Test drive Audi Q7 2006 - 2009 SUV

White whale

Audi represents a new version of the Q7 crossover: with an eight-cylinder 326-horsepower diesel and a equipped mass of almost 2.5 tons. Anatoly Fomin went to a small cruise on it.
 
Audi Q7
The big crossover Audi was published a little more than a year ago. The body is 5- or 7-seater.
Engines: gasoline 3.6 and 4.2 liters (280350 hp), diesel 3.0 and 4.2 l (230326 hp).
Gearboxes: 6-speed mechanical (only 3.6FSI) and hydromechanical machines.
Configurations: individual.
Price: from $ 81,000.
Test car: diesel, 4.2 l (326 hp), 6-speed automatic.
Audi-Q7 debuted very briskly in a year, 88 thousand not at all cheap cars were sold. Especially the company appreciates success in the US market, where its positions were still quite weak.
Engines can hardly be called Achilles Fifth Audi-Q7. The latest gasoline units with a direct injection of 3.6 and 4.2 l meet all modern environmental requirements and provide dynamics from good to very good. And a 3-liter diesel successfully combines serious speed qualities with excellent efficiency. What is missing? That's right: combinations of outstanding dynamics with good efficiency. This gap closes the V8 diesel with two turbochargers: the maximum speed of the car is 236 km/h, overclocking to 100 km/h for 6.4 s. And the average fuel consumption, the company assures, 11.1 l/100 km!
240 kW/326 hp are removed from the working volume of 4134 cm. and 760 N.M. The new motor only 520 mm weighs 257 kg. High stiffness and small mass of the cylinder block are provided with iron with vermicular graphite. Of course, this is not a revelation in domestic metallurgy, the material has long been known and marked by PRS. By the way, the housings of gearboxes and dividers for KAMAZ are made from it.
The weather does not matter
Spring weather in Bavaria is changeable. By the way, a squalling outdoor wind brings a lot of trouble to pilots when landing in Munich. And we also expected quite aircraft speeds in our autobahn.
The white Q7 was with a notorious salon and only on 20-inch wheels. From the exotic, there was not enough adaptive cruise control with a radar distance sensor and Audi Lane Essist of the device that monitors the line on the road. The list of additional equipment is huge, but there are also a lot of standard: from xenon headlights turning on the turns to adaptive air suspension and leather upholstery of the cabin ...
I deal with an on -board computer to follow the consumption of fuel. Something a truck ahead is approaching suspiciously quickly! Audi-Q7 perfectly conceals the speed. It feels no more than 100 km/h, but in reality all are 140! It’s hard to go hard. But how easy it is to rebuild in a fast left row: a light press of pedal, and already 180 km/h!
Under such conditions, the audi sidian programs of the Essist Orange LEDs in the outer mirrors signal the approaching transport. True, with a large difference in speeds between the rows (and in the German autobahn it can be 80 km/h), these warnings are more like a panic.
When the route deviates to the south, narrow landstrasses set other priorities. The exact and obedient steering wheel is now more important, and to assess the ability of Q7, to prescribe turns, they suggest establishing a sports mode of the chassis. This achieves more effective damping, as well as the dynamic stabilization of the roll. True, with clamped shock absorbers Audi-Q7 becomes rather shaking. The difference in controllability is noticeable only in very close S-shaped turns.
Another hundred kilometers, and we are again approaching the airport. The on -board computer shows 11.6 l/100 km.
LINER
Autoban 95 is much more interesting. There is still time, and on the calculations of the navigator, it will take 1.5 hours for 190 km. Incredible in our concepts of speed, and without any violations. Behind the half -ring of Munich, several traffic lights and the path to the Alps is open. High landing and excellent sound insulation again lubricate the perception of speed in areas with limitation literally forcing yourself to constantly look at the speedometer. Most recently, I drove here on a sports compartment and admired how confidently the car passes turns. Now, sitting 350 mm higher, at the same speed, instead of concentrated piloting, I rejoice: I will arrive 15 minutes earlier, there will be time to walk around the town. Outside the windows, the winds of the tops of the trees bend, and the white carcass Q7 barely swaying from its gusts. Most of all, the speed is noticeable due to the rapid manual of cars in the right row, and yet they go under two hundred.
The feeling of confidence is exactly what the Q7 inspires. You can safely slow down from such speeds. Six -piston brake brackets and discs with a diameter of 350 mm are calculated with a considerable margin.
Of course, the price of Audi-Q7 4.2TDI in Russia is hardly for the economists above 100 thousand dollars (despite the modest, in fact, fuel consumption). But you always have a huge supply for the pedal, a stable all -wheel drive chassis, excellent comfort and the ability to drive 900 km at one gas station. The totality of qualities makes this Q7 ideal for traveling a real cruise airliner.
Audi Q7 4.2TDI car capable of convincing any driver of his superiority over the road, weather and other machines. You are required mainly attention to speed.
+ Excellent dynamics, low noise, good resistance at high speeds, comfortable suspension.
- tangible inertia of the car, the absence of a full -size spare wheel.
For the same money
BMW X5
Є99 700114 600 ($ 134 600155 000)
Very similar to Q7 in ideology, but a little more sports. The set of engines is also close: 3-liter gasoline and turbodiesel and gasoline 4.8 liters. The eight -cylinder diesel for X5 is not yet offered.
ZR, 2007, No. 2
Mercedes-Benz GL
Є92 400105 900 ($ 124 700143 000)
In terms of size and capacity, Q7 is close, but in the Russian configuration a richer set for bad roads, including lowering the transmission and blocking of central and rear differentials. But diesel engines do not offer for our market.
  
 

Source: The magazine "Driving"