As standard, the Q7 comes with parking sensors, automatic headlights, front, side and head airbags, CD player, MMI and cruise control. All for £37,330.
We reckon the Q7 looks more expensive than that. It’s at least as imposing outside and feel-good inside as a Discovery or the considerably more expensive Mercedes GL. At the top end you can spend up to £48,625 for a 4.2-litre FSI S line. Optional equipment on top of that includes adaptive cornering lights, an electric tailgate and double glazing. In other words, pretty much everything you could want in an executive car.
The Q7 hasn’t been EuroNCAP tested yet, but we’d expect a high score for occupant safety. No large SUV is genuinely pedestrian-friendly – only two out of 15 have scored even two stars in EuroNCAP’s test – but part of the reason for the Q7’s bulbous front is that its bonnet deforms into space between it and the engine. If it were to perform well in that test, it’d be a feat indeed. And perhaps go some way to quelling the feeling that, in most respects, the Q7 is too big for its own good.
The dials, and most of the centre console, are derived from the A6. Audi’s intuitive and brilliantly animated Multi-Media Interface (MMI) is very simple to use. Ergonomically, apart from a cabin that may be too high for children, the short and the frail, the Q7 is hard to fault.
The electrically adjustable leather front seats of this S line model are exceptional, too. The steering wheel, peculiarly small for a car so large, adjusts amply, so if you can’t get comfy in a Q7, you’re an odd shape indeed.
The Q7 is one of only a few seven-seat luxury SUVs, but if you want to seat seven adults comfortably, you’ll need a Land Rover Discovery or a Mercedes GL-class. The rearmost seats steal boot space, too, even when folded, because the boot floor is left high. In practical terms the high load height and boot floor limit the Q7’s ability to carry bulky items.