Audi Q7 2015 Review

The Audi Q7 is already racking up the shock count. The first came when we saw it in a sneak reveal in Inglostadt last November, accompanied by Audi Chairman, Rupert Stadler, and its engineering boss, Ulrich Hackenberg.

Hackenberg acknowledged that it was so conservatively styled that it might look dated early, then promised to break the industry record for a facelift. But wait until you drive it, he insisted.

The second came when Audi previewed the level of technology inside it, which includes up to 31 different electronic safety systems, plus the development of its own matte-screen, shatterproof, portable Android tablet for the rear-seat occupants.

Then came the diet. At its best, the Q7 has dumped 325kg from its predecessor. That’s no misprint: 325kg!

The last shock came this week in Switzerland, when we drove it for the first time. It is, quite simply, an astonishingly good car.

The Q7 is an Audi that rides beautifully. It’s an Audi that decimates the fuel consumption numbers of its predecessors. It’s an Audi that feels neutrally balanced with astonishing body control and almost-disturbingly low noise levels. And it’s an Audi that somehow imbues everybody in it with the same sense of calm composure and serenity it seems to exhibit, whatever the road conditions.

Think of this sneak peek as a taste test for our full launch drive in a week or so...

Audi will bring a pair of six-cylinder engines with the Q7 when it arrives in Australia around September and we managed time in both the 3.0-litre TFSI petrol V6 and the 3.0-litre TDI V6.

The V6 petrol motor still totes a supercharger nestled inside its vee, but its 245kW and 440Nm, coupled with a 1970kg kerb weight, is enough to hustle to 100km/h in 6.1sec and on to a 250km/h top speed. The 200kW/600Nm diesel is only 0.2sec slower, weighing 25kg more, but uses very little fuel for a car this size, registering an NEDC figure of 5.5L/100km (2.2 litres better than the TFSI). For most, that’s going to be fast, and frugal, enough.

The core reason the Q7 is so much better than the (now very) old model it replaces is that its body is far lighter and far more rigid. And its roll centre is 50mm lower. This is all on a car that’s 5.05 metres long, 1.97 metres wide and 1.74 metres high, with a 2.99m wheelbase. It’s a big piece of metal.

About 41 per cent of that metal is aluminium and the core structure is 71kg lighter than it was on the old car. The bits attached to it have been attacked, too, with a full 40kg pulled out of the rear suspension, while the front suspension architecture is 27kg lighter.

Weight savings have been made almost everywhere. All panels are aluminium with the doors alone saving 24kg. Further examples include new seats which cut 19kg. Audi cut 4.2kg out of the wiring (despite asking it to do a lot more) and the Q7's all-aluminium brake pedal cost shaved another kilo.

If all of that seems bordering on the obsessive, it’s a criticism Audi wouldn’t deny. Yet it’s still almost two tonnes (and will be at least that by the time the heavy hitters arrive), so there still little reason to party.

Hacking away that much mass means the engines have an easier life, no matter how hard you drive them. And they’ll use less fuel, no matter how hard you push the throttle.

The mass recduction has also opened the potential of smaller engines. Audi Australia may be tempted by the 2.0-litre TFSI version. The Q7’s version of the much-used EA888 motor delivers 185kW and 270Nm in Q7 form.

There’s also an economy-focused version of the V6 TDI, with its output cut back to 500Nm and 160kW but it uses 5.4L/100km and emits 144g/km of CO2/km. And then there’s the plug-in hybrid…

The Q7's eight-speed automatic transmission is also completely new and 20kg lighter. A lot of this comes from not having a transfer case anymore, with a centre differential integrated into the transmission housing instead.

It is set up to send 60 per cent of the drive to the rear end, though it can fling 70 per cent to the front or 85 per cent to the rear diff in an instant if it needs to.

At the coalface, sophisticated five-link suspension systems lurk at both ends, acting as the core for a handling set-up that includes optional air suspension (as tested), optional four-wheel steering (as tested) and an optional sports suspension set-up atop the conventional fixed-rate dampers and steel springs.

The Q7 gets six-piston, aluminium brake calipers up front, clamping down on 375mm front discs (the eco versions have 350mm), with 350mm discs at the rear. There will be a carbon-ceramic disc set for the faster versions in the near future.

The steering system is electromechanical and Audi Drive Select delivers the usual modes plus Allroad mode and Offroad settings. These feature hill-descent control and the potential of 500mm of wading depth and 245mm of ride height.

