Had me at TT V8. Too bad these will prob be garbage leases
I think it looks great.
All their current outdated ICE models are garbage leases now, of course these will be.
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imagine seeing your competition release a similar model almost 20 years ago and your other competition release their offering almost 10 years ago, and then deciding that NOW was your time to do the same - after a year and a half of getting eaten alive by tariffs.
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A perfect car for those who thought the X7 redesign needed a bigger grille.
And that interior is completely devoid of any character. If you told me the interior was that of the new Atlas or frankly any VW mainstream model, I’d believe it easily.
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I thought that about the exterior; my reaction was, “Oh, wow, they just made a bigger Toureg.”
They have bass shakers (aka 4d audio) for the B&O sound system. So, almost staying with competition.
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I think these being larger than the GLS and X7 will help big time, leases will probably suck because of that high demand, no need to subsidize when they are flying off the lots…
Sad that this is now the “flagship” luxury Audi, with the A8 and S8 now dead. The Q9 is just a LWB Q7 with a bigger rear overhang.
The X7 and GLS follow the same formula relative to the X5 and GLE, but at least those look relatively distinct.
I’ll miss the days when flagship Audis were engineered better and had tech advancements over lesser models. I guess the ROI isn’t there anymore.
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VW and now BMW reporting poor results with weak China sales, Europe seeing Chinese imports and continued tariffs. Lots of restructuring, layoffs, plant closures and model/line discontinuations inbound.
While the Q9 variants will have huge margins, will they really sell in any numbers that make a difference? VW is not Ferrari and has way more of a monthly nut to pay on so that the margins from a small seller mean next to nothing but it is difficult to say for sure.
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Except for the generic cluster/infotainment combo, interior looks okay.
I assume that there are continued financial effects of Dieselgate on all VW-affiliated makes (aside from Porsche/Bentley), the $ spent on EVs that I assume isn’t paying off and is leaving all of the makes confused about what to focus on, and the general macro instability.
I think that is also a significant issue.
I recall reading something recently where the author wondered if Tesla-fication is also causing brands to re-think how they allocate their funds (the author said that the fit and for luxury brands seems to be getting worse w/ each successive model). Unimpressive fit and finish (even if improving) of Teslas doesn’t seem to have held that brand back, and I think the vast majority of buyers for mainstream cars (even relatively expensive ones) just don’t care about fit/finish or engineering. How many people even here (or elsewhere) have said that no-DAPP on their BMW is a deal-breaker? It seems like the non-enthusiast buyer care more about the software than they do about whether the leather trim is nappa or not. They feel pressured to release software advancements as soon as they can (and apparently even if the software is not fully ready since they can update OTA later).
I think brands are reserving something “special” for their cars that play near the Bentley and lower Rolls Royces (and MB has openly said that it plans to re-allocate resources to the more expensive and more profitable models).
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Porsche was affected by Dieselgate as well due to the Cayenne diesel and being part of VAG as it was.
As far as the “effects” of Dieselgate still being part of VW’s financial woes? Very unlikely that a company as big as VAG would still be feeling even residual effects of Dieselgate other than any money being spent on EA chargers as part of the settlement of $2 billion on that end. $31 billion in Dieselgate costs overall for 10+ years is nothing for a company that had over $370 billion (US dollars) in worldwide gross revenue in 2025, especially when the Dieselgate “losses” were likely fully written down/off as against income as well for tax purposes.
VW’s problems are numerous but Dieselgate is not really one of them now. Some current issues: over expansion of models and factories worldwide, poor EV strategy, failed rollouts and marketing (VW ID Buzz anyone?), tariffs, huge labor costs in Europe, misguided sales strategies and results in China and Chinese EVs killing VW sales in China, Europe and elsewhere.
Right-sizing and bringing more appealing and/or “affordable” models to market by country/region for both Audi and VW would help tremendously.
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My experience with my Audis was the interiors were always muted but the build quality was far nicer than BMW and Mercedes. That was 5 years ago though so perhaps it’s cheapened since then.
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I don’t have enough experience with BMW and Mercedes, my last experience with Audi was a Q5 Premium that was okay… quality seemed inferior to my Genesis GV60 Standard.