2022 Audi SQ7 review: Ready for take-off
With a fearsome thirst for fuel, Audi’s super SUV may have bad timing, but no one who drives one is likely to give a flying fig
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LEOW JU-LEN
HERE’S a car you could picture Maverick behind the wheel of, if everyone’s favourite Top Gun instructor ever left the US Navy to become an SQ pilot and family man, that is. It might be as big as an aircraft carrier, but the Audi SQ7 has plenty in common with your average fighter jet.
For a start, it’s endowed with serious firepower, with enough under the bonnet to catapult it to 100 km/h in just 4.1 seconds. I don’t know how that compares with a Boeing F/A 18F, but there aren’t many cars that can do that — let alone 7-seat sport utility vehicles (SUVs).
Given how big the SQ7 is, you might be forgiven for thinking that it’s propelled by a whacking great 12-cylinder engine, but what you find instead when you peek under the bonnet is a small volcano. Just kidding, it’s a 4.0-litre V8, but then it might as well be one, for all the rumbling noises it makes. More to the point, it breathes through two turbochargers to turn petrol into 507 horsepower, which is borderline Ferrari stuff.
The SQ7 does roll into town with spectacularly bad timing, however. Now that pump prices are at eye-watering levels, filling its 85-litre tank with the premium stuff means parting with 3 crisp S$100 notes. Or look at it this way: given the car’s fondness for fuel, I’ve worked out that it costs roughly a dollar to cover 2 km in the Audi, which implies the average driver should budget a good S$7,000 a year to keep it fed.
But do you think Maverick gives a flying fig how much money it costs to keep his afterburners glowing? Not a chance, when there are thrills to be had and huge g-forces to be withstood — and sure enough, you get both with this Audi.
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The SQ7 looks more hippo than ballerina, but I say slap on a tutu and watch it dance. When you climb aboard, there’s never escaping the fact that it’s a big, wide car, and you do get a sense of huge mass underneath you, but when you attack a bend with some aplomb, it’s pretty eye-opening how the Audi goes about it in a no-nonsense kind of way. It resists body roll heroically, and there’s enough grip from the tyres to serve up some white knuckle cornering speeds. Then, of course, there’s the all-wheel drive system that Audi is famous for, to provide the traction for speedy exits that would have Maverick grinning maniacally.
I can’t see anyone wanting their SQ7 to be even more solidly connected to the tarmac, but there’s a S$26,680 advanced suspension package that adds active roll bars and a torque split device to make the car more stable through turns, and sharper when it leaves them. If you really want an SQ7 because your idea of a good time is to menace sports cars in one, you might as well spend the extra money.
The car itself already costs half a million, but then it does deliver plenty for the cash. The cabin is typical high-end Audi, so the materials are lovely and everything looks slick, but since this is a sporty S model, the dashboard is trimmed with carbon fibre, which to a car guy is what raw aluminium must be to a horny robot. You can add massage chairs up front for S$1,390 (essential if you do long distances), and despite the steady handling the car, it doesn’t take bumps like a go-kart. It’s serene inside, but if anything, the SQ7 is almost too quiet, given how good the stormy V8 sounds.
Meanwhile, colleagues loved how roomy the back seats were, though none of them had the misfortune of riding in the third row seats, which is a no-grownups zone. That area is clearly the least well-thought-out part of the Audi, not least because there’s nowhere to stow the luggage cover.
Still, one suspects the SQ7’s third-row seats are mostly there, under a cloak of versatility, to sneak the car past the radar of the family’s financial comptroller. At heart, any car enthusiast can see that this is a car to be bought purely for frivolous reasons, because who really needs an SUV that can harry a sports car? A maverick is who.
Audi SQ7 4.0 TFSI Quattro
Engine: 3,996 cc, V8, twin-turbocharged
Power: 507 hp at 5,500 rpm
Torque: 770 Nm at 2,000 to 4,000 rpm
Gearbox: 8-speed dual-clutch
0-100km/h: 4.1 seconds
Top speed: 250 km/h
Fuel efficiency: 13.3 L/100km
Agent: Premium Automobiles
Price: S$493,951 with COE
Available: Now
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