Audi Q8 Facelift - Minor Changes But Still Desirable | Faisal Khan

This is the flagship Audi SUV. Wait a second, isn't that the RS Q8? This is the Q8 facelift and they've literally gone ahead and lifted the face of this car because mechanically and interior wise, it remains more or less the same as before. In fact, nothing has changed on those fronts. Anyways, this is the key of the vehicle, the Audi logo here. This is to unlock the car, this is to lock the car and this is to open the boot of the vehicle. The key needs a change for sure. The price of this car is to be 1.39 crores on road Mumbai which is okay okay but there is no diesel engine on offer which is disappointing because there's only one petrol engine which is this one. Engine cover looks quite premium, the Audi logo right there. You get insulation, that is where washer fluid goes in but where is the battery? There is no battery in this car. Just kidding, it's not here, it's somewhere else. I'll show it to you. Now what they have done is made massive changes to the front end. This octagonal grill now has new elements on the inside because all these chrome bits are new here. The Audi logo is now 2D, not 3D. There's a front parking camera right here. The bumper has been changed, the air intakes are now bigger here. Now this is the dynamic swipe indicator which is on at the moment. However, that is actually the DRL now. Lights are very very very advanced here. For starters, these are the HD matrix lights. Now they do a signature when you unlock the car but they don't do a signature or animation when you lock the car so that's a bit different. The earlier car actually had this inside, the headlight washer inside the headlight housing. However, now it is outside. Yes, it gets headlight washers. Audi is still giving us headlight washers which is awesome. This is the high beam, this is the low beam. It has this X shape on the inside which looks quite cool and the lights are just unbelievable because Audi does amazing light. You can choose from four light signatures as well. Isn't that awesome? You get six ultrasonic sensors at the front for parking sensors as well as self-park. Yes, it has got self-park. This is the towing hook of the vehicle. You get this silver finishing at the front to reduce the visual bulk of the car and because it has got frameless doors, it looks awesome and that's the reason I've kept the doors open right now. Just amazing. I mean look at this, such a piece of art. Now it has got soft closed door function so I don't have to push it. It will automatically pull it inside and shut it as well which is amazing. Now you obviously get a camera there for the lane keep assist but somehow that is not working. You obviously get a range sensor as well for the wipers. With the cars which have ADAS, I think this would be the radar probably otherwise why would they make it like that. I'm not too sure about it but yes that's technically how they should be doing the radar. Anyways, because the Audi logo is not big enough to hide the radar behind that, let's shut the door again. Soft close for the wind. There it shuts. Coming to the side of the car, you realise that the wheelbase is the same as the Q7 but the Q7 is longer by 69mm. I hate my dirty mind. The wheelbase here is almost three metres. I say almost three metres because it's 2995mm. Meanwhile, the length is almost five metres. I say almost because it is 4995mm and obviously the car looks amazing because of the sloping roofline. They have not sloped it earlier. They've gone behind to the C pillar and then dropped it immediately which actually makes it more practical in terms of headroom at the rear. Tyre size 21 inches and you notice the Audi logo is pointing the right direction because it has got weighted wheel hubs. So yes, the Audi logo can be spun like this. Oh my god, this is actually a fidget spinner. So much fun to do this. You get red coloured brake calipers here. It's going to align again. Meanwhile, the tyre size happens to be a massive 285, 45, 21. Alloy wheel design is actually quite nice. I really like it and there's obviously a camera here on the side. I think they've updated the 360 degree parking camera here but I'm disappointed it does not have keyless entry because if you put your hand in any of the doors, it will not unlock. You have to actually use the key. For the price, that's a bit weird. Meanwhile, it says Audi Q8 TFSI Quattro here on the B pillar. You get the piano black finish here. Roof rails don't seem to be functional to me. A shark fin antenna right there. This is where fuel goes in. Yeah, petrol only, that's a bit disappointing. Can take up to 10% ethanol blend which is actually a good thing. Coming to the rear, again, minimal design changes. The change is actually to the rear bumper. So the diffuser treatment is different and the exhaust tips are slightly different. Real exhaust here, no fake stuff happening. Thankfully, again, you get six parking sensors because obviously, ultrasonic sensors work. Self park bro, what are you thinking? It says Q8 here which is blackened out. The 2D Audi logo which looks nice but I'm disappointed it does not do any light signatures at the rear. When you lock the car or unlock the car, the lights just turn on and off immediately. No signature here. However, if any car comes within two metres distance of the rear of your Audi Q8, it will automatically turn on the light. So that's a safety feature. Meanwhile, this is the rear fog but on the other side, there is nothing and this is where the reverse light turns on. Dynamic swipe indicators at the rear as well. You get a rear wiper washer. You get a spoiler with high mounted stop lamp and the camera actually has a cleaning function too which is quite cool. Let's open the boot which is 605 litres but there's some stuff lying here. So this is sort of the partition because obviously, Audi sells a lot of cars in the UK and Britishers obviously love partition. This is the car cover. Because of this, the boot is looking a little weird. However, it is decent size for something which is a coupe and that is, I think, the battery. Yeah, I think the battery is in the boot probably but there could be a subwoofer as well. Now that is the tyre repair kit and that is the tyre inflator. Yes, that's