Q here for coupe-SUVs
Audi’s new SUV-cum-coupe makes a lot of sense as a premium passenger vehicle, writes Richard Bosselman.
Remember the BMW X6 and remember how, when it showed up 10 years ago, we scornfully predicted a coupe-styled sports utility would fail miserably?
Remember, erm, how wrong we were?
Having seen Munich’s weirdo run into a second generation (with a third due next year) and claim 500,000 global sales, Audi has followed Mercedes-Benz in creating a foil.
Ingolstadt’s offer isn’t quite the same as an X6 and Benz GLE coupe in that it scores positively by avoiding the full hunch-backed coupe look.
It’s also not as niche. Luxury SUVs are hot. With Q8, Audi New Zealand won’t be surprised for its crossover volume snaring 60 per cent of total brand sales. And, even though it doesn’t really want that penetration to increase, chances are that with other crossovers coming, it will.
Make me an instant expert: What do I need to know?
Calling the Q8 a five-seater coupe version of the Q7 is technically accurate, yet it doesn’t really paint the full picture.
This is a less practical, more affluent-looking five-chair alternative, loaded with gizmoes and wrapped up in a fantastic design. The numerical designation shows it’s on the top rung, yet home office determination to keep the A8 as the ultimate technology leader means Q8 is less fulsomely equipped than the large limo.
Not too different from the concept presented to the world just 18 months ago, at 4.9 metres long, with a 2.9m wheelbase, and just 5mm short of being 2m wide, it’s a big sucker. Alongside Q7, it is a bit lower and 66mm shorter and 27mm wider. The smallest wheels are large 20-inchers with 21s and 22s as $4000 plus options. Overall, it’s exuding real presence.
Audi loves linking its new product back to the eponymous Ur Quattro coupe of the 1980s that put this brand on the world map through rallying. Blistered wheel arches, some character lines and the red-fringed black element that links the rear lights are ties to the legend.
It’s not all looking back. That bold front is a first look at the new Q car face.
Though not the absolute technology flagbearer, Q8 nonetheless delivers a crossover/ SUV illumination feature first, with full-laser headlamps and taillamps. The interior features the superb knob-less MMI system from the A8. The active and passive safety fare is fulsome yet autonomous features are less advanced than the A8.
Where did you drive it?
From the Auckland dealership to and from Bracu Estate, in the Bombay Hills, where some modest off-roading exercises were conducted. A quick-fire taster, then, side-stepping real opportunity to test the model’s primary mission of delivering more handling poise and driver involvement than the more familytailored Q7 is expected to impart.
First impression is that, when taking it easy, it’s as smooth, comfortable and easy-going as its sibling. The sense of it being a high-quality experience is enhanced by the effort that has gone into ensuring mechanical, road and wind noise is very well suppressed. The frameless doors – another Audi SUV first – do not degrade at all, as they pull themselves electrically shut to basically achieve a hermetic seal.
A height-adjustable, sportstuned adaptive air suspension is standard and the various on-seal modes are tangibly different. Comfort makes for cushioned ride isolation and low-effort inputs; in this setting, too, you meet the Q8 at its most refined. It is very demure on the motorway.
The alter-ego Dynamic increases steering weight and brings much more tautness to the suspension, enough to transmit coarse chip textures, so beware the potential discomfort on more impure surfaces. Even so, this setting will doubtless become a default for keen drivers.
In addition to proper centre diffbased, torque-vectoring quattro four-wheel drive, there’s fourwheel steering, which in addition to lifting the on-road deftness also enhances the car’s sure-footedness off-road and lends an A3-equalling turning circle.
The active anti-roll bars that go to the SQ7 are omitted, brand argument being that these are rendered unnecessary by Q8’s lower centre of mass and wider tracks. Fair enough, it does have abundant lateral grip and decent mid-corner stability. Yet it would surprise if other editions don’t pick up this feature.
What’s the pick of the range?
That’s easy answered. For the next 12 months this 3.0-litre V6 diesel, badged ‘‘50 TDI’’, is the sole choice.
The engine is integrated with a 48-volt electrical architecture, an extra-large lithium ion battery and an extra-powerful engine startergenerator alternator (the combination of which now constitutes ‘‘mild hybrid’’ powertrain status in Audi-speak). It works at speeds between 55-160kmh, switching off the engine for up to 40 seconds. It’s a schmoozy and solid performer, yet obviously more about torque than power, so those seeking hard-out performance might prefer to await next year’s 250kW turbocharged 3.0-litre V6 petrol ‘‘55 TFSI’’ or the RS Q8 that’s been seen pounding the Nurburgring.
Why would I buy it?
Cos it’s the best-looking large Audi SUV yet, not just at the kerb but also inside, where A8-level upmarket cabin materials and an expensive-looking dashboard lend a fully premium impression.
It is also the most sophisticated Q-car, mainly through having adopted the Virtual Cockpit and split-level MMI Touch infotainment consoles. As well as being brilliant to use, this feature also ensures exclusivity because, while set to spread into next year’s A6 and A7, it won’t reach any other Q model for a while yet.
Even though it’s clearly not as practical as the Q7, it is still more user-friendly than the cited rivals.
For sure, the extra ‘‘tumblehome’’ on those side windows and the lower roofline above your head makes it feel less airy than a regular SUV wagon, yet by not succumbing to the temptation to give it a dramatic sloping roofline the rear-chair passenger space isn’t nearly as constrained here as in a certain other style-conscious SUV rival.
The boot is a decent size – partly because there’s no spare.
Why wouldn’t I buy it?
Cos it costs more than the equivalent Q7 and, this time next year, it risks being overshadowed as the ultimate Audi SUV sophisticate by the E-tron, which though smaller, looks just as sharp and, of course, with its all-electric motivation might rate higher for uber-cool.