After landing at St. George Regional Airport in southwestern Utah, a short chauffeured drive to Black Desert Resort outside of town allowed me to form initial impressions of Audi’s first-ever three-row SUV, fittingly, from the backseat. Air conditioning on full blast in my own climate quadrant after a stuffy flight, I stretched out in the second-row captain’s chair, scooted all the way back, while behind the third row, class-leading cargo capacity meant that three journalists’ worth of luggage never needed stacking.
Four grown adults, including our German driver, with plenty of space, gear in the back, no problem – that’s the vision for Audi while launching the new Q9 and SQ9 with hopes of perfectly catering to American buyers accustomed to wide-open roads in the middle of the country, or hauling families through urban traffic in comfort and serenity.
In both of those environments, the new full-size SUV’s prodigious interior volume matters just as much as an easily negotiable footprint. So rather than building on the established Q7 and Q8 shared platform, this new chassis represents a new segment for Volkswagen AG. But as with the smaller vehicles in Audi’s lineup, the Q9 receives a twin-turbocharged 2.9-liter V6 while the higher-spec SQ9 gets a familiar twin-turbo 4.0-liter V8. Both provide class-leading power output and acceleration, while critically for any Audi, each debuts a next-gen Quattro all-wheel-drive system to provide the confident handling that belies the sheer footprint of a massive three-row.
The planned media drive in and around Zion National Park the next day threw just about everything our way. An original drive route even needed to change due to a dusting of overnight snow at higher elevations, which sounded fun to me until Audi pointed out the summer tires on each SQ9.
But taking a look at the new model under the bright morning sunlight revealed a handsome profile, with a healthy bit of Mercedes-Benz posture thrown in for a marked shift versus the last few years of design that trended more toward mimicking BMW cues. This is the widest, tallest, and longest Audi ever – even longer than the stately A8 L – and yet even the V6-powered Q9 felt spritely the first time I put the pedal to the metal while heading out into the desert.
The V6 pumps out peaks of 429 horsepower and 442 lb-ft, good enough for a claimed 0-60 time of 4.9 seconds. As comfortable as the morning’s drive felt in the lower-spec car, stepping up to the SQ9 with 591 hp and 590 lb-ft definitely revealed another level to the entire engineering setup. Though not nearly as much of a “mini-Lambo” as the RS Q8, the SQ9 never reaches the point of feeling bloated or ungainly as so many other three-rows.
Rear-axle steering likely helps, with up to five degrees of opposite or in-phase angle to tighten up the turning radius at lower speeds or improve high-speed stability. The air suspension offers 3.6 inches of adjustability in the SQ9, which rides slightly lower with a more aggressive stance accentuated by subtle fender flares – and especially the optional 23-inch wheels on my test car.
In recent years, Audi prioritized improvements to steering feel and communicativeness versus the prior decade-plus of light and almost vague electronically assisted steering. The relatively thin rim of the SQ9, plus surprisingly fine-tuned shock damping, all further contributed to the ease of piloting through any road conditions – including rain over the course of the day that ranged from light mist to borderline biblical downpours when the skies truly opened up.
Though not as great as snow for testing those new Quattro systems, the slippery asphalt and a short portion of dirt driving without a doubt showed mild yet noticeable differences between the two. The Q9 takes Audi’s classic Torsen center differential and adds four internal springs to the gear-based torque biasing, which keeps the front and rear axles connected when not under load. This helped to provide solid and planted traction while negotiating Zion’s tightest switchbacks up through the spectacular canyons and tunnels.
The SQ9, meanwhile, emphasizes sportier driving by sending power directly from the eight-speed transmission to the rear axle, while an electronically controlled clutch can then harvest some additional torque to send up toward the fronts when needed. An automatically locking rear differential only ups the grip further, especially while punching the go pedal and unleashing all 591 ponies. Both systems worked impeccably at all times, even while driving at pace through a desert monsoon, so much so that my main complaint involved the automatic windshield wipers not adjusting to differences in the torrent quite quickly enough.
