Test drive Audi Q7 2006 - 2009 SUV

Aliens do not go here

A certain creature stood on two of its hind limbs, and then again sank into four wheels. The technique will reach such perfection that a person can do without himself. In these two aphorisms of Stanislav Hedgehogs Litsa, according to the editor -in -chief of autopilot Nikolai Fomenko, the whole essence of the automotive evolution. The new Audi Q7 is difficult to recognize its final peak. As it is difficult not to admit that this car is closest to the ultimate goal.
 
Audi bits iron while Q7 is still hot. The production of a new SUV is increasing from 50 to 70 thousand cars per year. The proposal, according to the old economic law, is growing after demand. Already for the first quarter of this year, 16,000 orders for the whole world were collected on Q7. In Russia, orders for the car are accepted from January 30, 2006. The official premiere of entering the domestic market, as in the rest of Europe, took place on March 23. In a short period, more than 600 customers have made their choice in favor of the cult Audi Q7. In 2006, Audi plans to implement 2000 Audi Q7 SUVs in Russia, ”said the head of the Audi of Russia Oscar Akhmedov.
Look who came. I will say without false modesty: I am the first owner of the Audi Q7 in Russia. And this explains a lot. Waiting for me to disperse on the pages of sweet molasses now, telling about this car? Oh well.
No. To begin with, I will tell you how I got the right of the first wedding night. The right was realized in the city of sin built by Audi at Danilov textile manufactories on purpose for the presentation of Q7. In my opinion, there was no better action in the capital. Cool. Stunningly. Suspect and cheeky. And not in the usual style of Audi High-Tech. And in the style of comics. That Russia is more suitable. Our life is a solid comic.
 
The people are more than on demonstrations. Everywhere screens on which they twist the advertising video. Muson pierces membranes and heart. Some vampires, stripper and just freaks are worn. Porechenkov from the stage no worse than Levitan announces: but here he is - Q7! According to a long corridor, clogged with people, on the legs and bodies at a speed of one kilometer of two hours, the Audi Q7 is trimmed to the stage. In order to stand there for several minutes, to leave in an unknown direction. Many of those who came, including VIPs, did not see the cars. They could not get to her. Vasiliev and I were more fortunate. We were on stage. The head of the Audi Oscar Akhmedov handed us the keys to the first Q7 (by the way, on my priority I insist only by the right of seniority, according to the alphabet - the primacy for Lesha). We even sat in Q7 and photographed. On this movie ended.
I want that, I don't know what. I hope Audi will not be offended by me if I reveal a little secret. Moreover, the people of our circle, probably, are already in the know. Those Q7 that we were presented at the event are not the Q7, on which we are going to experience happy driver moments. Indeed, we ordered our cars back in January and are now waiting for them to receive SIF Moskau. Cars will be with complete minced meat. I ordered myself a panoramic, from three sections, the roof of Open Sky, which seems to start from the hood and rolls somewhere into the trunk. And the Side Assist rebuilding system, which helps to detect a probable enemy within a radius of 50 meters and a completely solving problem with a substance. I hope that no secret services will powder its electronic brains with their circulars. Well, I included a passing towbar in the list of desired options. Although rather the waves of the Rhine will flow back, which he really will come in handy. The color of the body is the subject of separate pride. Color is completely new even for Audi. He was not on any model yet. They begin to paint Q7 in this color. So far, the only copy can only be seen in Munich Audi Forum. I would call color pearl asphalt. Go crazy, how beautiful.
 
I admit that I liked the appearance of the Q7 so that for the sake of one design I changed my beloved and so often praised by the BMW X5 I praised. By the way, I already saw the new X5, and it did not seem to me. In any case, he clearly loses Q7. The feeling inside the car is this: you are sitting in the eight of Audi, made by indoor. All European research institutes and half of the German electronic industry worked on electronics. I felt like a moment inside a huge computer. Q7 is a motherboard on wheels. I was amazed to learn that in the filling of the car - about fifty different blocks with a memory of 90 megabytes. In this regard, Q7 is fantasy. Full forward. Of the bells and whistles there is only a line of bald. Even the voice control of the phone, Audio stands. Awesome navigation. An amazing rear view camera, ready to draw the correct trajectory of movement on the display.
 
