Audi Q7 2006 Review

What we liked
>> Unbreakable build quality
>> Feels and looks smaller than it is
>> Subtle but sensible technology

OVERVIEW
Audi bravely suggests that its belated entry into the now-peaked and apparently waning executive SUV market is actually the first Generation Three SUV, leapfrogging its own all-paw Allroad station-wagon, BMW's X5 and the Mercedes ML Class -- not to mention various English and Asian pretenders.

According to Audi, Generation One SUVs were the ladder-chassis off-roads which offered marginal on-road ability and almost zero comfort; Gen Two went too far the other way, offering on-road ability and comfort, but at the expense of off-road capability, as SUVs increasingly became suburban status symbols.

It is claimed the all-new Q7 redresses that imbalance and combines on and off-road prowess in equal proportions -- hence the Gen Three tag.

Being part of the Volkswagen group, it's no wonder that Q7 gets at least some of its basic genetics from VW -- in fact, it's anything up to 15 per cent commonality with the chunkier Touareg, but the Audi DNA is far more obvious.

Yet Audi still struggle with clear and simple nomenclature -- its A-cars are Audi's backbone, rising from 3, 4 and 6 to 8; S are the sporting versions, while RS (RenSport) are more so. The eggy TT coupe and the AllRoad are anomalies and the Q7 comes along with Q for Quattro and 7 for seven seats, even though the extra two seats are an extra-cost option. It was let slip that 5 is reserved for the new coupe, due later this year...

Audi Australia will get 650 Q7s in 2006, virtually all of them pre-sold sight-unseen and up-specced by eager buyers, and adding up to $25k to the basic price. This constitutes just over one per cent of the global up-take of Q7s this year. For 2007, 1300 units will flow our way from the factory in Bratislava in Slovakia.

FEATURES
The list of standard equipment on the Q7 is impressive, but the list of options is dazzling. If $85,700 sounds a lot for the basic 3.0 litre turbodiesel model, which Audi Australia expect will make up 70 per cent of orders, consider that it comes with a six-speed auto transmission, eight airbags, speed-dependant steering, 18" alloy wheels, trip-computer, and pages of nice-to-have stuff.

Something that is standard on Q7 and should be on every car bigger than a Barina, is a reversing camera that commandeers the 7" in-dash screen with a clear colour image of what's behind the car, predicts where it will go according to current steering position -- and warns if small objects are nearby. The system even deemed a two-strand wire fence as beep-worthy.

Optional on the diesel and standard on the 4.2-litre V8 petrol-powered range-topper are steering-sensitive swivelling Xenon headlamps, an electric tailgate, satellite navigation and  computer-controlled air-suspension -- itself a feature with multitudes of features and benefits but which allows varying ride heights across a meaningful range, combined with a very plush ride no matter what's happening outside.

Tick the right boxes and you get ACC -- Adaptive Cruise Control, that reads the speeds of vehicles ahead, and progressively backs off the speed to maintain a safe following distance, a tyre-pressure monitor -- and soon, Side Assist -- a blind-spot eliminating extra eye on each side of the car. There are literally dozens of options and alternatives.

But of all the options, probably the most likely to start heated discussion is the seating layout. The Q7 comes, quixotically, with five seats, adding one more will cost an extra $3250, but adding  two extra seats will cost only $1700 -- although in seven-seat guise, the safety of a full-sized spare wheel is foregone, in favour of a controversial space-saver.
For added bling, there are various alloy wheel patterns available in 18", 19" or even 20" sizes.

Audi's Multi-Media Interface (MMI) combines myriad secondary controls into one knob and a handful of supplementary buttons. Sound system, satellite navigation, vehicle settings and options like the air suspension are all accessed through the intuitive MMI, which leaves BMW's awkward I-Drive for dust.

The front two rows of seats are superb -- of a standard that Business Class aircraft passengers would die for, but due to the gear packed into the vehicles on the trans-continental launch, it wasn't possible to test-sit the third row for any length of time -- that will have to wait for a local evaluation, but initial indications are, unsurprisingly, that they're predominantly for people under 10.

Irrespective of the age of the passengers in Steerage, the Q7 retains a decent luggage space when they're aboard -- and if they're not, the third and even the second row fold down to a flat floor which turns the load space from generous to cavernous.

Options like a vast sunroof, double-glazing, heated seats and practicalities like load mats all add to make the Q7 exactly what you want it to be. 

SAFETY
Both active and passive safety are high priorities at Audi, starting with their iconic and much-envied Quattro system which offers uncanny grip, assisted by a multi-faceted electronic system and culminating in those eight airbags.

Then there's the kind of beneath-the-skin safety levels that come from crash-testing no less than 92 prototypes to meet all present and foreseeable safety requirements in Europe, USA, Japan and Australia.

