2025 Audi SQ7: Way fast, way expensive, way snug

2025 Acura MDX Type S SH-AWD Type S w/Advance vs. Audi SQ7 Prestige: The “Geez, this is really a lot of money for an SUV” comparison.

This week: Audi SQ7, seriously a lot of money.

Price: $116,540 as tested. The Prestige Package added a bunch for $6,100, like LED headlights, OLED taillights, heated rear seats, intersection assist, head-up display, massage front seats, and more; the S Sport Package added better brakes, roll stabilization, and differential for $6,000; Night Vision Assistant added $2,500; more noted throughout.

Conventional wisdom: Car and Driver lauded the “eye-opening performance, impressive blend of ride and handling, emotive V-8 soundtrack,” and panned the “mediocre fuel efficiency, tight third row, sobering price tag.”

Marketer’s pitch: “Accelerate your standards.”

Reality: Super nice. Six-figure nice?

Catching up: With the SQ7 costing 50% more than the MDX S Type, readers may wonder just what kind of comparison this is. But the two models — the SQ7 is a souped-up version of the Q7 — do compete in the three-row SUV segment. Let’s see if that extra $40-grand is really worth it.

What’s new: The Q7/SQ7 get a new look outside, and connectivity to Amazon, YouTube, and other apps. But the media site still links to the 2020 models for most of the details, so my review of the 2022 Q7 still mostly holds up.

Competition: In addition to the Acura MDX, there’s the BMW X7; Land Rover Range Rover; Lexus GX, LX, and TX; Volvo XC90.

Up to speed: Acceleration in the SQ7 is beyond impressive. The 4.0-liter V-8 creates a whopping 500 horsepower, and it shows: Its 0-60 time of 3.8 seconds recorded by Car and Driver puts it in EV territory. And, yes, it sounds great doing it.

The lesser Q7 gets either a 261-horsepower four-cylinder or a 335-horsepower V-6.

“Delightful,” “awesome,” and “flying” were among the adjectives I wrote in my notes — I really adored driving the SQ7. But some pieces made it less than stellar.

Shifty: Audi’s T-bar shifter remains a favorite. Shifting is available using it or the paddles on steering wheel. The 8-speed TipTronic transmission performed without comment.

On the road: Handling is amazing. Keep it in Dynamic mode; I’m not sure why the others even need to be there. (Well, off-road may have its uses, but not for the pavement-based Mr. Driver’s Seat.)

All-wheel drive comes standard on the Q7/SQ7.

Highway riding could be quite firm, as I found out on some stretches of Pennsylvania roads.

Driver’s Seat: The SQ7 seat feels comfortable and supportive, and the leather has a broken-in quality. The added leather surfaces and cooler headliner came courtesy the $3,700 Luxury Package.

First-world problems — among the issues I had with the SQ7 malfunctioning was the shutdown of the massage feature. If I’m going to pay this much for a vehicle, it should massage me, darn it; I showed up wearing just a towel the first time. (Hey, neighbors, it’s safe to open the curtains again.)

Friends and stuff: The second row is pretty miserable for any price point, but especially for this one. The seats are hard and narrow and individual, so it’s like riding in an airplane. There’s no comfortable way to take up more space if fewer than three people ride back there.

Set up the middle row to be somewhat uncomfortable leg-wise, and the people in the far back will be fairly stranded. The roof sits quite low, so getting around is also a challenge. And the rear window is very close to the back seat.

The rear row seat backs had a power folding operation, but the middle was all manual, and it was combative. I especially had a challenge moving the center seat.

Cargo space ranges from 13.6 cubic feet to 68.2.

Play some tunes: The Bang and Olufsen Advanced Sound System with 3D Sound offered some excellent playback, about an A, and for $4,900 it should. The surround sound could really add echo to songs, so it may not be for everyone.

Unfortunately, the infotainment system gave me no end of trouble. At first it wouldn’t even fire up properly. Radio selections wouldn’t load, and it would not recognize my phone.

So I put a call into the fleet service, and on the next startup everything started to get into order. But later I found that Audi had nothing to do with this; the system fixed itself on it own.

Keeping warm and cool: The HVAC controls are on a separate screen, which is a plus. A graphic up-down arrow controls temperature, and a graphical representation of the seats lets you control the air flow and such.

Fuel economy: I averaged about 17 mpg in a week of testing involving lots of country roads and then a trip from Chester County to Doylestown. But it was a glutton for much of the test week, settling down around 12 or 13 mpg for a long while until that last highway trip.

Where it’s built: Bratislava, Slovakia.

The bill of sale reports just 1% of the parts in the SQ7 tested hail from the United States or Canada. Germany is the manufacturer of 51% of the parts, and Slovakia, 28%.

Since I added this line mid-comparison, let’s note that the Acura MDX tested hails 60% from the U.S. and Canada; the engine is made in Japan and the transmission in the U.S.

How it’s built: The Q7 gets a 4 out of 5 reliability score from Consumer Reports.

In the end: You could get two (lower grade) MDXs for this. Or an ID.Buzz and an MX-5, and still have money left over. And despite the Consumer Reports prediction, the bugs in the test model make me wary.