All of which does bring up a peculiar turn signal, wiper control, and gear selector stalk design that Audi chose to adopt on this new SUV. Essentially, each solid stalk then features knobs, toggles, and switches on the end, rather than moving entirely from the steering column. The setup definitely took me more than a short adjustment period to understand, much less acclimate to, but by the end of the day I grew to appreciate the solid and predictable placement of each control.
The rest of the touchscreen and infotainment relies largely on digital interfaces, which left me a little frustrated while trying to adjust the climate settings as we drove through thousands of feet of elevation and such varying weather conditions. Worth mentioning: The design for the MagSafe phone chargers stood out as the single best solution for wireless charging that I’ve ever used. Each circular pad kept a smartphone in place no matter the road surface, cornering load, or how hard I launched on throttle – and even cooled the charging surface, too.
Tech takes a front seat in this three-row, for the driver but also for passengers – and not just because the passenger dash screen comes standard, even on the lowest-spec Q9 Premium. This launch marks Volkswagen AG’s first adoption of Level 2+ hands-free Adaptive Cruise Assist, which works only some of the time thus far (never quite as well as GM’s Super Cruise, for example).
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Kids in any row will likely enjoy playing with the mood lighting far more than I, and up top, the largest sunroof ever on any Audi spans 16 square feet – with no retractable screen, instead featuring electrochromatic tinting that never looked quite sufficient for my eyes. A slicktop would be better, but at least the true five-zone climate controls with dedicated screens for both the second and third row ensure any heat soak issues won’t upset sensitive passengers.
More importantly, the day’s drive wrapped up with a nighttime spin to check out Audi’s newly available Digital Matrix Light. Well, more specifically, Matrix lighting arrives in the United States for the first time for model year 2027, after a protracted battle with American regulators about the safety of this shockingly effective nighttime illumination solution. I first experienced Matrix in early 2024.
Though almost impossible to capture in photos, the brilliant (pun fully intended) field of view essentially integrates high-beam and low-beam into one setting, in this case with the ability to focus the beams from 25,600 microscopic LEDS through a glass projector lens out onto the road ahead and surrounding environment. Incoming drivers get blanked out to reduce glare, as do highly reflective road signs, while the visibility for the rest remains absolutely perfect. Turn signals even project onto the ground, for improved indication to other drivers in busy urban environments. A total game-changer, and a huge advantage for Audi and both the Q9 or SQ9 in the USA, to say the least.
Really, I struggled to find many faults for either model. My female drive partner expressed some frustration about the lack of a place to store her purse. Personally, I hoped for a slightly more comfortable ride in the softest suspension setting. Unfortunately, a setup like Porsche’s hydraulically advanced Active Ride – also available on Audi’s own RS e-tron GT – requires at least a hybrid system to function, and only the turbodiesel Q9 available in Europe comes with a mild-hybrid assist.
That hybrid TDI sure sounds great for long road trips across the USA, though, yet Audi kept the weight of the Q9 and SQ9 relatively low at 5,302 and 5,556 pounds, respectively. That helps with the handling, as well as the Quattro performance expected of any Audi. And truly, both of these full-size SUVs cater just about perfectly to the luxury American customer.
The Q9 starts at $87,700 – or just slightly higher than a BMW X7 xDrive40i at $87,500 and significantly below a Mercedes GLS 450 4Matic for $93,950 as well, both of which offer less interior volume and markedly reduced performance. The SQ9, meanwhile, stickers for $118,000. That’s more than both the M7 M60i at $115,000 or the GLS580 4Matic for $116,150, but with acceleration and handling that bests even the Alpina and AMG variants of those competitors.
The Q9 and SQ9 even come with automatic doors that reminded me of none other than Rolls-Royce. From my very first few moments climbing into the backseat, never needing to close my own door before switching on my massaging and ventilating seats helped to set the tone for a surprisingly calm and comfortable drive day, despite Mother Nature throwing everything she had at us as we raced across some of the most spectacular countryside the USA has to offer.
Classic Audi, without a doubt, now just bigger and better than ever.
Images: Michael Van Runkle
