2013 Lexus GS 350 - Luxury Car

The good: The F Sport package on the 2013 Lexus GS 350 includes an adjustable suspension that improves handling. The navigation system uses a 12.3-inch LCD, the current largest for a production car. Lexus' Enform system integrates Yelp, Bing search, Pandora, and other apps.

The bad: Real-world fuel economy averaged under 20 mpg. The cabin tech interface controller lacked the heft that should be present in a luxury vehicle.

The bottom line: The 2013 Lexus GS 350 makes for a convincing high-tech cruiser. With the F Sport package, it has some real performance chops, although it falls short of a BMW M or Mercedes-Benz AMG.

For its 2013 model year, Lexus gave the GS 350 a fierce look and performance options that make it one of the best-handling Lexus models, and let it begin to approach the sport levels achieved by the German competition. Catching the eye first of all, however, is the tremendous 12.3-inch LCD sitting in the dashboard.

Beyond the main menu screen, this whopping display shows its information in a perpetual split, using about two-thirds of the area for maps, destination input, audio selection, and phone calls. The other third shows current audio, phone, climate control, and fuel economy.

Click through for the full photo gallery and more details.

Lexus launched its mouselike controller for in-cabin electronics a few years ago, and this system was refined for the GS 350. Where before it felt like a joystick, now it slides around more like a mouse. Previously, the pointer could move anywhere on the screen, but now it more securely snaps to the onscreen buttons, making it easier to use while driving.

Lexus also took away the Enter buttons, previously mounted on either side of the controller, replacing that function with a push down on the controller. I found the controller a little too sensitive, as it too easily jumped to a different button when I tried to press down. Looking into the settings, there was no way to reduce the sensitivity, but it was possible to raise the level of haptic response, so the controller would be less likely to skip off a selected button. The controller also felt too much like a cheap, plastic mouse; I would expect more heft for switchgear in a luxury car.

Along with the controller upgrade, Lexus improved its voice command. Pressing the voice command gave me a lot of top-level options for navigation, phone, and audio. I could place a call by saying the name of a person in my phone's contact list, or request music from an attached iPod or USB drive by saying the artist name or album. Entering a destination still required saying the city, street name, and number individually, instead of as one string.

The GS 350's massive 12.3-inch screen can show maps in a dual display, 

and still have room left over for an audio display.

Despite the large screen, Lexus' navigation remains unchanged from that of prior model years. Maps, stored on a hard drive, only offer 2D views. The system uses traffic data from satellite to avoid jams, but does not offer text-to-speech for route guidance. The system offers quite a few ways to enter addresses, including the new eDestination feature, which lets you send destinations from a PC through the Lexus telematics system.

More impressive is the system's integration with Lexus' Enform apps system. Enform is very much like the Toyota Entune system. It requires either an Android phone or iPhone running the Enform app. Android phones can connect over Bluetooth, but the iPhone must be plugged into the USB port. And as I have found with recent Toyota cars, my iPhone 3GS would only connect to the system sporadically, although the iPhone 4 and 4S seem to connect consistently.

In the GS 350, the Enform apps complement the data brought in through satellite radio. Along with the aforementioned traffic information, satellite radio provides weather forecasts, gas prices, stock prices, and sports scores. Enform offers well-known apps such as Bing search, OpenTable, and Yelp. Lexus could do a better job of putting these different apps into a uniform interface, as a driver doesn't really need to differentiate between apps powered by satellite and ones that get data over a connected smartphone.

Of the Enform apps, I found Yelp the most useful. The navigation system's own stored database of restaurants and other points of interest came up short on a couple of occasions. Yelp does a very good job of noting when a restaurant or other listing has closed, and it provides much more information about each listing than the point-of-interest database. Best of all, the system let me input the address of any listing as a destination in the navigation system, directly from its Yelp page.

Enform's Yelp listings include a link to the map location, 

which can be used to set the destination in the navigation system.

Enform also includes Pandora and iHeartRadio, two apps that work as audio sources for the stereo. They complement an already robust set of audio sources that includes a USB port for iPods and thumbdrives, and satellite and HD Radio. I was impressed by how the system analyzed the MP3 tracks on my 8GB thumbdrive, letting me browse by artist and album.

