Audi Q7
AUDI’s Q7
Getting behind the wheel of an Audi Q7 seemed like a great idea to me. I know they are anti-social behemoths but show me the man with a driving licence who claims to be without automotive sin at any time in his life. I bet you cant.
The urge to drive a Q7 has been with me ever since the car first launched at the end of 2005. I was driving through Glasgow on the M8 and saw two in quick succession, one locally registered there and the other in Oxfordshire, suggesting it was from the Audi demo fleet.
Either way, whether the drivers owned the cars or were just blagging a free ride, I was envious. I dont often get like that about cars any more but there are occasions when the green-eyed jealousy monster takes over and that was one of them.
Despite that, it took me until earlier this year to finally get into the hot seat of the Q7. My car was fitted with the superb 4.2 litre V8 diesel engine, an option not available to those Glasgow Q7 drivers as it only joined the range in March, 2007.
When we had the car we were spending a lot of time in Cornwall helping look after my sick mother-in-law and this meant frequent hospital visiting trips. One of the drawbacks of the Q7 is that it is even less compatible with modern parking spaces than most cars. Being picky about the slot you occupy in hospitals is not always an option, so the Q7 turned out to be not the best possible choice.
In every other respect, though, it was virtual perfection. When we visit that neck of the woods we stay on a farm in the delightful village of Menheniot, where landlady Stephanie was excited to see the Q7 arrive.
She and her husband, Mervyn, run a Mitsubishi Shogun that can pull 3.5 tonnes. She considered the Q7 might look much better hitched to the front or the massive trailer that carries their South Devon show cattle and, to be fair, the £58,000 monster Audi would manage the weight if it was in five seat trim (the extra two optional seats remove 300 kg from the towing capacity).
However, I reckon Mervyn would have spent much of his time towing the Q7 out of fields with his tractor as despite the trick quattro 4×4 set-up and locking centre diff the road tyres needed to cope with the speed capabilities would have little grip in deep mud. Theres no low range transmission, either.
Huge size, big engines, and the bluff fronts of giant 4x4s the Q7 looks especially chunky with its huge Audi tombstone grille do not normally make for economical running but the Q7 acquitted itself well in this respect. It managed 27 mpg, equal to Audis quoted consumption figure for the smaller 3.0 diesel that has been in the range from the outset.
Performance from the 4.2 diesel is as huge as the car, with 0-62 mph taking 6.4 seconds, which is better than the 4.2 petrol by some degree although that does have a higher top speed of 154 mph compared with the diesels 146 mph, still more than enough for me.
The big body gives up to seven seats, which then makes the car seem almost economical when compared to other giant 4x4s that will only carry five people. As a two seater, the Q7 has more than two cubic metres of load volume so it will swallow an impressive amount of kit.
Audi runs a programme of long life service intervals which give a gap of up to 22,000 miles if you use high quality synthetic oils. Im always nervous of these stretched intervals as I reckon any car needs regular checkovers, definitely more often than that distance or the two year alternative. Insurance starts at Group 16 for the three litre diesel and then just gets worse.
Find yourself a 55 plate 3.0 diesel SE and youll want a budget of at least £33,300 and at that money it has to have optional metallic paint, sat nav and a GSM phone, says Glasss Guide. If theyre not there, mark it down heavily. On an 07 plate, the 3.0 diesel would be £38,000. Find another £8,000 and you could have the 4.2 instead. Prices for the 4.2 petrol equate to the same age 3.0 diesel, even though the petrol car was £8,000 dearer when new.
Maurice Hardy