Don’t expect Audi A7 Sportback running costs to be particularly wallet-friendly. It’s not going to be cheap: insurance costs will be dear, servicing costs will be high and consumables such as tyres will be expensive. However, there is some good news because, compared with the rivals from Merc and BMW, the A7 Sportback will save you money on fuel. The introduction of stop/start has clearly helped so average fuel economy for the 3.0-litre TFSI is 34.4mpg (the CLS and the 5-Series GT is around 31mpg), the 2.8-litre returns 36.2mpg and the 3.0-litre TDI quattro returns an impressive 47.1mpg on average, which also trumps the Merc diesel (37.2mpg) and the 5-Series (43.5mpg).

Audi A7 Sportback emissions aren’t going to save many pandas, though emissions of 135g/km from the 201bhp 3.0 V6 diesel are pretty good. It also returns 55.4mpg.

We’d expect you won’t have an issue with Audi A7 Sportback reliability. Audi has never had a reputation for poor build quality and we can’t see that changing overnight. The A7 looks pretty bulletproof and if the quality of the materials is anything to go by you won’t be booking it into an Audi dealership for anything other than servicing for many years to come.