CNET's car came with the standard audio system, using 12 speakers and 5.1 surround processing for very good sound quality. This system is well-balanced, producing distinct sound with good depth. I was pleased with its production of background percussion instruments on some tracks, and vocals came through with a pleasant richness. Better would have been the optional Mark Levinson audio system, which uses an 835-watt amp and 17 Green Edge speakers. Toyota started deploying these premium speakers in cars last year; they're supposed to consume less power than speakers of equivalent quality.

The stereo gets some competition from the engine, which makes a delightfully loud purr with the gas pedal floored. The 3.5-liter V-6 in the GS 350 is the same as what Lexus put in the IS 350, and uses an interesting mix of port and direct injection. At low speeds, the engine uses its port-injection system, less efficient but quieter, while at higher acceleration it switches to the direct injectors, delivering more power. The extra noise of the direct injection gets swamped by the overall road noise at higher speed. Or so the thinking goes.

Other automakers are increasingly going to direct-injection engines for the increased efficiency, and dealing well with the extra engine noise. Lexus should lose the complexity of this system and just go to straight direct injection.

This engine produces 306 horsepower and 277 pound-feet of torque, generally satisfactory but at times not enough to get the nearly 2-ton GS 350 out of its own way. CNET's car came with all-wheel drive, an option that adds about $3,000 to the total price, and the F Sport package, which brings in an extensive amount of performance gear, including an adaptive suspension.

A large dial on the console changes the drive modes between Eco, Normal, Sport, and Sport Plus. In Eco mode, the accelerator is detuned, a helper designed to force slower starts, and therefore better fuel economy. The EPA estimates put the GS 350 at 19 mpg city and 26 mpg highway, but I rarely saw the average fuel economy rise above 20 mpg. After a week of driving, its average came out to 19.4 mpg. A couple of extra gears in the transmission should raise the average.

The dial behind the shifter lets you choose from Eco, Normal, Sport, and Sport Plus modes.

The Sport and Sport Plus settings are new features for Lexus, and not as aggressive as similarly labeled settings in competitors' cars. Put the GS 350 in Sport mode and the six-speed automatic transmission holds its gears longer, and downshifts aggressively in response to braking. Put it into Sport Plus, and the suspension takes on a more rigid character. The GS 350's Sport Plus does not go quite so far as BMW's similar mode, which changes the traction control profile.

Taking advantage of the full Sport Plus setting, I enjoyed the performance of the GS 350. Letting the transmission shift automatically, it held high engine revs as I pounded the gas pedal in the straights, letting the engine sound off with its satisfying growl. Getting into the brakes ahead of a turn, I found the transmission downshifted fast, keeping the revs up so I had power through the corner.

In the turns, the GS 350 gripped well, letting me keep a good amount of speed. The all-wheel drive must have also been doing its job, helping the front wheels claw for some grip to aid the overall handling, but I couldn't really feel the effect. With the rigid suspension setting, the car tried to remain flat, but there was still slight roll, the car's weight being too much for the suspension to hold back. I never really got a feeling of rotation in the turns.

A few other problems with the GS 350's performance made themselves known, suggesting it will never be a real track competitor. Getting close to the limits in the turns, it showed understeer, losing the responsive steering character it had at moderate speeds. And the engine just did not have enough oomph to push it convincingly out of the turns. Clearing an apex with a good straightaway ahead, I slammed the gas, but even with the revs well above 5,000 the engine didn't have the power for a fast exit.

The F Sport package gives the GS 350 custom wheels. 

The high gap between wheel and fender is due to the all-wheel-drive system.

In really tight corners, the car became terribly bound up by its own traction control. The system reacted to a lot of wheel turn by stripping out the power, leaving me with no response on the accelerator. That behavior may also be due to the all-wheel-drive system, as some can bind at steering lock. The all-wheel drive also has the effect of raising the car height half an inch, which will adversely affect handling.

With the dial set for Normal mode while cruising down the freeway, the GS 350 showed all the luxury I would expect from a Lexus. The ride quality is very nice, although prone to oscillation over wavy roads. Unlike typical Lexus power steering, where you can turn the wheel with one finger, the GS 350 feels more responsive and in touch with the road at all times.

To ease long-range driving, CNET's GS 350 came with radar-based adaptive cruise control. Typical for these systems, it let me choose among three following distances. It also brought the car to a complete stop when a vehicle in front of me slowed for a right turn off a highway.