To find fault with something is like raving with fat. That is - my case. I have no habit of managing an audio system or other things using buttons on the steering wheel. In Q7, it seemed to me all the more inconvenient, because there almost all possible functions are clogged into one button on the steering wheel. We have to be distracted by the display to understand what you pressed there. So it’s easier to manage MMI.
 
I think Q7 is a car for Americans and taking into account their tastes. The layout salon is almost a tank, where there are two nests in front. One is for the driver, the other is for the shooter. The tunnel between the driver and the front passenger is huge. It is understandable: it had to be placed a lot of things on it. But if I want to touch the girl by the knee - I am not saying that for the right, at least for the left - then it is unlikely that I will succeed. Harassment will not pass.
With his seats, Q7 reminded me of Ford Explorer in the configuration of Eddie Bauer. The seats are thin. And I haven't figured it out yet whether it is good or bad. On the one hand, they do not have massiveness and pompous furniture from the Grand. On the other hand, there is no hint of the fortress in them. Maybe this is such a designer sur. We, non -therapy, are not aware.
Power decision. Having discussed the top complete set, I, as it should be a person with a labile psyche and a client with indefatigable purchasing itching, nevertheless I try to change something in it. And this is something-the engine. Initially, I asked for a 4.2 FSI gasoline engine. And Vasiliev is a 3-liter diesel. And I feel, I gave a swing. Diesel is better. Not in terms of saving money. And from the point of view of saving time to move from one gas station to another. As for the working moments ...
 
As for the working moments, we recently made a colleague for TV a test of one model from the garage of competitors Audi. Gasoline against diesel. Place of action - Czech Avtodrom bridge. The diesel engine showed itself more worthy. Well, let us play a little to him. But still. The thrust is almost all the time in the region of 6000 revolutions. Picked up anywhere. Unlike a gasoline unit, where you only cover the gas, so everything falls at once, the diesel continues to stand. I think that in the diesel competition with gasoline Q7 the result will be similar. And if so, why pay more?
 
Not everyone will understand me. Someone will even throw a stone. The first will probably be the one who has already made the purchase of a six -hundred Q7 with the W12 engine today. There should be no doubt that such a machine should sooner or later appear sooner or later. But this is not my game. Let others dream how to set a record speeds on the third transport. Or how to saw off the leg of Schumacher and set her in your viburnum. I believe that Q7 does not need excessive power. His relics (even in the diesel version) are enough. This is a city driving. Say, going to him in a distant suburbs for mushrooms is stupid. It's like putting on an evening suit from Moschino and go digging potatoes. It will also be stupid to play at his wheel at FIA GT, Le Mans Enduraance or Indi Car.
 
