Audi Q8 – ride and handling
Refined and comfortable but forgettable. Higher-spec Cayennes are more involving
Unsurprisingly, the Q8 is not a thrilling driver’s car. It does not get the adrenalin rushing and you will not be in the slightest bit tempted to tear down a country road. In other words, it’s largely forgettable, but that’ll suit most buyers just fine. What really matters is how easy the Q8 is to drive, and its ability to cruise quietly and confidently, taking the sting out of long journeys. In these respects, there isn’t much to complain about.
With the dampers in their softest setting, there’s compliance to the ride – it doesn’t glide along serenely like a Range Rover, but the balance between comfort and control is well judged. The steering is light and easy, too, and though it can need slight adjustments to keep the Q8 precisely on course at speed, it makes what is a two-metre-wide SUV easy to guide along. Of the major controls, the only real snag is the brake pedal; in the PHEV, which blends regen and friction braking, it doesn’t consistently deliver the exact braking effort you ask for, and you need to account for its dead initial travel.
Shifts from the eight-speed auto are mostly smooth, and though manual changes aren’t DSG-sharp, the e TFSI is flexible enough that you’ll rarely need to use the paddles. There’s no satisfaction in hearing the V6 moan as it lingers at high revs, anyway. Instead, it’s best to lean into the torque from the powertrain and let the engine work at lower revs, in which case the Q8 feels solid, secure and refined (despite a touch of wind noise from around the pillarless side windows). It’s a calming car to spend big miles in.
Without active roll stabilisation, the body does lean when you start putting load through the suspension, but it’s well controlled – particularly if you switch up to Dynamic mode, which tightens up the damping. Pour the Q8 into a corner and the front end is surprisingly resilient, and traction is absolute in the dry. It’s far from the ‘sports saloon on stilts’ level of response you get from a Cayenne equipped with the full suite of chassis gizmos, and the Q8 always feels lifeless in your hands, but it does have ability in reserve when pushed beyond its comfort zone.