The Lane Keeping Assistant was a nice complement to the adaptive cruise control. When I let the car drift over a lane line, it first beeped, then tugged the wheel to put the car back in its lane. The car also had a blind-spot detection system, lighting up an icon in the side-view mirror when another car was obscured by the GS 350's C pillar.

In sum
Lexus offers some real cutting-edge tech in the 2013 GS 350, from Enform app integration to the driver assistance systems. CNET's car lacked some of these features, such as the head-up display and the Mark Levinson audio system, but I was impressed by what it did have. The new voice command system is also very capable, and the sheer size of the LCD is impressive.

For performance, the GS 350 with the F Sport package sits near the IS F as one of the few Lexus models that can really hold its own in the corners. Fun on a country road, it lacks the power and handling at the limits to be taken seriously on the track. Fuel economy is also well short of impressive.

Tech specs
Model	2013 Lexus GS 350
Trim	AWD
Power train	Direct- and port-injection 3.5-liter V-6, 6-speed automatic transmission
EPA fuel economy	19 mpg city/26 mpg highway
Observed fuel economy	19.4 mpg
Navigation	Optional hard-drive-based, with integrated traffic data
Bluetooth phone support	Standard, with contact list integration
Disc player	MP3-compatible single-CD
MP3 player support	iPod integration
Other digital audio	Pandora, iHeartRadio, Bluetooth audio streaming, USB drive, auxiliary input, satellite radio, HD Radio
Audio system	Standard 12-speaker system, optional Mark Levinson 835-watt 17-speaker system
Driver aids	Adaptive cruise control, lane departure prevention, blind-spot detection, head-up display, rearview camera
Base price	$49,450
Price as tested	$60,824

Read More

2013 Cadillac XTS - Luxury Car

The good: The 2013 Cadillac XTS features a versatile LCD instrument cluster and the new CUE infotainment system, with 3D maps for navigation and a combined music library interface from four USB ports. An adaptive suspension and torque-vectoring all-wheel drive highlight the driveline.

The bad: CUE takes too long to boot up and reacts too slowly to user input. The volume slider on the dashboard is difficult to use.

The bottom line: Strictly a luxury cruiser rather than a sport driver, the 2013 Cadillac XTS insulates you from the outside world while providing the latest in cabin tech.

Cadillacs of old were masters of the road, big luxury vehicles with V-8s and cutting-edge technology, such as the first electric starter and the first automatic climate control system. The 2013 Cadillac XTS retains the idea of a big, luxury vehicle with cutting-edge technology, but bows to modern engine downsizing with a 3.6-liter V-6, the same as used in the CTS model.

As for the XTS's front-wheel-drive platform, which it shares with theBuick LaCrosse, the Eldorado had front-wheel drive long ago. However, the Premium-trim XTS I tested came with a torque-vectoring all-wheel-drive system, available on all but the base XTS trim.

Gauges are so last-century
Where the XTS really departs from tradition is in the cabin. Sitting in the plush driver's seat, I was looking at a blank panel where the speedometer and tachometer should be. When I fired up the engine, a neat little animation had those gauges flying in from the side, taking their rightful places before my eyes.

Yes, the XTS offers a full LCD instrument cluster, something that might bother traditionalists but that offers a lot of advantages. These virtual gauges look like the real thing, and each can host useful information such as navigation or range-to-empty in its center, selectable by the driver with controls on the steering-wheel spokes.

2013 Cadillac XTS restyles luxury (pictures)

The center stack, completely devoid of dials or physical buttons, further defies tradition. Cadillac uses a touch surface for the XTS' climate controls and stereo volume. The former worked well enough in my testing, but I still prefer a dial for volume control. However, drivers will find the volume buttons on the steering-wheel spoke much handier to use, and should never really have to touch the slider.

The XTS' center touch screen, hosting the new Cadillac User Experience (CUE) cabin electronics interface, works in a way that's initially baffling. Looking at the map screen, for instance, there seems no option for zooming or entering destinations. However, as I put my hand near the LCD, buttons for those functions and more suddenly populated the screen. This proximity sensor is cool, but takes a little getting used to.

The Navigation system renders buildings in 3D 

for some cities, including San Francisco.

CUE streamlines entering addresses, letting me enter the entire address string from the onscreen keyboard, where other navigation systems break it up into separate screens for city and street. It also seems that CUE can understand partial addresses, employing fuzzy logic in its searches. The XTS has voice command, which let me say whole address strings. The navigation system's points-of-interest database was limited, lacking listings for some fairly large businesses, such as Fry's Electronics and Beverages & More, although it could find me the nearest Taco Bell.

