Yahoo Autos We Head to Chile to Drive Audi’s New Flagship SUV
To the coldly rational among us, a vehicle such as the 2019 Audi Q8 is just silly. But nobody likes the coldly rational because they are invariably a drag. Take it elsewhere, Spock.
The Q8 is, in the words of its maker, “a fusion of a four-door luxury coupe and a large SUV, with echoes of the Ur-Quattro.” Huh. That’s sure to drive automotive taxonomists up a freakin’ wall-even those who know Ur-Quattro refers to the original Quattro coupe from the 1980s. But take a look at the Q8, the company’s newest truckish thing that goes on sale in the United States in October, and you know exactly what it is. It is a BMW X6 analog, a less elephantine Mercedes-Benz GLE coupe, a spiritual successor to the Acura ZDX. It is a German-car fan’s Range Rover Sport. It is fashion. It is the fashion of sacrificing practicality and utility and efficiency for the sake of style. Stated plainly, it sounds as if we hate the idea, but we don’t necessarily. We like the Mercedes-Benz S-class coupe, which is nearly the length of a minivan but seats only four, and that is way sillier than this Audi.
Sacrificial Style
There are some sacrifices you’ll make when choosing the Q8 over, say, the mechanically similar Q7. First, money. Audi has not yet revealed a U.S. price for the Q8, but it surely will start higher than the $50,875 base-level Q7, since it skips that model’s turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-four. Instead, it will be powered exclusively by a 335-hp turbocharged 3.0-liter V-6. The Q7’s upgrade engine is an older, supercharged, 333-hp 3.0-liter V-6. It’s highly likely the Q8’s sticker will exceed that of the $57,375 V-6 Q7 and approach the $66,245 required for an all-wheel-drive BMW X6. If you want to buy a more expensive version of the Audi, wait for the forthcoming SQ8.
Second, you’ll sacrifice seating capacity. To highlight its not-a-mommymobile status, the Q8 has only two rows of seats instead of the Q7’s three. But let’s face it, the Q7’s third row is no great shakes. The Q8 might well be used by families with small children, but it doesn’t necessarily carry the mark of Desitin upon it. As a Q8 owner, you might be kicked out of the carpool for not driving a bus that will accommodate an entire kindergarten class. This is a hardship we would be willing to bear.
Third, you’ll give up cargo capacity. Exact U.S.-specific figures aren’t available for the Q8 yet, but it has somewhere around 10 fewer cubic feet of cargo space than the Q7, or roughly 15 percent. That’s because the Q8’s roof is almost an inch and a half lower and its overall length is 2.6 inches shorter even though it rides on the same wheelbase. Whether you need as much cargo space as the Q7 is a question only you can answer.
The Good Stuff
The Q8 compensates with a scoresheet fat with positive attributes. Based on the Volkswagen Group’s MLB Evo platform, the Q8 rides on the same basic aluminum-intensive structure and suspension systems as the Q7 and also the Bentley Bentayga, the Lamborghini Urus, and the Porsche Cayenne. Using the same platform as those high-end performers is like buying a somewhat more modest house in an exceptionally tawny neighborhood. An added bonus: The Audi looks immeasurably better than the garish Lambo and the gawky Bentley.
Audi never misses a chance to point out that the Ur-Quattro was a design inspiration for the Q8. Okay. We guess. There is the way the taillights are bridged by a long, black center piece. There is a slight suggestion of boxy wheel flares. But that’s about as much Ur-Quattro inspiration as there is to be found on the vehicle. Instead, the Q8 has its own look, its own stance. Designers widened the grille compared to the Q7 and made the headlamps squint. The relatively low roofline makes the Q8 seem exceptionally wide, and it appears to hover over its optional 22-inch wheels (20s and 21s are also available).
The Q8 is less aesthetically adventurous than its two primary competitors, the X6 and the GLE coupe, but it also is more handsome by some margin, too. It looks more like a sporty SUV than an oddity for the sake of oddness. The same could be said for the Q8’s roomy, airy interior. Even the rear-seat passengers will feel as if they have space to stretch out, with more than ample leg- and headroom. Up front, in large part to the two-screen infotainment system also seen in the new A6, A7, and A8, the interior is as sleek and uncluttered as a clean-room. We’re not yet entirely convinced two screens are better than one screen and a control knob, and we do sincerely miss the precise knobs and switches that once were the hallmark of an Audi interior. We’ll need more time with the system to pass judgement on its menu logic, but we will say it responds to commands quite quickly.
The vehicle itself doesn’t feel exceptionally quick. But one caveat: Audi held its press launch in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile and our route took us as high as 14,000 feet of elevation through the Andes mountains. Considering the power-robbing effect of such thin air, performance is more than ample. We noted, however, a longish delay in the delivery of the power after you give it some beans. When driving at cloud height, plan your passes well in advance. We’ll get back to you with a more definitive assessment when we drive the vehicle closer to sea level. We’ve been impressed with this turbocharged 3.0-liter V-6 in previous drives of other models equipped with it; it is smooth if not exactly sonorous in this application, too. It’s bolted to the ubiquitous and excellent ZF eight-speed automatic, and all Q8’s come with standard full-time all-wheel drive that has a rearward torque bias. We did only very light off-roading on our drive, but the all-wheel-drive system coped well with the sandy conditions we experienced in vehicles wearing summer tires. Note: All-season tires are standard for the U.S. market.
Chile con Car
The Q8s we drove were fitted with optional adjustable-height air springs; a steel-spring suspension with adjustable dampers will be standard. Step up to the air springs and you can raise the body for a maximum of 10 inches of ground clearance. Packaged with the air springs is a rear-wheel-steering system, and on narrow Chilean desert roads, the broad-of-beam Q8 felt unnaturally nimble. This is no canyon carver, of course, but it manages curving roads with little drama and respectable pace. We suspect the thin layer of artificiality brought on by the light, feel-free steering and pivoting rear wheels will not be a concern to most owners.
Oddly, for a vehicle intended to be so much sportier than the family truckster upon which it’s based, the Q8 rides beautifully. Even on the 22s, the Q8 is supple and never floaty. And, believe us, our route was no press-drive cakewalk. We traversed plenty of washboard gravel paths and undulating, broken pavement, and even in Sport mode the Q8 never harshed our day. The higher-performing SQ8 no doubt will be the choice for those who desire a firmer ride.
As has been the case with a few other recently unveiled Audis, not all of the highest-tech wizardry will be available in the U.S. versions. American Q8s will not be offered with the quasi-automated Traffic Jam Pilot system, although they will come with automated lane-centering and adaptive cruise control. U.S. vehicles will have LED headlights, but they won’t have the trick matrix functionality available in Europe. (The matrix system can turn off individual LEDs in the clusters to shape the light pattern around oncoming traffic, pedestrians, and the like.) Q8s sold in the U.S. will have all of the necessary hardware, however, so once Audi gets clearance from regulators, it says it will add the software to open up that capability. Also, the Q8 is equipped with a 48-volt hybrid system that, in other markets, allows the V-6 to take brief naps when the vehicle is cruising. In the U.S. it’s pretty much just a stop/start system.
But who wants to get bogged down in details? The Q8 is supposed to be about broad strokes and style, right?
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