First Impressions - 2000miles
 

So I purchased a Q7 Prestige (Ink Blue with Gray Leather), with DAP, Cold Weather and Towing back in November.

Buying Decision:

I've been looking for something to replace my Honda Odyssey (probably not a common situation for Q7 purchasers). I wanted something that balanced safety, reliability, performance, technology, luxury and practicality. The consumer reports review (it blew every other SUV in their reports by 10 points) and other reviews in the press influenced me to get a test drive. After that I didn't even bother looking at anything else. It really did check all the boxes. It was then just a question of options I wanted. The community here was tremendously helpful, and definitely pushed me into buying a lower speced Prestige vs. a high speced PP+. This was absolutely the right decision in hindsight. It was very tough finding a car with the exact specs I wanted in the SF Bay Area, in particular I wanted gray leather and not black or white, and I did not want the 21 inch summer tires. I found almost a perfect match in a SoCal dealer, and negotiated an 8% discount fairly quickly (think I could probably have got a little more). The only things it had I didn't want were Audi rings ($250) and USB cables ($110 LOL!). It shipped from SoCal for $250. BTW Bay Area folks, definitely worth looking at SoCal dealers.

First Impressions.

Overall - Love it. It really does check my boxes on safety, reliability, performance, technology, luxury and practicality.

Specifics

Driving - It really is effortless. The car is perfect on the freeway, but it also handles great being thrown around. My only quibble is I'd like a little bit more power off the line, but we have a Q5 TDI so that may taint me.
DAP - I will never ever buy a car again without these features. The Dynamic Cruise Control just makes driving so much more relaxing particularly here in the bay area. My only quibbles with it, is that during lane merges it doesn't sense the car to your side well, when you're in a free lane, but next to one with stopped traffic, it naturally speeds up, where you would normally be more cautious that someone might pull out in front of you, and I've had two false positives on the reverse out, where it auto stopped me because of a car on the other side of the road coming that I would not have hit. That said I guess false positives are preferable to false negatives
Controls - once you get used to them, very intuitive
Vision Package - love the full screen view on the dash
Heads Up Display - This is one of my reasons for thanking the community for pushing me to a Prestige. Really I did not think I'd be bothered by this, but it's great particularly when linked to navigation and DAP.
3rd Row - yes, it's tight, but it serves the purpose I want which is every now and again I'm going to use it for short trips, and it's nice to have that option
Colors - the Ink Blue is just a little too close to black for me, and if I'd been patient I might have waited for other blues. Love the Gray leather, and simply don't understand why they don't put it in more cars. It makes the cabin feel lighter and looks great.
Audi MMI - really like this, in particular the send directions to car from Google Maps. The SMS and Email features on it are nice. I wish there was a way to add more auto reply options. My paranoia also likes being able to check if car is locked
Android Auto - not really used it much, because the Audi MMI works nicely. Need to get into it more. Wanted to use what's app on it and not found out how to do it.

That's about it. Happy to answer any questions back to the community, since it helped me so much in the buying decision.

Congrats on your purchase! I have a very similar configuration and color combination. Thankfully we are on opposite coasts so we are still relatively unique ;-) While I own my Q7, my wife leases her A4. Since the A4 is the newest toy, she constantly asks which vehicle I like better. Q7 of coarse; despite all the technology, my favorite feature is the acoustic glass. The cabin is so quiet, I feel like I am in my own little world. As with anything, it has its quirks, but I 100% agree with you that there is no better vehicle on the road.

Steve

Have about 2k on my Q7 Prestige and love it. I swore I would never buy another German vehicle but the Q7 was highly rated and I have not been disappointed.

Glad to know that you are enjoying your new Q7! Its seriously ahead of the competition in its price range and segment.

Totally agree with everything you said. Audi Rings... Why are they so expensive, but they look cool. I use Apple instead of Android, but same findings as you. I didn't want the cold weather pack, but like the warm steering wheel. USB Cables are ridiculous price. Really wanted DAP, but love it better than I thought I would.

Bought the Q7 using the same source you did. CR had it at a 90 which was ahead of the Lexus and MB and BMW peers. Predicted reliability was also decent, if I remember correctly, which was some assurance.

About Android Auto, I thought it was rather simple to use. Just get the app on your phone and plug it in via the USB cable. I don't think you can do chat apps, like WhatsApp, on Android Auto, but I could be wrong. I think Audi wants you not distracted with reading and responding to texts, although I do believe it reads out your phone's texts and allows you to respond via voice control.

But mostly, AA seems to be more for navigation and streaming music, as those are the only apps that show up in the AA menu and listed as compatible by the app.

Nice review OP, next week will be 8 months since we took delivery and I am just as pleased with it as I was on day one. I am going to sound like a broken record, but I am still amazed at how nimble and quick the Q7 is for such a big and heavy SUV.

Sure it has it's quirks (what vehilce doesn't), but as of today I would buy it again without a second thought.

I am just hitting 2k as well...bought the car on Oct. 31st...haven't really driven as much as I usually do. I agree with all that's been said here. What struck me is how unbelievably quiet the car is. I have the night vision and it's a great feature. My least favorite feature is the auto engine shutoff--I disable it most of the time... the car lurches slightly when it starts up. Not sure the gas tank/mpg info is accurate, as has been reported in other threads...it showed 65 miles until empty and took just under 18 gals to fill. Getting 24-26 mpg on the hwy. Had a big snowstorm here yesterday and had to drive in difficult conditions...normally, it's a white knuckle drive. The Q7 handled it effortlessly and I felt very safe and secure. That's worth every penny...