The maps on the system were excellent, showing 3D-rendered buildings in downtown San Francisco. The system displayed traffic flow and incidents, using this data to dynamically adjust routes around bad traffic. And one feature I particularly like, previously seen on the CTS, is that the navigation system will proactively warn about bad traffic down the road even when it is not under route guidance. The car not only showed route guidance graphics on the main LCD, with lane guidance, but also gave turn-by-turn directions on the instrument cluster and head-up display, while voice prompts included street names.

Underpowered software
A big problem with CUE is how slowly it operates. After you turn on the car, the main LCD shows an application load screen for a number of seconds before showing the main interface. I found this load time frustrating when I wanted to program in a destination right after hopping in the car. When I hit some of the onscreen buttons, there was noticeable lag while waiting for the system to respond.

The audio interface in CUE is every bit as ambitious as the navigation interface. It controls satellite radio, HD Radio, devices plugged into the car's USB ports, and the CD player. That last piece of equipment, a standalone unit in the glove box, seems like an afterthought in the XTS, old media just about obsolete. When using the XTS' stereo, I gravitated toward the USB ports, plugging a thumbdrive into one and my iPhone into another.

The XTS' audio system supports voice commands, 

so you can ask for music by name.

Instead of making me choose either of these USB sources, the CUE interface shows a common music library drawn from each, a particularly cool feature. In the Album category, for instance, CUE showed all the available music from each source in one list. Even better, its voice command let me select music by album, artist, track, or genre without me having to specify the source.

The stereo also supports Bluetooth audio streaming, and offers Pandora integration. The Pandora interface looked good and was fully functional, letting me select any one of my customized stations and give songs a thumbs-up or thumbs-down. Oddly, Cadillac puts the Pandora icon off in a different menu than the stereo interface.

Music plays through a 14-speaker Bose audio system, which includes 4 small speakers mounted in the shoulders of the front seats. The quality of the sound reproduction was excellent, and I was impressed to hear some quieter layers I had never before noticed in a few well-worn tracks. For example, La Roux's "In for the Kill" apparently has a cowbell track, which gets completely trampled by lesser systems. I did feel the bass, though adequate, could have been stronger with this system.

The Pandora interface lets you give songs the thumbs-up or thumbs-down.

CUE has a full-featured Bluetooth phone interface, complete with voice command over a paired phone's contact list. It also offers an interface for the OnStar telematics service, making some services available from icons on the screen. OnStar in the XTS comes with the full suite of services, such as stolen-car recovery and accident response. The XTS gets integration with the OnStar app, making it possible to, for example, remotely unlock the doors.

Keep it smooth
All of these high-end tech features support the XTS' prime mission as a luxury cruiser. Although Cadillac touts the car's adaptive magnetic ride suspension, which sees use in such performance vehicles as the CTS-V, the XTS is not a sports car. That adaptive suspension, which lacks driver-selectable settings, feels tuned for comfort, for soaking up potholes and other bruising bumps in the road, rather than keeping the car flat in a fast corner.

The XTS rides down the road like a mattress full of kittens, and adding to that luxury feel is an electric power-steering unit so boosted that it only takes a single finger to pull the wheel all the way around. The seats feature heating and cooling, although there's no massage feature, as in some other luxury vehicles. The rear seat bench also feels very comfortable, and has its own climate control.

The XTS is definitely more of a luxury cruiser than a premium sports car.

The 3.6-liter V-6 under the hood uses direct injection, helping it produce its peak 304 horsepower. However, torque is only 264 pound-feet, which becomes noticeable when accelerating. When I floored the gas pedal on a freeway entrance, the XTS did not suddenly turn into a rocket, but did make reasonable time up to 60 mph. It was fast enough for easy freeway merging, but not a car I would use to race trains to railroad crossings.

The engine is backed up by a six-speed automatic, a fairly sophisticated transmission but one that has been in use for over five years. From GM's Hydra-Matic series of transmissions, it did its job quietly in support of the XTS' luxury character. Appropriately, there is no sport mode on this transmission, but Cadillac does include a manual mode, with paddle shifters for convenience. This manual mode is best used for engine braking down a hill rather than by wannabe Nascar drivers.

