biofluke

Has anyone here successfully upgraded their door cards from non-luxury pack to luxury pack upper leather trim? I thought it wouldn't bother me because on my wife's Q7 the non-leather trimmed upper part of the door card felt very high quality. However, the RSQ8 non-luxury package upper door card feels super plastic and creaky when pressed on. It's pretty annoying that the RSQ8 door card would be creaky and cheaper feeling than a 2018 Audi Q7 door card.

Looking at the construction and parts available on Audi website, they don't seem to sell just the top part. It looks like it MIGHT be possible to remove the leather part and put it on my door, but impossible to tell without the interior pieces in front of me, and then there's always the risk of assembly/build quality. I see a few junkyard door cards for sale, but they aren't much less than a brand new one, and god knows what condition it'd be in.

On that same note, has anyone installed an Alcantara headliner after the fact? That seems a bit more straightforward but hasn't bothered me as much as the leather trim on the doors, which now appears to be standard on the 2023 models.

Glad to see this forum so active, so hopefully, someone can chime in.

Parts dealers - feel free to PM me some quotes

ThomasWShea

This guy was contemplating a swap:
https://www.audiworld.com/forums/aud...-swap-3049417/

Have u considered having a place that does interior work doing leather on your current cards? I think there are ways they can get the same leather, or maybe even something nicer. I assume now days they are good at matching too.

retom

It is not very complicated to replace the doors panels but could be expensive if you decide to buy them from Audi. All buttons, door handles, handles with LED lines and wires can be used from your "old" panels. Unfortunately the upper, leather part is the one part with the whole panel and can't be removed.
I would look for such panels on the internet, but I'm afraid they may be sold mainly by European sellers.
Alcantara headliner is more complex and expensive as you need also all side trims. Of course everything is doable, but this is just a matter of price.

ThomasWShea

the other thing to note on the headliner: if you had gray and planed to switch to black alcantara there are other ceiling components (console trim, sun visors and plastic trim - and maybe more) that you'd also need to buy to have everything black. i don't think that applies to SQ8 or RSQ8 because all of those come with black headliners, even if they don't have Alcantara.

Pabla

For the door cards it wont be to hard to swap them, Europrice sells them, but they are very pricey. Your best bet is to get a shop to wrap the portions for a fraction of the price.

The headline will definitely be expensive and hard to replace, in some cars to get the headliner out you need to remove the windshield (if the trunk opening is big enough it may be able to squeeze out of there). Buying that brand new will also be super pricey so you may be better off having a shop do it.

ThomasWShea

when i was considering buying used, so many didn't have the alcantara headliner, it was one reason i ended up ordering.

SQ8westcoast

have you considered ordering a new RSQ8 , spec'd to your needs , it will take a year but your current car will appreciate until it arrives. You'll pay MSRP for your new one and sell your current one for a premium , sufficient to pay for the special features you want .

retom

The best solution will be if you go to a car upholsterer. He will trim the door cards with leather so that they will look OEM. For 1/3 the price of new panels.
I've seen leather trim on the door panels in the new X5. Indistinguishable from OEM.

biofluke

Ok I think this is solid advice. I am going to look into an upholster instead. Thank you for chiming in!