Living with an Audi RS7 Performance: see why it’s the ultimate daily driver

This is the Audi RS7 Performance, a run-out special edition of the super-fast four-door with a thumping great V8 engine at the front, space for four in the middle and a big boot at the back.

That’s a recipe for a petrolhead’s dream daily driver, but what’s it actually like to live with? Well our very own Mat Watson was given the keys to an RS7 Performance for six months to find out.

Living with an Audi RS7 Performance – overview

Let’s start by taking a closer look at our car. This is a 2024 Audi RS7 Performance Vorsprung, powered by a 4.0-litre twin-turbocharged V8 engine with 630hp and 850Nm of torque – a bump of 30hp and 50Nm over the standard RS7.

The Performance has also shed some weight compared to the standard RS7 by losing a bit of sound deadening and fitting lighter wheels, resulting in a loss of 10kg. The suspension has been tweaked as well to make it feel more responsive through the bends.

This car is finished in Ascari Blue, which is a matt finish and costs an additional £6,000. We’ve also gone for some extra gloss carbon on the outside and carbon mirror caps, which add a further £650 to the asking price. The 22-inch bronze alloys also cost an additional £250.

This brings the total cost of this RS7 Performance to an eye-watering £142,845, but is it worth this sort of money? Let’s find out.

Living with an Audi RS7 Performance: engine and driving

The main reason you’re going to buy the RS7 Performance over a standard A7 is for the engine and driving experience, and thankfully it doesn’t disappoint on this front. Let’s start with that glorious V8.

We’ve featured this car in many Carwow drag races over the last few months, and it’s put in a very impressive performance every time – even shaming some supercars. The Quattro all-wheel drive system just slingshots it off the line perfectly every time, and it feels every bit as fast as the 3.3-second 0-60mph time suggests.

It’s a right laugh on a country road as well thanks to the super responsive steering. The Performance gets rear-wheel steering as standard which helps improve the agility, and the rear differential can send power to the wheel with the most grip so it feels properly planted in all weather conditions.

What really impresses though is the comfort. This car can switch from being a B-road-blasting sports car to a super-comfy cruiser at the push of a button. It glides over bumps, the interior is quiet at speed – despite the removal of some sound proofing to save weight – and the seats are really supportive over a long drive. It really is a jack of all trades.

Living with an Audi RS7 Performance: interior and practicality

As soon as you step inside the new Audi RS7 Performance it feels special, as it should for this sort of money. It’s really nicely screwed together, all the materials feel suitably posh and the design is neat and tidy – although it’s not quite as exciting as a Mercedes-AMG GT Four-Door’s cabin.

The Performance gets an Alcantara steering wheel which adds to the sporty vibe, and the RS sports seats look great and they hug you in all the right places. It’s a lovely cabin, and it’s practical, too.

Space the rear seats in generous, with enough headroom for tall adults despite the sloping roofline. It’s easy to fit a child seat thanks to the easy-reach ISOFIX anchor points, and you also get anchor points on the front seats.

The boot is massive, however it’s still not as usable as an RS6 Avant’s thanks to the sloping tailgate. It makes the boot quite shallow at certain points which limits what you can fit in there, and dog owners will definitely be better off with the RS6 Avant for its square boot.

Living with an Audi RS7 Performance: what’s not so good?

The RS7 Performance is shaping up to be the perfect daily driver, however not everything’s perfect. Here are a couple of things which have annoyed Mat over the past few months.

The first thing is the climate control, which is operated using a second screen below the infotainment system. There are quite a lot of buttons on this screen which are a bit fiddly to operate while you’re driving, and if you want to adjust certain things you have to go up into the main infotainment display to change them. Some physical buttons would be nice.

Another annoying thing is that alcantara trim. It looks and feels great, however it does show marks more than leather would. We’ve picked up a few stains over the past few months from greasy palms.

On the subject of trim, the gloss black plastic on the centre console has been a nightmare to maintain. It shows loads of fingerprints, it goes streaky when you wipe it over with a cleaning product and it’s picked up a few annoying scratches as well.

Living with an Audi RS7 Performance: the verdict

Those few little niggles aside, the Audi RS7 Performance has been a fantastic car to run every day. It can do everything, whether that’s taking the kids to nursery, blasting down a drag strip or having fun on a country road.

It’s not even that thirsty for a car like this. We’ve been averaging around 22mpg during our time with it, however that number will have been skewed slightly by the amount of drag racing we’ve done. It’s possible to see over 30mpg on a long run, which is seriously impressive for a V8 four-door.

Obviously at nearly £143,000 the Audi RS7 Performance will be out of a lot of people’s budgets. However if you happen to be one of the lucky few who can afford one, there are few daily drivers which are this desirable to the car enthusiast.

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