Key considerations
• Available for £58,000
• 4.0 V8 petrol twin-turbo, all-wheel drive
• Good ride, massive cabin space for five
• Fast and rorty enough for most
• Annoying knobless infotainment
• Vorsprung is the one to have but you’ll pay for it
The 2018 Q8 wasn’t Audi’s somewhat belated response to coupe-SUV blitzwagens like Mercedes’ GLE Coupe of 2015 and, going even further back than that, BMW’s much-maligned X6 of 2008. Hell, it wasn’t even a coupé. That took another year to appear in the slopey-backed shape of the 2019 SQ8.
The fancy newcomer was lower and wider than the SQ7, so it certainly looked the part, even if the first SQ8 was hiding a diesel under its looming bonnet. Still, with an additional compressor to boost and smooth out the 435hp/664lb ft biturbo V8’s bottom end there was a pleasing excess of mid-range thrunge, not to mention a 0-62mph time of 4.8sec and a combined fuel consumption figure of 36mpg. These were all very respectable numbers for an SUV weighing a not-so-respectable but by then far from uncommon 2.2+ tonnes.
The SQ8 was by no means the best big sporty SUV. If you wanted the full-house chassis with a quattro sport rear axle differential and active roll stabilisation these were only featured on the top-spec Vorsprung model. Nevertheless, the standard model’s 7-mode Audi Drive Select dynamic handling system, rear-wheel steering, quattro all-wheel drive, 8-speed ZF Tiptronic transmission and adaptive air suspension constituted a strong enough package – along with the sort of cabin space made possible by a three-metre gap between the axles – to put it on most buyer’s shortlists.
Unfortunately, or fortunately if you didn’t like them, diesels were well down the road to perdition by the end of the 2010s so the SQ8 we’re looking at today isn’t one of them. Instead it’s the petrol-powered 4.0 TFSI mode we’re scrutinising. It was launched in autumn 2020 but the earliest cars you’ll find on the forecourts will have been registered in 2021.
The 507hp and 570lb ft produced by the twin-turbo EA825 4.0 V8 lowered the SQ8’s official 0-62 time to 4.1 seconds. That turned out to be conservative: mega traction and a well-judged launch control system meant you could quite easily get it into the threes. Test vehicles seemed to exceed the advertised 155mph top speed without much bother too.
Inside you had the normal Audi swishness incorporating the Virtual Cockpit with a 12.3-inch high-res display, MMI Navigation Plus with MMI Touch, Alexa-skilled Audi Connect, Audi Phone Box wireless charging and a whole lot more comfort gear like heated electric seats. On the safety side you got Pre-sense Front, Lane Departure Warning, Parking System Plus with front and rear sensors and dynamic indicators all round.
The prices of the basic SQ8 TFSI started from a little under £85,000, which was three grand or so above the better-equipped and more powerful (530hp) BMW M6 M50i and the same amount below the less powerful but nicer-driving Porsche Cayenne GTS. The SQ8 Black Edition was nearly £4,000 more than the standard car at £88.5k, quite a hike for what looked like relatively minimal spec changes like black exterior trim, glossy oak cabin inlays, four-zone automatic climate control and a different wheel choice, but the price jump from basic to Black was a mere hop compared to the pole vault leap to the £107,000 Vorsprung SQ8 range-topper. As mentioned a minute ago, the Vorsprung boasted the full SQ8 chassis pack whose main attributes were an electromechanical active anti-roll system and a quattro Sport rear e-diff to supplement the default Torsen centre diff. It also had a load more stuff like cross traffic assist front and rear, exit warning and active lane assist, ventilated seats, carbon fibre inlays, and a panoramic roof.
A light SQ8 facelift at the end of 2023 brought bigger front air inlets, a slightly debatable amount of silverised plastic around the grille, a new front spoiler and rear diffuser, a new exhaust, 23-inch wheels as standard and narrower matrix LED headlamps with (on the higher-spec models) long-range ‘laser’ high beams and digital OLED rear lights.
As of early 2024 the Audi UK website will tell you that a new SQ8 TFSI with basically the same mechanical spec as the 2020 model will cost you £98,000. The price given for Black Edition on that same site is just over £95,000, suggesting that one of those two prices is wrong. We believe there’s still a wait list of several months from the time of your order, but dealers with unregistered cars in stock seem happy to chop a little off the RRPs. In the worst case scenario with an uncooperative dealer wanting full whack for any extras you’ll be looking at something close to £100k. Still, at least it’s not the £122,000 plus that Audi UK wants for a Carbon Black version of the range-topping 600hp/590lb ft, 0-62mph in 3.8sec, Urus-engined RS Q8.
Of course, as long as you don’t mind not being the first owner, redemption is at hand on the used car forecourt. You can pick up a 2021 SQ8 TFSI for less than £60,000. It’s still a big bundle of cash, but it is a big bundle of a car. TFSIs are reasonably plentiful on the UK used market, with 80 or so on sale at any given moment and roughly three TFSIs for every 4.0 diesel. Used diesels do start off cheaper at £53k but that’s because they’re older (2019 on) cars.
