PHYBENZ

Sorry for the delay guys but as I said before I was going to a Q7 testdrive event last weekend here in miami, and I did! So here is the experince and some pics.

When I pulled I was asked if I was there for the Q7 and I said yes so I was directed to the parking lot and by the time I got to my space there was a Q7 waiting for me to hop in and take me to the check-in area. Mind you the walk was not far at all but it was a nice first taste of the car driven by an Audi person. It was a short ride but got to see the back-up camera in action.

I got to the check-in area and was greeted very nicely. Check-in took a couple of minutes because the network died but I was on my way with a personalized nametag and lanyard to put around my neck. I then had three options, go eat, drive the Q7 on the road, or go to the track where there was a Q7, TT, A4, A3, A8 and also a professionally driven RS4.

The Q7 as I have said in the past looks better in person but from some angles does look weird. I also noticed that it doesn't look as good in lighter colors, and when it is in a lighter color the plastic on the lower portion of the car isn't black but a silvery color which I think looks weird, because it doesn't match with the light color so it looks mismatched.

The interior quality is good, but as I have said there is evidence of cost cutting. The lower portion of the dash is all hard plastic, and flimsy directly to the right of your right leg. One very nice feature I found is that when you have the hatch open and you are loading stuff you can press a button to raise and lower the rear of the car to make the loading easier. very nice touch.

Well I first went on my "city" drive of the Q7. One was waiting for me right away and I got in and adjusted everything to my liking and was off with an audi person in the passneger seat. The steering was pretty light for a vehicle this size. It had navigation, which is not standard, as well as sirius radio. I found it easy to find a comfortable driving position and guages and everything were nice laid out and legible. I do find the MMI a little finnicky to use though. So the drive.... The car had decent pick up for its size but to tell you the truth I did expect a little more. It was very smooth though and felt smaller than it really is. There wasn't too much engine noise inside the cabin except when under hard acceleration. The back-up camera was very cool and easy to use. A cool feature it had was the "blind spot" feature where when you are driving above 30 miles per hour and someone is in your blid spot a yellow light turns on, on the inside of the mirror that you can easily see to let you know. I found it to be a nice feature especially for a car this size. Once we returned it was off to the track!

An airconditioned bus drove us to the track and you were allowed three drives plus the ride by the professional in the RS4. The track was a little disspointing because unlike MB's tracks at these types of events there really wasn't an area that you could take the car very fast nor test the braking. At MB events you start on a straigh away and then you slam on the brakes, there was no such thing here... The other thing was that you were limited to the number of times you could drive a car, 3. At MB you could sit there all day if you wanted.

Q7: On the track it felt like an SUV. I won't lie. The steering was light though and you were able to toss it around, but I think it's size came out here. I didn't feel it was as nimble as an ML, but nonetheless it was a good drive. There was a decent amount of body roll, but you always felt in control. The brakes I though gave good feedback and were pretty easily modulated.

A3: I thought the A3 was by far the most frun to drive! That car is awesome. You could toss it around veer easily, but always felt in control. It was a manual so that always adds a sense of control, at least to me, but sttill I thought this car was great.

A4: The A4 was auto and basically what you expect from A4. Not as nimble or as fun as an A3, but better than a Q7.

TT: This is where I became shocked. This was by far the worst drive I though. The steering was incredibly heavy on this car. It felt like you had to put a lot of effort to turn the car and was just not fun to drive. The only fun thing was that it was equipped with the paddle shift transmission which was veryt fun to use, but the steering was a severe turn off.

RS4: THIS WAS INSANE! You get in with a professional driver and all I can say is WOW. He guns it right off the bat and you are glued to the seat. My camera did fly off of my lap during the drive though. The course bacsue it had rained had some wet patches which I think made the experince even more impressive because you could feel the car lose traction and the quattro kick in. The drive was crazy though taking turns at very high speeds in water where you could feel us sliding but we were always in control. That was possibly the greatest experince.

I then took the bus back and got a quick bite to eat and left. Upon exit I took a survey and they gave me this nice audi book. Upon opening it and reading it though, the book was from like 4 years ago and severaly outdated, but still a nice touch.

Well that is the report, and if you have any questions please ask!

Centurion

Nice review and pictures allways great to look at.

BTW how do you guys get invitations to these type of events?

BMW_Dude

Great review dude!

Was it the new TT you were driving, if so this can't be good for Audi!

So between the Q7 and ML, which SUV would you choose?

PHYBENZ

It was the previous generation TT not the new luckily for Audi, but that would have been awesome to test drive!!

I would choose the ML becase of its size, but I think the real comparison is between the Gl and Q7. I do beleive that the Audi inerior feels a little more special than the ML and GL's. I have sat in an ML but haven't driven it.

BMW_Dude

Few, I was gonna say Audi had failed!

Thinking about it, the new TT hasn't been driven by the press, so it would be available for the public, should have thought about that!