Audi’s Q7 SUV is its biggest vehicle

Consumers ought to suspect something is up when a European automaker advertises that “big can be beautiful.”

Usually a claim made by American car companies, “big can be beautiful” this year comes from Audi of Germany as it shows off its first sport utility vehicle, the 2007 Q7.

The five- to seven-passenger Q7, which looks like a lumbering, tall concept wagon driven right off an auto show stage, is truly big for Audi.

Stretching nearly 17 feet from bumper to bumper, the Q7 is just 2 inches shorter than a Cadillac Escalade SUV and ranks as Audi’s largest vehicle in the United States.

The Q7 feels — and is — heavy, too. With a 350-horsepower, 4.2-liter V-8, which is the only engine available early in the model year, this new SUV weighs more than 5,400 pounds, or 2.7 tons.

As for beautiful, well, that’s up to the beholder. The Q7’s immense front end and sizable dimensions can seem to overwhelm the vehicle’s careful craftsmanship, at least on the outside.

Still, the Q7 accomplishes what Audi officials wanted. The company no longer is left out of America’s popular SUV market. (Yes, even with higher gasoline prices, SUVs continue to sell. Through July this year, they accounted for 24 percent of all new vehicles sold in this country, or more than 2.3 million sales.)

The Q7 arrives at the higher end of the SUV segment, with a starting manufacturer’s suggested retail price, including destination charge, of $50,620 for a Q7 4.2. A V-6 model, the Q7 3.6 that follows the V-8, starts at $40,620.

Competitors include other luxury SUVs, such as the 2007 Cadillac Escalade, which starts at $54,945, and the 2006 BMW X5, which starts at $54,295. These prices are for V-8 competitors.

The Q7 replaces the Audi allroad, a previous attempt to turn a European wagon into a tallish, all-wheel-drive vehicle.

But sales of the allroad in the United States were less than impressive, and Audi’s Q7 became possible after Volkswagen’s Touareg SUV debuted in the 2004 model year.

Volkswagen AG owns both VW and Audi brands, and the Q7 uses a stretched version of the Touareg’s platform.

With optional air suspension, the ride was decidedly firm in the test Q7.

And with optional 20-inch wheels and tires on the tester, there was a good amount of unsprung weight — heaviness and activity — at the wheels.

The big tires also conveyed a lot of road noise, and the Q7’s considerable mass was noticeable in the curves, where weight shift was managed to some extent but passengers still could feel motion.

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