The Q7: Audi’s big SUV goes from tosspot to tip-top

Looking good, sort of

I’d still not call the Q7 a pretty machine but at least it no longer looks like a clay styling buck that’s been left in the sun and started to sag. The new model is altogether more taut and balanced. Despite it being 3mm taller than the old one it also somehow looks lower. It’s more slippery too, the drag coefficient has dropped from 0.35 to 0.32.

Q7 sits on new platform. Looks more estate-like and is more slippery. Aesthetically it's a massive improvement

In purely aesthetic terms the new nose and grille are a vast improvement. The wider chrome surround and new hexagonal profile of the grille look much more resolved and less brutal. From the side the original Q7 looked as though the designers couldn't decide if it was an estate or an SUV.

For the new model it looks like they have settled on the estate look. A good call in my book.

Hop into the Audi-familiar cabin and techie treats abound. To start with there’s the virtual dash that we've seen on the new TT.

Familiarity has in no way dimmed how funky the 12.3-inch 1440 x 540 instrument binnacle is – especially the way the dials can be shrunk to devote the maximum screen space to the satnav.

Virtual instrument binnacle just as impressive on the Q7 as it was on the TT where we first saw it

Seeing as the virtual dash is an optional extra, if you get it you end up with two displays in the cabin; the binnacle screen and the standard Colour Driver Information Screen (CDIS) which pops up out of the top of the dash. You can now run the satnav in different levels of zoom – close up in the binnacle for turns, far out on the dash to get a more general idea of your position in the grand scheme of things.

One bit of tech that wasn't fitted to the press cars (with luck we’ll get to have a play with it later in the year) is the standard-fit support for Apple Car Play and Google Android Auto. Just connect your smartphone with a USB cable and, just so long as it’s running Android 5.0 or iOS 7.1 at minimum, your connected goodies appear on the CDIS. I'm more than keen to see how this works in the real world.

Cabin is familiar in style but soon-to-arrive support for Apple Car Play and Google Android Auto will add a twist

Despite it looking more than a little like a big estate, the Q7 is still being pitched as an SUV. That means some sort of token off-road ability and this being Audi that means Quattro drive. That in turn means constant four-wheel drive with the ability to push up to 85 per cent of the available torque to the rear wheels or up to 70 per cent to the front. But not at the same time, obviously.