It’s an off-roader double for Audi with the Q7 matching its Q5 baby brother and scooping the large 4×4 title.
This is the second victory for the huge Q7, which snatched the trophy from Land Rover‘s Discovery last year. The Disco had taken two of the previous three wins, with BMW‘s X5 a former dominant force in this category.
This year’s significant action with the Q7 range was replacing the biggest-selling 3.0-litre diesel engine with one that’s more powerful yet no less economical than the version the car was launched with.
The extra 10PS is joined by more torque, or pulling power, which makes the difference between old and new more marked than it looks on paper.
Otherwise it’s been business as usual for the seven-seat off-roader, which has broken through the 2000-unit mark for sales into the fleet sector, comfortably ahead of the X5 if still a way behind the top-selling Discovery. As well as brand appeal, Audi fleet sales marketing manager Nathan Dennis puts the Q7’s popularity down to a competitive contract hire rate that has kept sales ticking over despite the shrinking demand for large 4×4 vehicles.
Whatever Audi is doing, it’s obviously working and the Q7 is again BusinessCar’s best large 4×4.
