2012 Audi A7 3.0T Quattro vs. 2012 Mercedes-Benz CLS550 -...
In its first-class year, the CLS only pulled in about 14,000 U.S. sales, a fraction of the province rung up by the mainstay E-class on which it is based. Still, where one German identify goes sniffing for more volume, others instinctively arise. Volkswagen now has its Passat-based CC ; Audi has launched four-door coupe-y versions of the A4 and A6 called the A5 Sportback (for Europe only) and the new A7 ; and latecomer BMW is arriving for the following act with its own car based on the Concept Gran Coupé showmobile of 2010.
Audi’s procedure is perhaps the riskiest. Defying the notion that a hatchback equals demise in this market, the luxurious A7 rolls four seats, five doors, and 25 cubic feet of wagon-load space into a slant-back fuselage reminiscent of a 1940s streamliner. The dimensions are within a few whiskers of the CLS’s, but compared with the Benz, the A7 swings for the cheaper seats with a $60,125 fundamental principle price. The CLS starts at $72,175. One obvious common sense is the power; Audi fits a supercharged 3.0-liter V-6 with a nowadays bland 310 horsepower—the S4’s engine less 23 ponies—to the CLS’s indomitable twin-turbo V-8.