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We just completed our second family road trip in the Q7. Our first trip was over Christmas break from Austin to Orlando to take our daughter to Disney World. The car had barely over 100 miles before we did the long drive.
This past week we completed a trip from Austin to SoCal with my pregnant wife, two kids (niece 14 and nephew 11), and our baby daughter. We logged over 3300 miles over the week and had no issues with the car.
Here are some impressions:
Comfort levels were great. One of the kids complained about the 3rd row seating but we eventually moved him into the back seat (2nd row) and had no further complaints the rest of the trip.
Space was a constraint, despite the size. Thule roof rack solved that problem.
Apple carplay still sucks.
The headlights still suck unless you use highbeams. Almost hit a deer one night.
Arizona heat is no joke. 119F made my legs burn even with the AC on. Has anyone thermal tinted their front windshield?
Overall fuel economy was around 21mpg. The Thule didn't help.
Quattro made driving through a torrential downpour effortless.
The 3.0 V6 made passing and merging onto the highway a breeze.
About the headlights, though, why do they suck? I found the Q7's to be bright enough and wide enough. I know it can be subjective based on the driver but what did you find lacking or frustrating about them?
If you adjust the headlights up a little bit they are much better, and I have yet to have anybody flash their lights at me to let me know they were too high / bright. I believe they are aimed too low from the factory.
Great road trip vehicles! We took 2 grandsons from Alabama to the Grand Canyon via The Four Corners a few years back in our old one.
Did Alabama to Gettysburg PA. In that one too. So far the new to us TDI has done two trips to DFW where our son’s family lives and last week Birmingham to Orlando with local grandsons. Three rows is a necessity when you have 8 grandsons!
Last edited by J. Patterson; 07-09-2018 at 04:17 PM.
We did a 2500 miles trip as well in June and had no issues with the car. I used the adaptive cruise control with Auto drive 99 percent of the time and the car got 27 MPG! Very Impressive!
I found that the headlights are bright and adequate. There were a couple times that I did have to turn on the high beams.
I agreed that the cargo space is a little tight but we had plenty of room for our luggages for the four of us.
I had a local shop installed 3M clear crystalline 75% tint on the windshield and it did an amazing job of keeping my arms and legs cool.
07-09-2018, 02:26 PM
Q7 Long road trip review