The engine and transmission combination leads to an EPA fuel economy rating of 17 mpg city and 26 mpg highway for this all-wheel-drive-equipped car. A few more gears in the transmission might get it higher. In my testing, which involved a lot more city driving than usual, the XTS only turned in 16.5 mpg, incessant red lights and heavy traffic taking their toll.

In that traffic, I would have preferred the XTS to drive itself, which it can almost do. Radar, sensors, and cameras give it a good set of driver assistance features, from collision warning to blind-spot monitoring. However, the XTS has a very unique way of alerting drivers to potential problems. It actually patted me on the butt with some actuators in the driver seat.

For example, if its forward radar thought I was about to ram the car in front, I got a nice, full pat on the rear. If I crossed a lane line without signaling and the car believed I had drifted over, it patted me on the side I had drifted on. I know many people will find this behavior way too intrusive, but I found it very effective. Other cars I have tested might warn about lane drift by slightly shivering the steering wheel or sounding a tone, both of which are easy to miss.

There was no missing the XTS' pats, and it was easy to get used to them. If I found myself really craving a massage feature on the seats, then driving recklessly might just make this warning feature an adequate substitute.

With its excellent noise insulation, the XTS proved a comfortable car to cruise around city streets or road trip down the highway in. Living in a temperate climate, I could easily pass on the all-wheel-drive option, but those in northern areas might feel more comfortable with front and back tires digging in. Engine power is adequate and fuel economy, at least in the EPA tests, rates very well for a big, luxury-class sedan.

There is a possible discrepancy in how the CUE system and LCD instrument cluster seem more likely to appeal to a younger demographic, while the comfortable cruiser nature of the car should attract an older set. That said, the 2013 Cadillac XTS features some pretty advanced tech in the cabin, while the driveline tech is at least ahead of the curve.

Tech specs
Model	2013 Cadillac XTS
Trim	Premium
Power train	Direct-injection 3.6-liter V-6, 6-speed automatic transmission
EPA fuel economy	17 mpg city/26 mpg highway
Observed fuel economy	16.5 mpg
Navigation	Standard flash memory-based with traffic
Bluetooth phone support	Standard, with contact list integration
Digital audio sources	Pandora, Bluetooth streaming, iPod integration, USB drive, satellite radio, HD Radio
Audio system	Bose 14-speaker system
Driver aids	Collision warning, adaptive cruise control, HUD, blind-spot detection, lane departure warning, rearview camera
Base price	$56,370
Price as tested	$57,725

Read More

2012 Audi A7 - Luxury Car

The good: The 2012 Audi A7 boasts a Google Earth-based navigation system and many connected features, such as Google local search, gas prices, and Wikipedia landmark entries. Quattro all-wheel-drive torque vectoring combines with the braking system for excellent cornering.

The bad: The A7's sport suspension can feel harsh at times. Bluetooth audio streaming is not available.

The bottom line: An extraordinary tech powerhouse, the 2012 Audi A7 combines luxurious driving with sport capabilities and an impressive navigation system.

As Audi neatly fills in the odd numbers of its passenger car model A designations, it pushes the technology to new heights. The all-new 2012 Audi A7, which slots in between the A6 and A8, is the latest Audi tech tour de force. And this car carries such impressive technology that it sets the bar for other automakers to reach.

It comes with the best navigation system available among current cars, using Google satellite maps to show the position of the car on a photographic landscape. The A7 is the most connected car around, integrating Google local search with the navigation system, and even listing nearby landmarks with descriptions downloaded from Wikipedia.

2012 Audi A7 3.0 TFSI quattro (pictures)

In style, the A7 follows the form of the Porsche Panamera and Aston Martin Rapide, with a four-door sedanlike passenger compartment and a hatchback cargo area. However, Audi managed to keep the car's looks tame enough not to inspire the same sort of negative reaction stirred up by the Panamera. The A7's fastback design does not look bulky or awkward.

At first glance, the cargo area under the hatchback doesn't seem to take advantage of all the space afforded by the design. But Audi gave the A7 removable rear deck panels that change the cargo space from a traditional trunk to a wide-open hatchback. It is a surprising bit of practicality in a big, luxury sedan.

The motorized rear hatch opens wide for easier loading and access than a standard trunk.

The front of the A7 uses the more three-dimensional grille design first seen on last year's new A8. The LED parking lights under the headlights have an evil-looking hook at the end, and the turn signals mimic the look and line of those parking lights, only in yellow.

