sorcereur

Hello Ladies and Gents,
Just picked up a new to me 2013 Audi Q7 TDI Prestige in the stunning Daytona Gray Pearl effect. This is not my first Audi as I've had the S5 and an exquisite Sepang blue RS5, but this ridiculous biological desire to get married and procreate has caused me to abandon those exotics for the more family friendly vehicles. I had gotten out of Audis for a couple of years, but am now back with the ***** mammoth Audi Q7.
Actually, the Q7 isn't a replacement for those fun cars as that would be sacrilege, but it is replacing a Sapphire Blue Touareg 2 TDI which was the most well built vehicle I owned and my reason for sticking to the TDI engine.
With the price of the Q7s having tumbled so low lately, I figured it would be a great time to jump back into an Audi.
Picked up the vehicle in Florida couple of weekends ago and took it down to Miami for the weekend before driving it back almost 900miles home. Gave me a good opportunity to familiarize myself with the vehicle.

First the color, as you can see I have this thing about blue cars. All of the ones i've owned have been unique colors that made people do double takes. So I was hunting for another blue Q7 at first. I found one, but it didn't leave me in awe as the other blues i've gotten in the past. Then out of nowhere I spotted this daytona gray pearl that was beautifully captured by a photographer who knew what they were doing.
When order my RS5 back in the day, the daytona gray was on top of my list until I saw one and was turned off cause it looked dull. But on this Q7, I was at a lost for words. The way the color spoke to me in sunlight and how it changed depending on the angle of the shot, were the same reaction I had when I was drawn to the previous blues that I owned. Black in some angles, maroon in certain ones, yet gray in others was something mesmerizing. And this was all captured in photos. So this had to be the one. Made arrangements and flew down with the wife and toddler to make a weekend and family trip out of the experience.
My wife is one of those women who likes fine cars but could care less about the different between gray or silver, about s-line prestige and others, or 2007 vs 2010+ for that matter. However when we arrived and the car was pulled out of the garage (indoor used car salesman, something i had never seen before), both my wife and I stopped dead in our tracks at how beautiful of a vehicle it was. Sitting pretty in the florida sunshine, the color and pearl effect were dazzling while the aggressive stance on the 21" titanium wheels was something to behold in person. For my wife to have that reaction was justification for the added cost.

Having owned recent gens Audis before, I was familiar with their features. I wanted the prestige for sure for certain functions, i wish I had the bang and olufsen system as it was excellent in my RS5 but it wasn't a must have, and I decided to stay away from the air suspension as I am planning on keeping this car long term and I figured it would be one less complication... Although the system was excellent in my touareg and never had a single issue throughout my 80kmiles of ownership in that vehicle. After quickly adding satellite radio and configuring the system to my liking, i was pleasantly surprised at how great the BOSE system is. Gone are the days where I get to drive around with the system on near max since I would have the kid in tow with me most of the time in this vehicle. For what it would be used for, it produces great sound in my opinion; but i'm no expert. Not quite up to par to the Dynaudio setup in my Touareg, but good enough.
The TDI engine, and enough positives cannot be said about this power plant, is one of the best to drive in my opinion. Same engine as in the touareg so i was very familiar with it, however in its current form I hear the turbo spool under acceleration which I didn't in the touareg. There is more engine noise heard in the cabin of the Q7 than the touareg allowed. And good noises at that. A bit more throatiness and turbo spool as i've already mentioned under acceleration. So this was a pleasant surprise. The Touareg was made to complete isolate you so you didn't hear anything with the windows closed. The ever-present lowend torque of the TDI always putting a grin on your face even when not pushing it was made for a vehicle this heavy. Quick and effortless acceleration with very little throttle and very low RPMs as always, yet very good on gas even around town. With all the negative publicity VW and diesel gate, I think it is one of the best powerplants around. Perhaps the engine pollutes more than desired, but what is the carbon footprint of producing/refining a barrel of diesel fuel compared to gasoline? Maybe that balances out? Kinda like even though a prius is very fuel efficient, the carbon footprint of producing the system isn't as eco friendly as regular owners think.... I really don't know, but i'm quietly hoping that is the case to help me feel good inside for having bought something that is labeled as being a pollutant... That's a different topic I suppose but it doesn't take away from the fact that it is a wonderful engine for heavy vehicles of this size.

I was pleasantly surprised at how well the Q7 hides its weight while driving. I didn't expect it to feel this sporty considering I didn't go for the air suspension. The touareg had a sport mode that lowered the vehicles and firmed up the suspension so that was expected to feel sporty, so I didn't expect that from the Q7 at all since it is supposed to be a family vehicle. At the same time, it doesn't feel uncomfortable, even with the 21" wheels. What did catch me off guard however was the length of the vehicle. I've already curb rashed 2 of the wheels during the first 2 days of ownership because I didn't anticipate how long and wide the car was. Minor scratches, but because the wheels are the titanium colored ones there is a bit of silver showing up that I need to find some touch up paint for. My audi parts rep says they don't know what that is since they only sell touch up paint for the body not the wheels. Sounds like horse manure but I will search the forum for a solution as I'm sure I'm not the first to have done that.