Why does he need W12 or even 4.2 FSI? To leave the light faster from the traffic light? So after all, everyone will leave the same way. All Kayen, hee and Tuarean. Thunder will leave with oks, gazelles and kamazami. Because, breaking through the bumper forward, they will elapse in another traffic light in a minute. Or in the bumper a car, in front of which thousands of others are panting. To get a buzz from the dope W12, it is necessary to clean on the Moscow Ring Road, reducing all the other cars with asphalt. Q7 is a serious, solidal car. Not a messenger.
And then the W12 is the last walk of the motorist in front of a well -deserved pension. Because then new people will be required to create new engines for new types of fuel. What kind of substance will be, no longer important. Helium 3, hydrogen, bird droppings ... But the end of the oil era is obviously inevitable.
The production of Audi Q7 is a process for four. The main elements of the body and many nodes are made at Audi factories in Germany - in Ingolstadt and non -Karmask. Power units for Q7 are prepared at the Hungarian factory in Dier. The final assembly is carried out on the conveyor in Bratislava. Audi Q7 from young, and early. In the sense that he only appeared in car dealerships, and already began to grab all kinds of prizes and prizes. For example, Bild Am Sonntag called Q7 the best car among SUVs and awarded the gold wheel. Undoubtedly, in Russia, the car will receive its gold in the form of a steering wheel, a horn, Pegasus, etc.
These are not taken to astronauts. When I first saw the Q7, I decided that he could not only ride, but also fly. So I will press the button, and wings will leave the car. A person is characterized by more to want even more. And the aesthetics Q7 overshadows the mind. That is, a voluntarist effort is required to understand one simple thing: if you want such beauty to go at a speed of 600 km/h, let it accelerate to hundreds in one second, and my mother -in -law twisted in a couple of moments, then this is not here. This is for you, dear, on Baikonur. There they will pick up both the spacesuit and the device.
But Q7 is not for space, but for the Earth. Of course, there is a certain contradiction between the image aggressiveness and the actual character of the machine. With so many electronics, you feel like a Vietnamese pilot whose hands hurt, because they beat him all the time all the time so that he does not touch anything. In general, everything goes to the rudimentation of the driver. This stupid biomass only slows down the process of complete automation. The driver is prepared for the role of appendix. He sat in the salon. Fastened. And he said briefly: home! After that, the car there will pass something there in an electronic dialect of the Bil-Bul-Bul type, determine the satellite of its position on the ball, will find in computer memory a coincidence with the word home and will go home.
 
Perhaps some auxiliary systems can still be disabled. I have not yet read the Talmud for operation. But for now ... Here I am chasing at speed, suppose, 140 km/h and I want to stop abruptly. It is not so simple. Firstly, the mass of the car is wow. Secondly, the brake pedal does not give an informative answer. ABS begins to work right away - on dry, on wet asphalt, on the sand. Thirdly, you cannot support yourself in braking by transmission. To jump off the fourth, for example, the first will not work. Until the revolutions fall to the desired limit, at least wrap yourself. And all because the standard tiptronics are left on Q7. And it is clear that the manual mode here is an element of decor. As, however, in Touareg, Cayenne and many other cars. Well, of course, I ordered myself the steering wheel petals. But only for that, I repent, so that friends say: Oh, Kolyan, it's cool! This is like in a real racing wheelbarrow.
Another surplus, in my opinion, is an air suspension. No, it's great that she has five modes. That you can go to Comfort, and you can at Dynamic. It’s healthy that you can change the clearance by raising the car from 150 to 240 mm. But fast driving the air suspension exactly interferes. The issue of swinging is great. In this regard, Q7 is a VW Touareg. Then the photographer and I drove a snake, and he flew along the salon, like a piece of pizza. Although the fear that Q7 will turn over, I still did not have. It was scary on the standard Tuareg.
 
You will have to get used to traveling to Q7. It is necessary to steer here with a slight manual. What is natural in the car of such a mass and such dimensions. In it, even on the asphalt, it is as if you are working in the snow. You turned to the right, and then directed the steering wheel to the left, but the car is still driving to the right. And this must be foreseen. When you own Q7 for a long time, it is easy. From the habit - it is difficult.
Ilust. He came to take his own. For Audi Q7, this is too modest slogan. I am sure that in America and in Russia Q7 will take not only its own, but also someone else's. Until the end of 2008, no one will catch up with Q7. For sales, this will be an unconditional leader. Because this is a completely new car. Not restyling. Not face-lifting. This alone will provide models of such crazy popularity that he will take and take his own and alien, excite the imagination and devastate wallets. One such wallet I know.
 
Audi-technical characteristics of the Audi Q7 are already recognized by some of its first owners. So tuning for Q7 is inevitable, like a demobe for a soldier. The German tuning studio JE Design and ABT-Sportsline was one of the first to propose a Q7 brought program to mind. However, the engine reconfiguration is so far only 3-liter turbodiesel. Je Design for 1149 euros increases power to 285 hp, and overclocking to hundreds brings to 8.4 s. ABT-SPORTSLINE for 1740 euros changes standard 233 hp. Up to 272 hp The tuning masters did not forget about external causals. In the amendment kit - the front bumper with double fog lights, spoilers, dilated wheeled arches, thresholds, cilia on the front headlights, double exhaust and alloy wheels with dimensions of 20 to 22 inches.