Similar to on the Audi TT and R8, an automatic rear spoiler rises out of the hatchback as the A7 gains speed. And in a new feature for Audi, the cabin's main LCD motors down and into a dashboard slot when the car powers down. You can also make the LCD disappear at the push of a button.

No better navigation to be found
But with gorgeous Google satellite imagery in place of artificial maps, why would you want to hide the LCD? The navigation system shows essentially the same imagery that you'd see in a Web browser with Google Earth, but it also shows the car moving through the photographic landscape. Audi overlays road graphics with street names, traffic flow and incident information, and a blue route line when the car has a destination programmed.

The A7 ushers in a new era in navigation with these Google maps

The car uses its own dedicated data pipe, through T-Mobile, to load the maps. It initially loads maps in a 25-mile radius around itself. When it moves beyond that range it downloads more imagery, but if there is no cell phone signal, it merely shows a blurry background image.

The navigation system maintains a set of locally stored maps, with all the topographic detail and 3D rendered buildings of other Audi models' navigation, useful for people who don't care for the satellite look or who don't want to use a phone's data plan. Switching between maps is as easy as changing the map view from 2D to perspective. But it would be nice if the navigation system automatically switched back to its locally stored maps when the data connection fails.

Audi uses the same data connection for another set of services: traffic, weather, gas prices, news, and an entry labeled Travel Information. That last category finds a set of landmarks near the car or another location, sorting them by distance. Each entry includes photographs and descriptive text culled from Wikipedia. As these entries are downloaded from the Internet, it can take a little time for the list populate. To prevent distracted driving, the list of landmarks blanks out when the car is moving.

The A7 is also able to share its connection to the Internet with up to eight wireless devices when its Wi-Fi hot-spot feature is activated. The 3G pipe doesn't offer those devices the fastest connection to the Web -- streaming eight simultaneous YouTube videos seems out of the question -- but it's certainly good enough to allow backseat passengers to tweet, check Facebook, and check e-mail to their hearts' content.

As in the A8, Audi includes its new Multimedia Interface (MMI) controller, which supplements the dial and surrounding buttons with a touch pad. Drivers can trace with a fingertip on the touch pad to input letters and numbers, as when entering search terms and street addresses. This touch pad works extremely well, translating the sloppiest handwriting accurately. And the interface is easy to use while driving, without having to look down at the touch pad or even at the LCD thanks to audible feedback of each input character.

The touch pad allows users to quickly input by drawing letters with a fingertip.

Audi added new capabilities to the voice command system in the A7 as well. As before, drivers can place calls by saying the name of anyone in a paired phone's contact list. But voice command also works with Google local search. You need merely say "online destinations" followed by search terms, such as "Chicago pizza," and a list of relevant location results will download, showing up on the LCD. Audi also implemented vocal music requests by album or artist name for songs stored on the car's hard drive.

Along with hard-drive storage for music, Audi includes its proprietary interface, a port to which you can attach cables for iPod, USB, Mini-USB, and auxiliary jack. This port resides in the console in a spot easily reachable by the driver. Audi also persists in including SD card slots as a music source in the car, a little overkill considering all the other audio sources. But Audi has not jumped on the Bluetooth streaming bandwagon yet, so a wireless connection for MP3 players is still not an option.

The base Bose audio system boasts impressive specs, such as 14 speakers and a 600-watt amp. In any other car that would be the premium system, but buyers have the option to kick it up a notch with an audiophile-quality Bang & Olufsen system. The car delivered to CNET only had the Bose system, which delivered better quality sound than most, yet it did not make the listening experience as sublime as it could have been with the Bang & Olufsen system. The Bose system adequately filled the cabin and delivered good audio separation, but the bass never felt punchy, and the highs never reached ear-elevating glory.

The A7 is available with one of three audio systems,

 including a premium Bose system and an uber-premium Bang & Olufsen rig.

CNET's review car also lacked the night vision and head-up display options, new driver assistance features for Audi. In a separate demonstration, the head-up display looked very good, using full color to show digital speed, route guidance, and other information.

This A7 came with blind-spot detection as part of the Audi Side Assist package, which includes power folding mirrors. The blind-spot detection worked very well, lighting up a row of LEDs in the side mirrors when cars were in the A7's blind spot. And, of course, the A7 had Audi's excellent backup camera, which displays trajectory lines that show where the car will go depending on how the wheels are turned.

