GERMAN EXCELLENCE
David Thomson takes the new Audi SUV for a spin and discovers that, although late to the party, the Q8 is up there with the very best of its rivals.
LARGE coupelike SUVs have been around for some time now, BMW having started down this path with the X6 back in 2008, and MercedesBenz chipping in from 2015 with the GLE Coupe. Where BMW and MercedesBenz go, Germany’s third luxury marque, Audi, is pretty much obliged to follow, which is why the latest edition of the more conventional Q7 luxury SUV now has a stylish coupe sibling, the Q8.
Although using the same underlying platform as the Q7, the Q8 can claim structural kinship with the new Bentley Bentagya, Lamborghini Urus and the latest iteration of the Porsche Cayenne; yes, SUVs have become truly ubiquitous, even at the ultrapremium highperformance end of the newcar market.
At the same time, the Q8 is very much its own machine, and a significant one for Audi.
It’s the first Audi SUV developed with the company’s new design chief Marc Lichte at the helm. It introduces a new look — of which the prominent octagonal grille flanked by matrix LED headlights is the most obvious feature — that will gradually be adopted by other sports utilities in the Audi range.
Slightly shorter, lower and fractionally wider than the Q7, the Q8 treads a familiar large coupe SUV path in that it sheds some luggage capacity and a third row of seats in favour of style. Yet its proportions and exterior lines, while far sportier than the Q7, are more balanced and conventionally elegant than the exaggerated coupe swoops and swerves of its closest rivals.
The test car gained an extra visual lift, courtesy of the SLine exterior package and special 22inch (rather than the usual 20inch) vspoke alloy wheels.
These two items alone added $19,500 to the usual $149,900 asking price for the only Q8 model available here, the Q8 50 TDI. A further $3850 worth of interior options — heated front and rear seats, quadzone climate control, and special grey oak inlays — lifted the asking price for the test car to $173,250.
The leathertrimmed cabin is beautifully finished, and combines its luxury ambience up front with ample room and supportive, adjustable sports seats.
The dashboard is dominated by digital displays. Two of these — a primary 10.2inch screen mounted on the centre of the dash above a smaller 8.6inch unit — are home base for the vehicle’s multimedia infotainment system. Both are hapticallycontrolled touchscreens, which take a little time to learn, but are brilliant once mastered.
The upper screen provides access to all of the Q8’s MMI features and functions, including the satellite navigation, vehicle settings and telephone connectivity. The lower screen displays the features interacted with most often, such as the air conditioning and the sound system. The other digital displays are a head up unit and Audi’s Virtual Cockpit, in which a customisable 12.3inch widescreen replaces the traditional analogue instrument cluster.
Thanks to the plethora of digital displays and the MMI touchandswipe system, very few conventional knobs and buttons are required. This helps gives the front of the cabin a clean minimalist feel.
At the same time, the various screens are customisable to an impressive degree. Among the advanced display features, the exterior 3D camera allows the driver to toggle around the vehicle when manoeuvring in tight spaces.
The Q8 also features an extensive array of active and passive safety features. These include adaptive radar cruise control, active lane keeping and lane changing assistance, presense collision mitigation systems front and rear, a crosstraffic alert system and autodipping headlights,
A key consideration in any coupestyled SUV is the amount of rear cabin space and luggage room on offer.