Text Nikolay Fomenko, photo Andrey Danilov

Audi Q7
 
Basin 4.2 V8 FSI diesel 3.0 V6 TDI
Working volume (cubic meter) 4163 2967
Power (L.S. at rpm) 350 at 6800 233 at 4000
Moment (Nm at rpm) 440 at 3500 500 at 1750-2750
The permanent drive is complete
Gearbox Automatic 6-speed Tiptronic
Length/width/height (mm) 5086/1983/1737
Wheel base (mm) 3002
Equipped mass (kg) 2240 2295
Acceleration to 100 km/h (c) 7.4 9.1
Maximum speed (km/h) 248 216
Fuel consumption (l/100 km) 13.6 10.5
The base price in Moscow is $ 107,673 $ 76 965

Auto Wizards: I am writing these lines in Moscow, having just parked at the editorial office a very good car, but incredibly grimy: in the capital it is slaughtered and, as usual, disgustingly dirty. Audi engineers say that they specially watered Q7 with mud in the same aerodynamic pipe, achieving the side glass remains transparent. Looking at today's Moscow streets, I involuntarily doubt that any, even the most brilliant design solution, can effectively resist our evil reality. You need to wash the roads, and the drains are literate! In Germany on Q7, I left Munich in the morning, in the rain, then hit the mountain roads in the snow, then went through a special off -road route, rolled around the dry autobahns in the evening and for all this time I used the glass -membrane fluid a couple of times! In Moscow, I sometimes lack 6 liters per day.
Claron: How magnificent Q7 on the asphalt! And it doesn’t matter - it is dry, wet or snowy. The car is literally glued on the road! The tires seem to stick to the asphalt. The rejection of various devices that increase patency (read, rejection of excess iron) made it possible to make more profitable weightlift, bring it closer to the standards of passenger models. In corners, the steering wheel is poured with a noticeable burden - much more noticeable than on A6 and A8. This was apparently done for the sake of safety so that the driver feels a huge car more fully. Therefore, on a winding highway, you are high at the accuracy and grace, with which the bastard Q7 literally licks the turns.
www.uk.cars.yahoo.com: I always liked AlloD, a pragmatic vehicle that was more than enough for moderate off -road driving and which left a pleasant impression on the highway. A pneumatic suspension could turn your cozy car into a mud -racer in a second without any negative connotations with large 4x4 cars. Allroad was a smart quintessence of the Audi brand, its image. Calm, pragmatic, firmly made and a little restrained car. Q7 is a little tougher, although it is far from a militaristic warehouse. He is certainly big. Q7 is built on the elongated version of the Volkswagen Touareg platform and has seven places, which is ideal for large families. If you can abandon the mentality of the conqueror of the dirt and instead you will think about Q7 as a station wagon growing on hormones, you will become attached to this car much faster.
AutoExpress: So what brought Q7 to SUV? Well, actually this is the largest European SUV that you can buy. Five meters long and nearly two meters wide, Q7 is spacious, like a cave. This is a seven -seater car in the standard, but if you do not lay out the rear two seats, then it is not clear what is the meaning in the luggage compartment ...
Audi boldly claims that Q7 is the most dynamic in the 4x4 car market. Audi also says that Q7 is able to crush even X5, it can easily compare with Cayenne, and as for the Range Rover Sport, it does not even stand comparison. By the way, we know the cunning path near Ingolstadt, there is a snowball and an ice, and it is there that the car’s chassis can show its abilities at low speeds. I actually do not attract to fly away with 2240 kilograms at high speed ...

The car was provided by Audi Russia, (495) 234-0233.
We thank the Russian Automobile Federation and the administration of the TC West for help in organizing shooting.
 

A source: "Autopilot"