By: IOL Motoring Staff
Pretoria - The second-generation Audi Q7, launched to the media in South Africa this week, is due in showrooms as of October 2015 in a one-model (for the present) line-up.
It's slightly smaller outside than its predecessor - and up to 325kg lighter, depending on the model - but makes better use of interior volume to encompass what Audi claims is the most spacious cabin in its segment.
The third row of seats is raised and lowered electrically, making available 295 litres of luggage space with all seven seats up, expanding to 890 with the peanut gallery flattened and a cavernous 2075 with the second-row seat backs folded.
Xenon headlights are standard, with LED and Matrix LED headlights as options. Each Matrix LED cluster has 15 diodes paired with three reflectors, and a camera on the front of the rear-view mirror individually dims or switches the diodes on and off according to the traffic situation, so you never dazzle either oncoming traffic or the driver of a vehicle ahead of you.
The dynamic LED rear indicators light up in rapid succession from the inside outwards - it's a distinctive and unmistakeable signal.
Standard driver aids include attention assist system, hold assist, cruise control with adjustable speed limiter, rear parking sensors and pre-sense collision mitigation.
INFOTAINMENT
The new Q7's MMI infotainment system and touchscreen comes with a DVD drive, Bluetooth connectivity, two card readers, a USB port and an auxiliary jack, all monitored on an 8.3 inch colour display. Opt for MMI navigation plus, which adds smartphone voice control, displays emails from the phone and reads them aloud, and you can also ask for the virtual cockpit - a 12.3 inch TFT screen with a resolution of 1440x540 pixels for razor-sharp details.
The options list includes either Bose or Bang & Olufsen 3D sound setups with extra speakers in the A pillars for a 'concert' sound.
You can also have a custom-built Audi tablet, operating on the Android system from an Nvidia Tegra $0 processor, for rear-seat entertainment, connected to the MMI by wi-fi - and when you get there you can take it with you for use offline or via another wi-fi connection.
DRIVETRAIN
The new Q7 will be launched in South Africa with a three-litre V6 turbodiesel rated at 183kW, delivering 600Nm from 1500-3000rpm. Take-off from 0-100 is quoted at 6.3 seconds and top speed at 234km/h. Nominal fuel-consumption is given as 5.7 litres per 100km/h, CO2 emission at 149 grams per kilometre.
A two-litre TFSI turbopetrol four, for which the Four Rings Fellowship quotes 185kW and 370Nm, will added in January 2016.
In either case, the drive is passed to all four wheels via a conventional torque-converter auto transmission - although with eight speeds, allowing short lower ratios for sporty acceleration and long higher gears for effortless highway cruising, it's anything but old-fashioned.
The centre coupling for the quattro drive is actually inside the gearbox instead of separate as before, saving 20kg, and the default torque split is rear-biased 40:60 - although up to 70 percent can be channelled to the front and 85 percent to the rear under extreme circumstances.
Selective torque control backs this up by braking the inside wheels in hard cornering to reduce understeer.
In a telling commentary on what the new Q7 is intended for, ground clearance has been reduced by 50mm, mostly because the engine is mounted lower in the body to improve on-road stability, while the suspension has been redesigned from scratch - and it's more than 100kg lighter than the running gear of the previous Q7.
The optional adaptive air suspension, however, can lift the body 25mm higher than the default setting (but only up to 80km/h - there's that stability thing again), while at high speed it drops 15mm from 'normal'.
Also available as extra-cost options are adaptive cruise control and all-wheel steering, with an electrical spindle drive and two track rods on the rear axle to turn the rear wheels a few degrees in the same or opposite direction relative to the front wheels, depending on the situation.
PRICE
Sadly, the parlous state of our currency has forced a significant increase in the quoted South African pricing since we drove it at the world launch in May - from R890 000 to R924 000 - and Audi SA isn't even talking about the local price for the two-litre TFSI turbopetrol until it gets here in January 2016.