SPECIFICATION | AUDI SQ8 4.0 TFSI (2020-on)
Engine: 3,996cc V8 32v twin-turbo petrol
Transmission: 8-speed Tiptronic automatic, all-wheel drive
Power (hp): 507@5,500rpm
Torque (lb ft): 570@2,000-5,000rpm
0-62mph (secs): 4.1
Top speed (mph): 155
Weight (kg): 2,245 (2,270 Vorsprung)
MPG: 22 (official combined)
CO2 (g/km): 276 (290 Vorsprung)
Wheels (in): 22
On sale: 2021 - now
Price new: £84,560
Price now: from £58,000
Note for reference: car weight and power data are hard to pin down with absolute certainty. For consistency, we use the same source for all our guides. We hope the data we use is right more often than it’s wrong. Our advice is to treat it as relative rather than definitive.
ENGINE & GEARBOX
The SQ8’s 4.0 petrol V8 with two ‘hot vee’ twin-scroll turbochargers felt more correct in the coupé than it did in the more upright SQ7. Even if you’d driven the first diesel-powered SQ8, a grunty machine by any standards, you wouldn’t feel shortchanged by the petrol car’s bottom end poke. Nor would you be disappointed by its throttle response or the way it teamed up with the non-DCT (but still quick-changing) 8-speed gearbox with steering wheel paddles for extra human interaction. It sounded naughty, too, through its four genuine exhaust tailpipes, a big step forward from the Q8’s dull and rather plasticky setup. Launch control was included and also worked well with a purposeful dose of rear-end squat.
The engine was familiar to owners of Porsche’s Cayenne S because it was the same unit, albeit tuned to a lower level in the Porsche which was 0.6sec slower through the 0-62 than the 4.1sec Audi. It was also found in the Panamera, Lamborghini Urus and Bentley Continental GT. In the Audi it had variable valve timing on both the exhaust and intake side, active engine mounts and cylinder switch-off for more economical cruising. The official WLTP fuel figures put the TFSI at 22mpg but despite the deactivation tech most owners were realistically getting numbers beginning with a 1. That was the TFSI’s biggest downside compared to the diesel which, as a rough guide, would easily deliver over 10mpg more across the board.
Engine problems? Not many. Both fuel and oil pressure readings could drop, throttle actuator control modules could fritz out, exhaust cats could play up and ignition-related misfires were not unknown, but these were all isolated cases rather than generic. Some owners – especially those with wider experience of other premium-marque cars whose s/s systems were integrated between the engine and transmission rather than with the alternator – found the start-stop system to be annoyingly jerky. German retrofit specialists Kufatec offered a mod for under £200 which kept the s/s permanently off when you switched it off.
There has been an issue with the 48-volt belt starter generators (BSGs) in these and other similarly equipped Audis generating a blizzard of warnings along the lines of electrical system malfunctions, drive system errors etc. Sometimes the start-stop system would crash completely. Some owners were told that a software reflash would sort it (there was a technical service bulletin for that), others were told, less convincingly perhaps, that it might have been something to do with excessive trailer nose weights. Whatever, Audi handed out new generators and/or new batteries (both normal and hybrid) to combat battery drain, all under warranty, but the fixes didn’t always work, leading in extreme cases to some cars being returned to dealerships.
Audi issued 320 ‘manufacturer communications’ on the first 2020 SQ8 and 337 for the 2021 cars. We don’t know if these are high numbers or normal ones, or whether these are just for the USA or worldwide. What we do know is that 34 of the 2021-year messages were to do with engine and engine cooling issues but 94 were to do with the electrical system. The single most common customer complaint was about the start-stop system which could turn the engine off before the car had come to a complete stop, momentarily leaving it without power steering, full braking capacity or any of the normal functionalities you’d expect from a running engine. Slow re-ignition of the engine after a stop also caused palpitations when you were making high-stress moves like crossing or joining a busy road.
Four SQ8 recalls were issued between May 2021 and October 2022. The one which belongs in this engine section concerned a small number (15) of SQ8s whose cylinder bore surfaces could crack, causing stalling, oil leaks and/or engine damage and. Audi said they would replace the affected engines free of charge.
CHASSIS
The wider-tracked, lower centre of gravitied SQ8 did seem to drive more entertainingly than the SQ7. Both cars offered prodigious grip for their size and height. Ride comfort was top-notch too.
However, if you’re looking for a used SQ8 and your daily driving regime involves more than the normal cut and thrust of the school run with the odd sleeping policeman thrown in, it would be well worth looking at the Vorsprung model. It’s noticeably more willing on the twisties thanks to its electromechanical active anti-roll system. This had an electric motor sitting between the two sections of the anti-roll bar on each axle to twist the sections in opposite directions through bends, cutting roll and firming up the ride. The bar sections decoupled on straights to restore some softness. Some testers thought that the system didn’t really make it any more fun to drive but here on PH we rather liked it and it certainly made the SQ8 feel safer at speed. On knobbly British roads your passengers would probably thank you for dialling it down a notch, but when you were on your own and in the mood you’d find yourself marvelling at how effectively a thing of such extreme heft could march itself down the road.
