Audi Q7 – new engines and 8 speed ‘box for 2010

The Audi Q7 gets new engines for 2010

Busy little bunnies at Audi at the moment. We had the 2010 Audi TT facelift story earlier this morning and now comes new that the other end of the Audi scale – the Audi Q7 – is up for a nip and tuck for 2010 as well. But this nip and tuck is mechanical rather than cosmetic.

Big news is on the engine front, with the 3.0 litre supercharged from the Audi S4 getting dropped under the bonnet of the big SUV. The supercharged lump comes in two flavours The base version gets 272bhp and 295lb/ft of torque and can manage to get to 60mph in 7.7 seconds. The more powerful version gets 333bhp, 325lb/ft and a 0-60mph of 6.7 seconds. The new engines – replacing the old 3.6 FSI and 4.2 FSI units – are all about economy. The average on the 3.0 litre supercharged is 26.4mpg, which is an improvement of 12-16% on the old lumps.

The V6 TDi also gets replaced with a new lump offering 240bhp and 405lb/ft of torque. The new engine – which apparently has nothing in common with the outgoing unit – manages 0-60mph in 7.7 seconds and average consumption of 38.2 mpg and CO2 emissions of 195g/km, an improvement of almost 20% on the old diesel.

The 4.2 litre V8 diesel remains, although even that gets tweaked and fettled. It gets a new high-pressure injection system which cuts fuel consumption by 10%, increases torque to 590lb/ft and offers 0-60mph in 6.2 seconds. Let’s just hope Audi don’t suffer the same fate as Mercedes with high pressure fuel injector faults.

With a raft of new engines – and tweaked old ones – Audi has also decided to fit a new 8-speed auto ‘box across the range. The new unit – based on the current 6-speed ‘box – is designed to improve fuel economy, which it does by 5%. We’re not completely convinced by these 8 speed boxes. They seem to be in the wrong gear much of the time or hunting between gears, or they’re just set up to default to ‘stupid’ mode. Or maybe it’s just us.

But overall the tweaks are good. It’s a shame to lose the 4.2 V8, but that’s the way the world is at the moment.

By Cars UK