All that would just be engineering chat, though, if it didn’t work in reality. But it does. Astonishingly well.

The engines are so fabulously isolated from the cabin that you barely feel a trace of vibration from either of them and you only just hear a touch of coarseness from the diesel at light throttle loads.

It’s so ludicrously quiet that as we cruised at 100km/h, we cursed in disappointment to find wind turbulence from around the bottom of the windscreen. On a gut feel, we turned off the air conditioning and found ourselves suddenly in silence. The 'turbulence' was just the climate control trying to cool the car in a hurry after it had been sitting in the sun for hours.

The entire car is so composed that it never really feels fast. It just accelerates with a smooth, unobtrusive surge, with the transmission easing through its changes so smoothly in its automatic mode you’d swear it wasn’t there. And it deals with corners like it deals with everything else: with the utmost composure.

No mid-corner bump can throw it off line, no tightening radius can upset it, and no camber change can mess with its poise. It handles everything the worst roads can throw at it with utter serenity.

It’s the sort of car that calms you when you’ve had a bad day and maintains your spirits if you’re having a good one. Even without its electrical assistance systems, its core chassis engineering is so comprehensively cohesive that it’s hard to imagine anybody getting into trouble in one of these.

Cars are getting closer to full autonomous with every new model, especially when the Q7’s radar cruise control is connected to its speed limit-recognition system, so you can set it at 110km/h if that’s the speed limit and it will drop down and rise back up to whatever the current limit. And, if you’re not using the cruise control, it will flash and keep flashing the speed limit sign in the HUD if you’re moving at 5km/h beyond the limit.

Not just that, but it hooks in with the pedals to let you work through traffic jams without touching the brakes or the throttle. Or the steering, if you’re travelling slower than 65km/h.

And then there’s the autonomous braking systems that will work coming out of that same nose-first park or when a pedestrian comes out from behind a car or when the car in front of you has suddenly slowed down or any number of other dangerous situations.

It also hooks all of this in to help with reverse parking a trailer, too. The car automatically recognises the length of the trailer and then you just use the multimedia scrolling knob to dial up a maximum angle and away you go.

The car does the rest for you and makes you look good, whether you know how to reverse park a trailer or not. We know. We tried to make it fail and couldn’t. It’s rated to 3.5 tonnes if you call for the air suspension, or 2.7 tonnes on the steel springs.

All of this and it’s a first rate interior as well, combining elements from the prologue concept car’s wide, wide looking dashboard and vents, elements from the full TFT screen dashboard of the TT and the R8 and some unique bits of its own.

The instrument cluster is a 12.3-inch TFT screen that is fully adjustable to suit your preferred information hierarchy, and there’s an optional 8.3-inch monitor (7.0 is standard) that rises and drops in the middle of the dash.

The graphics for the dash-mounted monitor is by a Tegra 30 processor that’s capable of eight billion calculations a second, so that’s about 70 billion by the time you’ve finished this sentence. And there’s another one in charge of the instrument cluster graphics.

Fortunately, its lines have far more crispness inside than out, and the LED lights in the doors aren’t just there for the mood lighting. If you open the door when there’s a car or bike looming up to take it off, it will flash red at you to tell you to stay put.

Audi and a supplier has even developed its own Android tablets to fit into the seat brackets on the back of the front seats. They are matte finished to ward off reflections, touch screen as well and charge whenever they’re locked in. They’re also shatterproof and have been through all of the Volkswagen Group’s crash tests.

The second row of seats has four Isofix fixings and there is a feeling of spaciousness from the slightly stadium seats, along with more of that delicious sophistication and isolation from the road and the powertrain.

Further back, there is a fairly ludicrous 890 litres of luggage space, which booms up to 2075 litres when the second row of seats is flat. Fill up the optional sixth and seventh seats, though, and that is cut back to 295 litres, so you’re down in Golf country. The loading lip itself is 5cm lower than on the old car and the tailgate is electric on all the models.

It all adds up to a package that’s compelling, comprehensive, coherent and warmingly, charmingly brilliant.

People have waited a decade for a new Q7. It’s been worth it.

2015 Audi Q7 pricing and specifications:
On sale: September
Price: TBA
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder supercharged-petrol
Output: 245kW/440Nm
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Fuel: 7.7L/100km
CO2: 179g/km
Safety rating: TBA