IS THE PRICE RIGHT?

Pinning down exactly why the newest addition to the Audi range costs more than many homes is a process of elimination, discovers Neil Lyndon

Neil Lyndon takes the new Audi SQ8 out for a test drive

What makes a car worth £106,640? That sum, which is more than four times the amount of money an entry-level nurse will earn in a year, was the full price for the new Audi SQ8 sports SUV we recently borrowed. It’s roughly equal, if you are curious, to the annual salary of the Lord Privy Seal of Her Majesty’s Government. What makes a car a match for such a big cheese?

Presumably it can’t simply be the red brake calipers, adorned with an ‘S’ logo, that peep out amid the five twin spokes of the SQ8’s gigantic 22” alloy wheels? Cute as those titivations may be, they probably wouldn’t tip the balance on the decision to spend the same amount on this car as would buy a three-bedroom house in Cumbernauld.

Nor, surely, would it be the ‘Super Sports’ seats, so-called, in Audi’s exclusive Valcona leather, trimmed with grey stitching. These accommodations for rear ends may be exceptionally commodious but are they worth the hefty price tag?

For decades, Audi’s interiors have been the car industry’s benchmark for design elegance and ergonomic efficiency; and the SQ8’s is a knockout to rival any in the range. You wouldn’t find anything more beautiful if you bought a Bentley. Crystal clear twin touchscreens control the gizmometry, including climate control. Voice control systems are now commonplace on expensive cars but the SQ8’s goes further than most in trying to be your best friend. It stores and learns your most frequent instructions and listens to the tone of voice in which you deliver them to try to avoid annoying you.

You might want to marry such a sympathetic spirit but would you actually pay this much for the privilege of having it around?

Perhaps we may unlock the mystery of the missing tens of thousands of value if we lift the SQ8’s bonnet.

There, crammed into every millimetre of an engine bay big enough to swallow the Clyde, is the most powerful diesel engine on the European market – a biturbo V8 with 435bhp and 900Nm of torque or pulling power.

Those figures aren’t very different from Formula 1 cars of earlier ages and the SQ8 has performance to match. Acceleration from 0-60mph in 4.5 seconds is exactly the same as an Aston Martin DB9 from only 10 years ago. Top speed in the SQ8 would be well over 200mph if it weren’t limited to 155mph.

Electronically controlled air suspension combines with intelligent anti-roll bars to provide active roll stabilisation and keep all that power on the road. Allwheel steering and Audi’s patent Quattro four-wheel drive system marry up with a sport differential to give the driver a sharp sense of control. With enough power to drive a Dreadnought, you might expect that the driver of this car would feel as sensitively connected to its dynamics in movement as the helmsman on the battleship’s bridge. But no: the SQ8 handles as precisely and sharply as a finely balanced large saloon (for instance, Bentley again).

Even so, you could almost match the performance figures and better the handling experience in a Jaguar XF AWD and save yourself the equivalent of an MSP’s annual salary.

So you’re probably not going to be shelling out over a hundred big ones for the sake of the SQ8’s performance.

What’s left?

Only, perhaps, the fact that it looks a million dollars. As a higher-performance version of Audi’s range-topping Q8, the SQ8 comes on like a heavyweight with a sprinter’s fast-twitch muscles.

Its brawny front end, with massive air-scoops and LED lights, reaches back to a delicate lowered roofline and a prop forward’s backside.

This eye-catching and beguiling combination won’t be matched in the office car park or at the school gates. That makes the SQ8 worth every penny.

“It has the most powerful diesel engine on the European market – a biturbo V8