All in all, it is a great vehicle as you guys already know. I'm aware that I am preaching to the choir here. With that said however, there are 3 negative things that stood out to me so far. First thing are the headlights. The Touareg 2 that I owned had the brightest headlight projectors of any vehicle that I have ever owned. Those things put out a massive amount of light on the road. My Q7 on the other hand is a major disappointment in that aspect. I have to take out the headlights to see if the previous owner or dealer didn't replace the HIDs with halogens, that's how very little light these things put out. I'm certain they're HIDs but it's really terrible. I'm already looking at picking up some OSRAM bulbs to replace the ones that are in there. Obviously Audi knows how to make HIDs as the ones in my S5 and RS5 were excellent. I gotta figure out what's going on there.
Second negative thing is the center driver information system. I knew what expect there as it's the same in the S5 and RS5 but if you ever drove the Touareg with that large Information System between the gauges, you would know what I mean. Yea I know the new gen Q7 fixes that, but even in the 1st gen Q7 they should have used the Touareg system. Heck, even Bentley used that same touareg driver information system so why couldn't audi do the same. Not only was it large, it was a lot more informative and configurable than the Q7. For a vehicle this size, it would have been more fitting than the tiny little display we were given.
Third complaint I have is the steering wheel getting stuck in the highest position. I know this was a fault or failure, but what made it a complaint is the response I got from my advisor. I was told that they get cars brought in all the time for this and it's usually because the driver puts some weight on the steering while entering or exciting the vehicle... I was well prepared for that or possibly motor/column replacement as I researched the issue before taking the vehicle in, but if Audi cannot engineer a power tilting/telescoping steering that can withstand being yanked on, then they need to call up toyota or even hyundai possibly. This was unacceptable. Here's what made it worst. The steering wouldn't tilt but would telescope. Took it in, and the advisor called me to tell me it was just something that needed to be reset so the problem was fixed and car ready to pick up. I go pick it up and on first attempt it's not tilting again. I call him up and he has his tech take a look again and says there are no codes or faults and the reset fixed it yet again. At which point he proceeds to provide me with the explanation of user error in the nicest way. I've had great experience with these guys in the past as they have serviced all of my vehicles, but this left me sort of pissed off. I just told him ok, we will see how it goes and i'll be back if it stops working again. Now mind you that I know for a fact that I didn't pull on the steering or even touched it while entering or exciting the vehicle. I am tall enough to sit directly in the seat without needing to try to climb into the vehicle. I even made it a point to watch for this behavior since reading similar issues on the forum and having been told the same. A company like Audi should be ashamed of having to tell that to their customers. I owned an Infiniti M45 for about 5 years and not 1 day did the power
function of the wheel fail. Nor did my wife's RX330 with the same function.

None of these complaints take anything away from how great of a vehicle the Q7 is or how enjoyable it is, except maybe the HIDs at night currently which I plan to address.

Sorry for the long post, but only way I could share my wonderful experience with the car so far.

J. Patterson

Nice review. We have a 2015 S5 Prestige and a 2011 Q7 TDI Prestige. Most of what you say corresponds with my experience except the headlights. Our Q7 headlights seem a bit better than the S5. Are your Q7 headlights the advanced headlight with cornering beams?
I will say that a 2006 A6 Prestige with advanced headlights that we used to own had the best headlights I have ever had though. Better than either of these two current cars.
Those headlights had crisper patterns and actually steered with the steering wheel as it was turned. The cornering beams on the Q7 simply turn on as the wheel is turned sharply. The S5 lights just shine straight ahead regardless.

D3Audi

Pick up some Osram Cool Blue Intense Bulbs. They're fantastic

sorcereur

@J Patterson, mine has the adaptive lights as the driver display mentions it depending on where the switch is. Also the lights definitely swivel with the wheel and the cornering lights do come on. They're just very weak for what I would expect and for something this recent.

@D3, yea those are the bulbs I'm looking to install. I hope this takes care of it.

I'm wondering if this is a characteristic of the Q7 or if there's something up with my bulbs. Now mind you they're not dim or discolored. It's just that they don't live up to factory HID standard in my opinion. I just got rid of a new golf GTI that had lights that were so much brighter than this Q7. It's just very intriguing to me. I'll try to take some pix to show what I'm talking about and some comparisons when I put in the OSRAMs.

jetsfan101

if you want the best light output, pick up a set of ecode headlights from germany and sell yours. Will cost you a net of few hundred $ but will be well worth it if you care about light output. Ecode headlights are the best. Oh and you get rid of the amber marker

iconoclast did this.