No, this isn’t a belated Back to the Future sequel. No, you haven’t tripped and stumbled into The Time Tunnel. Doctor Who has nothing to do with this, and it’s not 2010 all over again. All that being the case, yes, this new Audi Q7 really is launching to Irish customers with only the choice of two different versions of the same 3.0 litre V6 diesel engine.
It’s as if the intervening 16 years had simply not happened.
Is Audi mad? Evidently not. For all the four-ringed brand’s global sales and profit travails, here in Ireland it’s riding high. Not only is it the bestselling premium brand, with a 6.34 per cent climb in sales so far this year, it’s also ahead of its rivals at BMW by a slender 200 car sales number, and it sits at a lofty – for a posh brand – sixth position in the Irish sales charts. China may have fallen out of love with Audis; Ireland has most certainly not.
In fact, the pricey Audi Q3 outsells such affordable cars as the Hyundai Inster and the Dacia Bigster which is kind of nuts really. The huge Q7 has, unsurprisingly, been less successful so far this year, finding only 129 Irish buyers in its run-out period, but it was a big hit in 2025 so clearly there’s a market for such a vehicle.
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This new Q7 is actually slightly smaller than the outgoing car – which is welcome – but only in one dimension. It’s a slim 11mm shorter overall, but a whopping 66mm taller and 40mm wider – in neither dimension would you have previously found the old Q7 coming up short. This is now a whopper of a car, a fact emphasised by its massive, honking great grille, which of course lights up for the ultimate in bling, or the nadir of naff – choose at your own discretion.
The grille is mounted and surrounded by slim LED running lights and larger, but largely concealed, main beam units, and it has a jawline that surely only John Hamm can hope to match. Pretty? Not remotely. Imposing? Definitely. Aggressive? To an extent that truly makes you wonder of the mental wellbeing of its potential customers. For what perceived lack, precisely, are they compensating?
At least the lights, OLED units, are clever – the rear ones can flash warning signals to cars approaching from behind, while at night the new indicators project flashing arrows on to the road surface around the car, emphasising your need for a lane change NOW.
Inside, the Q7 is a success. Yes, there’s a lot of familiar stuff from other, lesser Audis, but the big touchscreen works well even in the absence of sufficient physical buttons, and overall quality is simply excellent. Few cars feel so reassuringly solid when the door clunks shut (and that door can, optionally, be powered to open and close electrically). Space up front is simply not an issue, and nor are comfort nor practicality, although the extra touch screen for the passenger remains superfluous.
As standard, this Q7 comes with seven seats, and the middle row is simply excellent with limo-like space, comfort comparable to the front seats, and a middle rear seat that’s actually big enough for even someone as chunky as me to use.
Better yet, for families, there are not only three Isofix child seat anchors in the middle row, but two more in the folding third row and another in the front passenger seat. We present the king of the school run (assuming the access road is wide enough).
Those folding rear seats are just about adequate for adults but more suitable for kids, as ever in a non-MPV. They fold electrically, as does the middle row, which sounds good, but the seats move with almost agonising slowness. If you prefer, for about €1,000, you can have a six-seat layout instead, with a pair of individual seats in the middle row. The boot, with third-row seats stashed away, runs to an impressive 722 litres up to the tops of the seats.
Is diesel really the Q7’s only choice? Well, yes, for now. Until early next year, the Q7 will come with only 245hp or 299hp versions of the same mild-hybrid 3.0 litre V6 diesel (which draws a bonus 18kW of power from its tiny electric motor when needed). Some time in the initial months of 2027, a plug-in hybrid Q7 will arrive, which will be much more modern in its outlook, long-ranged on a full charge, and which will save you just over €20,000, dipping the Q7’s price tag below the €100,000. However, that hybrid will not be a seven-seater – the battery takes up too much space, so as with the old model (but unlike Volvo’s brilliantly packaged, and 12-year-old, XC90), the PHEV Q7 will be a five-seat only affair.
To help with the driving experience, the Q7 gets standard-fit air suspension, quattro four-wheel drive, and even rear-wheel steering to make it feel more agile in tight quarters. Which it does, but this is a truly enormous machine, so on anything less than a full-width motorway, it seems to drape over the edges of the road, like boot-cut jeans.
It’s not a bad car to drive. It rides with delicious comfort, albeit there’s a sense of knobbliness from the standard 21-inch alloys. The diesel V6 plays the familiar old “vroooargh” theme, but at a considerate distance from your earholes. The steering feels light but precise. However, there’s simply no getting away from the sheer size. Combined with, for now, diesel-only power and that €122,050 price tag for the basic SE model (for a limited time, until the hybrid arrives, you can get the better-equipped S-Line for only €5 more), the Q7 starts to feel more and more like a car out of time.
There is also a potentially better option, arriving from Audi at the same time. Okay, so you have to sacrifice seven seats, but the new A6 Allroad gets adjustable air suspension, quattro four-wheel drive, a raised ride height (without the raised body), and sleek, shark-like styling for some €30,000 less than a Q7. Plus it’s a plug-in hybrid as standard, and so will potentially get 100km out of a full charge of its battery and should provide much better all-round fuel economy, not to mention being better to drive. The battery brings compromises in the boot area, but honestly it’s so much more of a tempting car compared to the beached whale that is the Q7.
Of course, the Q7 will inevitably be more successful, because most car buyers still suffer from the same mass delusion that SUV equals better. Equally, this diesel model will sell better in certain quarters of the country than will the plug-in hybrid, which will assume overall best-seller duties when it arrives. I’d have the lower-slung A6 Allroad every time, though.