Supercharged engine
Although the flagship A8 has a V-8 engine, Audi, in its quest for fuel efficiency, fitted the A7 with a V-6. But instead of merely cutting out a couple of cylinders, Audi fits this direct-injection 3-liter V-6 with a supercharger, pumping it up to 310 horsepower and 325 pound-feet of torque. The same engine used in the new Audi S4, it gets the A7 to 60 mph in a respectable 5.4 seconds.

The 3.0-liter V-6 sits at the heart of the A7, delivering 310 supercharged horsepower.

Along with direct injection, Audi throws in an eight-speed automatic transmission and electric power steering to boost fuel economy. The result is 18 mpg city and 28 mpg highway in EPA testing; not bad, especially given the size of the A7. In testing over freeways, mountain roads, and city traffic, CNET's A7 showed an average of 17.5 mpg, below the EPA range, and probably due to overuse of the thirsty supercharger.

The car performs very differently depending on its settings. Audi makes its Drive Select system standard on the A7, which lets the driver tune the steering and engine response for sport or comfort. Likewise, the eight-speed transmission has Sport and Manual shift modes.

Set everything to Comfort, and the car trundles smoothly forward, with a detuned throttle making for leisurely input and the transmission reaching for its highest gears. The steering feels pleasantly powered, making for easy turning even if the car is stopped. However, as CNET's A7 had the optional sport suspension (which comes bundled with larger 20-inch wheels with summer performance tires), the ride quality became harsh when driving over rough pavement. Adaptive suspension technology is not available on the A7.

With the car set to Dynamic and the transmission in Sport mode, the A7 takes on a subtly different character. It doesn't suddenly become a growling, tense sports car. Instead, the throttle becomes more enjoyable and the steering tightens up. The transmission is more prone to holding low gears, letting the engine speed rise.

The A7's character can be adjusted and customized via the Drive Select system.

The car's full acceleration becomes available, and it slips through corners as if that were its career. Given the size of the A7, it seems like it should get out of sorts when thrown into a corner at speed. But the sport-tuned suspension does a good job of keeping it grounded, while Audi's Quattro all-wheel-drive, standard on the A7, contributes to the handling.

The A7's Quattro comes standard with a torque-vectoring rear differential, and Audi combines that capability with the braking system. In a corner, the A7 lightly touches the brakes on the inside wheels. The result of all this technology is that the car rotates neatly at corner apexes, with a palpable sense of its rear shuffling out to point the front of the car in the right direction.

Like many sport luxury cars, the A7 lessens power assist for its steering system as speed increases, to enhance road-feel. But Audi leans toward a luxury feel, even when the car is in its Dynamic setting. As such, the steering always feels a little too easy, lacking serious engagement.

In sum
With its Google Earth navigation system, connected features, Bang & Olufsen audio system, and array of driver assistance features, the 2012 Audi A7 earns a perfect score for cabin tech, raising the bar for future cars. The lack of Bluetooth audio streaming is a small drawback for the stereo, although some will miss that more than others.

The performance tech also achieves an outstanding rating. The engine and transmission are as cutting-edge as they come, short of electrification. Audi chose not to put adaptive suspension technology in the A7. However, Quattro and the braking system make up for it in the corners.

The cabin tech interface is also near-perfect, with the touch pad making it very simple to enter alphanumeric characters and the elliptical onscreen menus being easy to navigate. The car is very good-looking with a unique design, while the hatchback gives the sedan form a practical edge.

Tech specs
Model	2012 Audi A7
Trim	Prestige
Power train	Supercharged direct-injection 3-liter V-6, 8-speed automatic transmission
EPA fuel economy	18 mpg city/28 mpg highway
Observed fuel economy	17.5 mpg
Navigation	Hard-drive-based with traffic and Google integration
Bluetooth phone support	Standard
Disc player	Single MP3-compatible CD player, optional MP3-compatible 6-CD changer
MP3 player support	iPod integration
Other digital audio	Onboard hard drive, USB drive, SD card, HD radio, satellite radio, auxiliary audio input
Audio system	Bose 600-watt, 14-speaker system
Driver aids	Night vision, adaptive cruise control, head-up display, blind-spot detection, rearview camera
Base price	$59,250
Price as tested	$66,080

Read More