_Tone_ Posted April 15, 2006 Report Share Posted April 15, 2006 Hi Guys I undertook a test drive in a Q7 the other day, thought I'd share my thoughts. I went to my local dealer and was shown around the car and some of the features. It was a left hand drive 3.0TDi SE with the S-Line 20" alloys in Phantom Black with beige leather (standard on SE) interior. The rest of the spec was the keyless entry, Advanced parking, technology pack, com pack and lane change assistance. All in all a lot of kit! I was show around the car - entry to the two rear most seats the boot, its auto opener and the closure. The car is big but upon driving around to my house it would fit in my garage (single doors double) but I'd have to clear some crap out!! As for performance its an auto gearbox and its 0-60 is said 9.1 seconds and to be honest it didnt hang around (i'm used to a 2.0TDi). We drove around some country roads as well as nice dual carriagways and the handling of the car is very close to X5 and it does not wallow like a boat!! I found the steering response very good, handling in dynamic mode was very "car like" and thats what I really wanted to see. Visibility was quite good but the icing on the cake was the advanced parking. Chuck it in reverse and the £650 option uses a camera mounted under the tailgate opener to show you a pic of whats behind. Whilst this is not new what was pretty clever was the way a superimposed block (depicting the size of your car) showed you if the car would fit along with a line that showed the travel of your movement. Whilst it is difficult to explain -it must be seen! I would have this option as rear vision is limited. The mirrors are HUGE so you dont lose too much in them! Whilst out on the roads we tried the different air suspension setting via the MMI High, the comfort is good - it does a good job of removing rumbles of bumps in the road, but the dynamic setting around town is great! The salesman took me, and two friends around some country roads and the handling around a wet bendy road was very impressive, we nearly shat ourselves - but the Q7 didn't give anything, the quattro system really doing a good job. Al in all I haqve specced a car up as I am that impressed and now its time to see if the Q7 can be had for a similar sum to an equally specced X5. There are no discounts to be had so far and the spec I am after is as follows! Q7 3.0Tdi S-Line - £40,685 Technology Pack at £2,490 Park System Advanced £650.00 Privacy Glass £325 Pana sunroof at £1500 - Which on a black interior'd car would light up the interior very nicely. As per usual the option list is pretty extensive but the use of "packs" does make some of them good value for money if thats a way of putting it! Hope this helps. W Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris_B Posted April 16, 2006 Report Share Posted April 16, 2006 [ QUOTE ] Park System Advanced £650.00 [/ QUOTE ] Buggers aren't they? That's only a £350 option on the A8, but then the base Q7 is priced low enough that they need to make a bit more on the options. I suppose the other way of looking at it is that it's a bit of a toy on the A8, almost essential on the Q7 and Audi's charge varies by it's usefulness... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lottiefox Posted April 16, 2006 Report Share Posted April 16, 2006 What is lane change assistance? Sounds like a great car, I've not seen one in the flesh yet. Looking forward to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Tone_ Posted April 16, 2006 Author Report Share Posted April 16, 2006 The lange Change Assistance was useful in this left hooker because it uses a radar to detect cars in your blind spot. I do about 25k miles a year and a lot of motorway driving and often see cars pulling in or out to overtake on the motorways. They miss the blind spot and end up the victim of some twat that thinks they were cut up on purpose! There are some bright LEDs that are mounted on the inside of the mirror housing that flash when a car comes up behind you in the blind spot. Very useful as I said on the left hooker but turning your head and looking over your shoulder is cheaper! A lot of people have said its an ugly car, but IMHO I think its no uglier then most of the SUV's on the market. The latest Jeep, Porsche Cayanne, Mercedes ML and most the Lexus are seriously ugly The X5 I reckon is a good looking SUV but god knows how screwed up the next version will be next year! If it looks more like the X3 then I know I would want to avoid it! I reckon Xenon lamps should be standard on a £40k car though - thats a travesty! W Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danksy Posted April 16, 2006 Report Share Posted April 16, 2006 My Megablade had that in the wet.... floor it, and it would activate the automatic lane changer It did the same thing on roundabouts, called automatic turnaround Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shark_90 Posted April 16, 2006 Report Share Posted April 16, 2006 I saw one of these in the flesh the other day at a stealers, very nice, and it looked very menacing. No Xenons though? What are Audi playing at Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danksy Posted April 16, 2006 Report Share Posted April 16, 2006 [ QUOTE ] What are Audi playing at [/ QUOTE ] Profiteering Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedRobin Posted April 16, 2006 Report Share Posted April 16, 2006 Here's a pic for you Audi guys (I'd prefer a Cayenne): And an interior pic - I hate the wooden gear knob!! Yuk! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alastair_A3 Posted April 16, 2006 Report Share Posted April 16, 2006 Go on the Q7 virtual test drive, its shows all the features in depth Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GTiMK5 Posted April 16, 2006 Report Share Posted April 16, 2006 [ QUOTE ] Go on the Q7 virtual test drive, its shows all the features in depth [/ QUOTE ] Is that where you used to drive your S4? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alastair_A3 Posted April 16, 2006 Report Share Posted April 16, 2006 no only the Q7 has the virtual drive feature Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedRobin Posted April 17, 2006 Report Share Posted April 17, 2006 Audi Q7 on Channel 5 Fifth Gear....NOW (after the ads break). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Tone_ Posted April 18, 2006 Author Report Share Posted April 18, 2006 Yes I saw it (sky plus remember'd to record it!!) What did you guys think? It did fit in my garage - 2 ft at fron of car and by 3CM if i did not fold the mirrors. So i was miffed at that statement that it would not fit. I got two 5ft 6+ adults into the 6/7th seats - as long as the middle (rear) seats were forward a little you could get in the back. My thoughts after getting into the back were a feeling that it was a wee bit dark - so I figure the use of the 3 window'd sunroof would alleviate that issue! At the price of fuel here in the uk I would doubt that many petrol models would be sold! but we will see I guess! Cheers W Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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