamics - it just felt its size.

Eventually when we reached an open road, the effortlessness of the A7 came to the fore. Comfort mode engaged, it paced along beautifully, the adaptive cruise taking its surroundings in nicely. There is a touch of wind noise and the suspension can be loud when you encounter pockmarked sections, but it doesn't feel flustered at speed.

One of the nice elements of the A7's smarts is that it will pulse the accelerator pedal to warn you that you could be saving fuel - say you're approaching an 80km/h zone, and you're driving at 100km/h, the throttle will throb to let you know you could ease off. Neat.

At the end of our day of driving, I was left with the impression that the Audi A7 is more than capable as a luxury saloon, one that was relaxing to drive - even when we encountered a five km traffic jam on the way back into Brisbane. It feels well engineered, without excessive gimmickry and with enough genuine quality to leave you feeling pampered.

We were fortunate enough to drive all three Trofeo models - Ghibli, Levante and Quattroporte - on the track at Sydney Motorsport Park, which really is the only way to fully appreciate vehicles with Ferrari V8 engines, 433kW and rear-wheel drive.

Maserati is keen to point out that other premium brands don’t offer that kind of grunt in their rear-drive cars, indeed most of them are going all-wheel drive, and that level of playfulness is a real USP, it believes.

The thing is, the company also acknowledges that its buyers are older, wiser and wealthier types moving up from the German brands. 

The Trofeo range, in particular, then, is a real niche within a niche. I picture Maserati buyers as being slightly sedate yet stylish. Fans of the nicer things in life, but not flashy, or thrashy, about the cars they drive.

And yet, unlike other Maseratis, the Trofeos are flame-spitting beasts that sound like Game of Thrones dragons. Clearly there are people who like their classy Italian saloons to be insanely fast and track ready. And hooray for them, because as weird as it seems to flog a car like this so hard, the Trofeo Ghibli was well and truly up for it.

It’s also the pick of the litter, being less SUV like than the SUV Levante, and less stupidly long and heavy than the Quattroporte. 

Its shorter wheelbase and lighter weight make it the most fun and light on its feet when being thrown around. We hit an easy 235km/h on the front straight before hurling into Turn One well north of 160km/h, and the Ghibli just held on tight before using its torque to hurl it at the next bend.

It sounds, as I’ve said, amazing, but it’s worth saying again because it’s a real Maserati (or Ferrari, really) advantage of choosing this car.

The brakes are also up to the task of repeated track-hard stops, the steering is lighter and less talkative than a Ferrari perhaps, but still excellent, and the whole Trofeo Ghibli experience is best described, on circuit, as being better than you would possibly imagine.

Out on the road, you don’t have to put up with the firm ride that pressing the Corsa button compels, and the Ghibli reverts to its smooth, cruiser persona - while still looking sporty as hell.

The only letdown is the seats, which are a little on the firm side, but everything else about the cabin is so luxe you almost forgive it. 

While this car makes no sense to me, it obviously excites enough people for Maserati to make a business case, and charge $265,000 for the Trofeo Ghibli. Good luck to them, I say.

There is no ANCAP rating for the Ghibli as it has not been tested here. 

The Trofeo Ghibli comes with six airbags, Blind Spot Detection, Forward Collision Warning Plus, Pedestrian Detection, Adaptive Cruise Control, Lane Keep Assist, Active Driver Assist and Traffic sign Recognition.

As with all Audi models, there's a three-year/unlimited kilometre warranty offered. Mainstream brands seem to be pushing to five years' warranty, while the premium makers lag behind.

The company also offers a three-year pre-purchase capped price service plan called the 'Audi Genuine Care Service Plan', which you can bundle into your finance package. Exact pricing isn't known yet, but you can expect it to average out at about $650 for every 12 month/15,000km service (based on the previous generation model).

Maserati offers a three-year, unlimited kilometre warranty, but you can choose to buy 12-month or two-year warranty extensions, and even a sixth or seventh-year drive-train warranty extension. 

When much, much cheaper Japanese and Korean cars are offering seven and even 10-year warranties, this is so far off the pace that such a fast vehicle should be embarrassed. And if you're buying something Italian, a better, longer warranty would seem like a must. I'd be negotiating at sale for them to throw the longer warranty offer in.

Maserati says servicing for the Ghibli has a "ball park costing of $2700.00 for the first three years of ownership" with a service schedule of every 20,000km or 12 months (whichever occurs first)

Also, "please note that the above is indicative only of the manufacturers basic routine service maintenance schedule and does not include any consumable items such as tyres, brakes etc or additional dealership charges such as environmental levies etc."