Audi Q8 review: a fashionable flagship SUV
Audi’s slickly-styled coupe-SUV flagship gives BMW and Mercedes a run for their money
The Audi Q8 is luxurious, extravagant and stylish, and it’s an admirable executive SUV for owners who aren’t too worried about its rather obvious packaging compromises. It takes up about as much room on the road as a Q7 SUV, but has only five seats and a much less useful boot. In spite of its more dynamic and contemporary styling, it doesn’t offer significantly more involvement or engagement for the driver either, and is less sharp on the road than the BMW X6, a key rival.
But the Q8 offers good road manners and superb refinement, as well as a plush ride – if you avoid Dynamic mode – and fabulous interior ambience with its twin-touchscreen interior and lavish appointments. As such, it’s a thoroughly appealing choice for drivers who place style and comfort above sports car-like driving responses.
About the Audi Q8
The Audi Q8 is a large and luxurious SUV crossover that’s focused almost entirely on road use, and aims to seduce drivers who might otherwise consider other ‘sporty’ lifestyle SUVs for sale, such as the BMW X6 and Mercedes GLE Coupe. Porsche Cayenne and Range Rover Sport buyers might take a look too, although the Q8 is undoubtedly aimed primarily at the ‘coupe-style’ 4x4s from BMW and Mercedes.
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The Q8 is Audi’s biggest coupe-SUV and, just like most of the cars in this class, it’s intended to be used as a comfortable and fashionable cruiser that will stay firmly on the tarmac. There’s a sense of form over function on the inside, too, as the Q8’s design makes it less practical than the Audi Q7, which uses same platform.
The Q8’s sleek body is lower, wider and shorter than its boxier stablemate, and also a bit more aggressively styled with the brand’s eight-sided grille, swoopy headlamps and wide wheelarches said to be inspired by old Quattro rally cars. At the back, there’s a full-width LED lighting strip, roof spoiler, and a rakish ‘fastback’ tailgate that seriously limits the practicality of the boot. Unlike the Q7 you can’t have a third row of seats either, so the Q8 is strictly a five-seater.
A facelift in 2024 saw some additional styling tweaks applied to the Q8, but these were fairly minor. New grille patterns, larger side intakes and redesigned exhausts are some of the few exterior features that distinguish the facelifted car.
Underneath, the standard Q8 is offered with the choice of a 3.0-litre TFSI 55 petrol or a 3.0-litre TDI 50 diesel engine. The diesel’s mild-hybrid technology can actually shut down the engine when coasting between 34 and 99mph, which helps to improve this heavy SUV’s efficiency. All Q8s feature quattro four-wheel drive and an eight-speed automatic gearbox.
Inside, along with plenty of plush materials, there’s a twin-touchscreen MMI dashboard featuring Audi’s Virtual Cockpit setup. Facelifted cars still have the same physical technology, but the software received an update which allows the system to display active safety information.
Two performance versions of the Q8 are also available. The mid-range SQ8 is powered by a twin-turbocharged 4.0-litre petrol V8 which produces a healthy 500bhp and 770Nm of torque. This is certainly far from slow, but the fully-hardcore RS Q8 ups the power again to 592bhp and 800Nm.
The regular Q8 is available in three trim levels, S line, Black Edition and Vorsprung. All three are well equipped, although the S line is less lavishly indulgent than the Vorsprung model. The range-topper comes with a seriously impressive amount of safety kit, including Audi’s latest autonomous systems – although the S Line isn’t exactly hard done by.
With its eye-catching styling and significant road presence, the Q8 is not a car for shrinking violets. As if to back that up, the options list includes bold body colours like Java green and Velvet purple. S line models ride as standard on 21-inch alloys, but the larger 22-inch wheels from the Vorsprung are a popular upgrade.
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