22-inch wheels were standard but you could go to the 23s that became the normal size on late-2023 facelift cars. Some testers complained about the braking power, or lack of it, from the 400mm front, 350mm rear iron discs. 440mm ceramics came as standard only on the RS Q8.
One of the four SQ8 recalls concerned misaligned rear axles. Not sure how many cars were taken in for rectification, but if you didn’t you ran the risk of uneven or premature tyre wear. Front suspension bushes could wear out pretty quickly, not altogether surprising given the combination of power and weight they had to cope with. Suspension parts generally could soon get noisy or worn for the same reason.
BODYWORK
Good styling is in the eye of the beholder, but you’d probably have less trouble finding fans for the SQ8’s bodyshape than you would for the X6 or the GLE coupes – although the extreme blackness of some of the Audi’s Lecter-like front ends could be a turnoff. All three cars were huge. None of them would be easy to squeeze in a typical 2.4 metre-wide British car park bay. From door mirror to door mirror the SQ8 measured nearly 2.2 metres.
Door locks have been a weak point on SQ8s. From inside the car you could be fruitlessly tugging on the lever but the car wouldn’t let you out even though the frameless window was doing its bit by dropping a little. SQ8 windows have been known to open of their own accord and the central locking could play up. Sometimes after you locked the doors from the outside the alarm would wail into unwanted action.
The clips securing the wind deflector on sunroofed cars could break and the deflector material itself could tear. The powered boot cover could jam, and moisture could get into the headlight units.
INTERIOR
Obviously there was less headroom in the back of an SQ8 than an SQ7. You couldn’t get it in 7-seat guise and the boot was smaller too, though it still wasn’t actually small at 605 litres, extendable to over 1,750 litres with the back seats folded down. With the seats up, rear passengers enjoyed a majestic amount of legroom. Still on seats, you could specify Valcona-leather clad Super Sports fronts with quilted centre panels, ventilation and massage.
Whatever negative thoughts you might harbour about the look or indeed the overall concept of the SQ8, you would have a hard time coming up with criticisms of its quality or the way it felt in your hands. Having said that, the SQ8 was not creak-free: high-mileage (60,000) cars have suffered from noisy seats, armrests, driver-side storage compartments and centre console trim surrounds. Considering the size of the vehicle there wasn’t a huge amount of space in the central cubby. There were a few grumbles about the lack of remote features that some buyers expected to be included in cars of this value. Keyfob batteries didn’t last very long.
More than a few SQ8 owners have been narked by the MMI’s slow boot-up, its occasional insistence on presenting you with a dark night-time screen when using CarPlay and its occasional failure to remember favourites. Sometimes – for example after a software update had been sent down the wire – the MMI system stopped working altogether, typically for ten minutes or so, disabling not only Bluetooth and music but also a host of safety functions including lane departure, blind spot, and collision warning. Cruise control could be slow to activate, and you might well experience some frustration in the move away from physical knobs to touchscreens for just about anything. Of course the SQ8 is far from the only culprit there.
Seatbelt locking retractors malfunctioned, preventing safe use of the child restraint system. These were subject to a recall, as were non-displaying rear cameras that affected ‘hundreds of thousands’ of Audis including SQ8s.
PH VERDICT
Do your own objective road test of three of the most obvious rivals in this class – SQ8, GLE and X6 – and you will probably find them all to be great cars in their own way. However, you might also conclude that the Audi is the most contemporary feeling of the three, a bit less edgy than the BMW, a bit more sporty than the Mercedes.
As noted earlier, the non-availability of seven seats in the SQ8 might raise an eyebrow in light of its gigantism, which you need to see in the flesh to fully appreciate, but the way to approach that is not to bemoan its inability to transport seven people – a niche requirement at best – but to glory in the amount of space five people will have. You’re going to have to hold your nose whenever the topic of fuel consumption comes up around the dinner table though. This is a family car that, in the real world, is likely to deliver sub-20mpg economy figures, which is a bit poor really.
The 600hp RSQ8 was a much more expensive machine than the SQ8, but in truth it wasn’t that much faster than the lesser model and the SQ8 Vorsprung narrowed the gap between S and RS even more. We reckon the ‘Sprung is actually nicer on the road than the RS. If you’re not desperate for the ultimate in Q8 performance and handling, a base-level or Black Edition SQ8 will do a perfectly good job for you and your family at prices starting from under £60k, compared to the £80k that was the effective minimum for a used RSQ8 in early 2024. Vorsprungs occasionally come onto the market at £63k but realistically £75k is nearer the mark for a lower-mileage entry-level example.
The most affordable SQ8 TFSI on PH Classifieds at the time of writing (January 2024) was this nicely-presented blue with black leather Black Edition from 2021. Wearing its 42,000 miles well it was priced at £58,500.
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