Active safety is looked after by a quicker-than-thought Electronic Stability Programme (ESP) which ties in with ABS brakes -- which have panic brake assist and brake prefill functions, electronic brake-force distribution (EBD), hydraulic brake assist, the traction control (ASR) Roll-stability programme and electronic diff-lock (EDL). As if that weren't enough, the ESP is semi-switchable -- you can't cancel it, but in off-road mode, it will just squeeze the brakes and allow you stay on the throttle, rather than backing off the power as it does in on-road mode.

As to having a row of seats normally occupied by children at the very rear of the car, in the so-called crumple-zone, Dutch-born Audi engineer Frank van Meel pointed out that clever designs in roof, tailgate and rear panels made the back of the Q7 immensely robust -- tough enough to withstand a partial offset rear impact at 80km/h.

The diesel brings 171kW and a continent-moving 500Nm to the party, the V8 packs in 257kW and 440Nm, while the upcoming V6 will deliver 206kW and 360Nm. Top speeds are claimed at 210, 248 and 230 km/h respectively and all variants meet Euro IV emissions requirements.

Claimed fuel consumption is 10.5, 13.6 and 12.7 litres per 100km; each Q7 can take on 100 litres of fuel, giving a generous range no matter what fuel is used.

Make no error -- this is a big car, but thanks to its station-wagon looks, you don't notice that it's a LandCruiser-ish 5.1-metres long, nearly two metres wide and 1.73 metres high.

Wheelbase is a generous three metres and sitting at the kerb, the basic Q7 weighs 2295 kg. Packed with passengers and their gear, it can reach three tonnes -- despite careful use of aluminium in the bonnet, tailgate and key suspension components.

The Q7's quattro all-wheel drive system is split 40/60 front to rear to give a slightly rear-drive feel to all-wheel drive, aided by a 50/50 weight distribution. The wide spread of gear-ratios in the six-speed Tiptronic auto gearbox, seemingly bottomless torque and non-linear throttle make trickling the vehicle easy -- and diff-locks redundant; instead, the Q7 uses a mechanical Torsen centre differential which locks up instantly.

There are more than 90 ECUs on the Q7; just three wires join the major electrical components in a CanBus system.

COMPETITORS
Q7 was unashamedly benchmarked against the X5, and Audi are confident they are comfortably ahead of both the existing and forthcoming seven-seater BMW.

Aside from its obvious Teutonic rivals, probably the nearest to the Q7 in looks is Volvo's wagon-on-steroids, the XC90, which is cheaper, offers seven seats and the option of a diesel, but can't begin to match the Audi in the rough stuff.

Audi doesn't consider either Lexus or Land Rover as true rivals; Lexus has the look but not the ability and while Land Rover might be able to match the Audi point for point, sadly, it can't do so in only one vehicle.

The Honda MDX undercuts the Audi in price, space and ability, while the Porsche Cayenne may match the pace but is expensive by comparison; ironically, the Q7's sibling, the VW Touareg may be its closest opposition.

With the blistering Cayenne Turbo and hi-powered AMG Mercedes M-Class already at the very top of the SUV tree, and a new BMW X5 due out later this year, there's no doubt that Audi will soon be looking  for a hero-model in the Q7 range. It's no secret that the S8's 331kW 5.2 litre V10 is being readied for a new life of grime. What chance a Bentley-powered Q7?

Fitted with more aggressive tyres, a CB radio and toting extra gear such as 15 litres of water, an additional spare wheel and camping equipment, fifteen Q7s took to the roads of the Outback with aplomb. They performed faultlessly, despite being provoked and run long and hard, on both bitumen and dirt.

Words like poised, balanced, instantly responsive, great feedback, serenity, calm, unflustered, rattle-free, dust-proof, spacious, involving and ergonomic are all descriptions which might be applied to any of the Q7's rivals, but few of the others could lay claim to all of these compliments as completely as does the Q7.

Both V8 and turbodiesel are ideally matched by the six-cog Tiptronic box and whether left to its own devices, or rowed up and down with the steering wheel paddles, the drivetrain was never found wanting.

Underbody protection extends under the nose and front axle, with more rearward features tucked up and hopefully out of harm's way.

With deflated tyres, the Q7s made easy work of Big Red, a 40m dune outside Birdsville -- much to the dismay of some hardened traditional 4WD drivers who had got their Patrol over one way but couldn't get back and had to find another way around the dune.

If anything, the Q7 could be accused of making rough roads appear less than challenging, potentially leading to over-confidence in weekend warriors.

The finesse is in the detail -- little things like the way the fog-lights in the rear bumper-bar come on when the tail-gate's opened, taking the tail-lights with it, and the fact that the extent that electric tailgate opens can be set, to accommodate shorter users or a low-roofed garage.

Yet there's one detail that irked -- distracting reflections of the polished air-vent surrounds in the side windows. "Black surrounds are available," I was assured.

Finally, Audi's familial one-frame grille, never the most appealing corporate "face", takes on the dimensions of the gaping maw of a whale-shark on a vehicle the size of the Q7. It's plain buggly and spoils an otherwise graceful car which hides its bulk in clever sheetmetal design.
We're inclined to ponder whether the designer of this particular feature was being paid by Audi's rivals...