Audi Q8

Five years after it was launched to head off BMW’s hot-selling X6, the Audi Q8 coupé-SUV has been refreshed.

The changes aren’t seismic, but perhaps they didn't need to be. The Q8 has always done a decent job of combining the opulence, quietly strong performance and all-round ease of use of the Audi Q7 with a less pedestrian look and subtly sharper cornering ability. In Europe, Audi now sells roughly one Q8 for every two Q7s, so the decision to launch the model in the first place was also clearly the right one.

It all means that, for the facelift, most of the changes are purely cosmetic, with none concering the chassis. The tweaks are mostly found at the front, where the straightforward slatted main grille has been replaced by one with chunkier vertical elements and an elliptical motif, while those at the sides are now taller and more aggressive. The new matrix LED headlights have laser-light functionality (on the top-spec Vorsprung model, at least) and, for the owner who requires the very last word in configurability, offer four different daytime-running light ‘signatures’, selectable via the unchanged infotainment system.