about it. There is no spare wheel in this car. You get a light here. You get plenty of lights. Lights are here as well. So that's quite nice and what does it show me? It shows me a logo or something. Maybe this is the boot opening safety mechanism. You pull it in case you're locked inside. A US regulation obviously. There should have been a sun blind here but there is somewhere here. Yeah, they have a sun blind for the rear as well. It is manual but at least you have a sun blind there. There's a net right there which is a good thing. A 12-volt charging socket here. So it's a very practical boot for something which doesn't seem to be very practical in terms of appearance and that is the parcel shelf which I failed to put properly. Now it's locked. Yeah, thankfully. Power tailgate. I press a button and there it shuts. I did not click it properly. Now I clicked it and there it shuts. In terms of the exterior, it's a typical Audi design. Beautiful in terms of appearance. I really like it. Notice how this panel is here and it also has these amazing, what do I call this, just to seal the air from leaking with the Audi logo on it. That is the level of attention to detail this car has which is mind-blowing to say the least. Doors open wide enough and you can put the seat down by just pulling this here. So it is actually a 40-20-40 split to increase the boot carrying capacity and this thing also has a recline angle. So I'm going to push it a bit more. Yeah, very slight chin-toe into recline angle but it is there. Isofix child seat mounts. Centre passenger gets a head and lot of space. That's surprisingly a lot of space. Look at the space. It's quite amazing. Under-the-eye support is decent. Headroom is actually good for someone as tall as me which is nice. Speakers here. Speakers here. Speakers almost everywhere. Massive door pockets at the rear. Super practical. AC vents here. AC vents in the centre. You get a 12-volt charging socket and a cigarette lighter there but there's a slight hump here and this is also a little shorter. Centre passenger won't be really very comfortable here but you actually get a centre armrest which has cup holders. Two cup holders. How do I put this down? I press this and then I can carry longer items like that what in the boot right now. Now you obviously have got a slightly scooped out seat back here. Magazine holders as well. You have four zone climate control air conditioning system. Two at the rear which is such a nice thing to have actually and you have a hook here. Hook here as well. A handle to hold on to. A coat hook too. So if you're going for business meeting, you can do that as well. The dashboard remains more or less the same as before. It feels a bit dull in terms of colours but you have got four colour options for the interior and eight colour options for the exterior. That's a lot of options. You can move this up and down like this. This car has got eight airbags and obviously the sun is going to come now. Well, I have a solution. Before that, let me roll down the window all the way. It does not go down all the way. That's the maximum. It will not go down any further. So let's put it up. Go up, go up, go up and then I have a sun blind here which is electric and the person sitting in this seat can also operate the window for that seat because there's a button for the same. I'm going to put the sun blind up there as well. Now you have lights on the top which is a good thing to have. Let's press it right now. I think because the door is open, the light is on. There's an ashtray here which is not that needed but soft material is used almost everywhere which is obviously awesome. Let's shut this. Come on. Close, close, close, close, close, close. There it shuts. Amazing. I love it. And then obviously the windows open slightly when you open the door. See and then you shut it and then this gap will get filled. Now, yeah, that's that. Let's get inside from here because I want to show you the glove box. This is lockable firstly and secondly it is beautifully lined. There's a pen holder as well and this manual is 400 pages but it is colour so it's interesting to read if you want to read. That is, it says quattro here so that the co-driver has complete faith in you when you give it the beans. Let's come to the front. There is the chassis number of the vehicle. Car is feeling a bit hot and if you notice, there's this blue tinge on the inside. I don't know why car brands love this blue tinge but a lot of car brands do it. I think Mercedes does it, BMW does it. I think Germans have some bond that you have to have a blue tinge. Now, coming to the front, first and foremost, this being a two row SUV is obviously having a lot of space because the Q7 is a three row and obviously this is the coupe version of the Q7. A lot of adjustments here but this is, this centre one is dummy which usually when you press will activate the massage in the centre screen. However, this car has ventilated front seats, heated front seats, massage, heads-up display, air suspension, all of that as optional. So, it's not available in my car because this car has no extra features. Door pockets are big at the front, high quality controls here for the power windows, for the mirror adjustment, for the child lock as well. You can decide you want to child lock the right side or the left side. Memory seats, you can save up to two people's settings as well and here you get some information about the weight of the vehicle. Here you get information about the tyres of the vehicle and the seats actually are quite nice and comfortable. The rear ones are slightly stiff but the seats are actually very nice and comfortable but the cabin is so blackish. Here are the controls for the lights, auto function, front headlights, rear fog lights, you can control from here. Heads-up display is missing in this car, again, part of optional kit. So, let's get inside because it's very same same when compared to before. So, I'm going to turn off the air conditioning and I'm going to show you there's a proper place to keep the key. So, you can slot the key right in here. There's an ashtray, lot of emphasis on smoking, there's a cigarette lighter as well. In case the key is not detecting, you put the key here. Two cup holders, if you want, you can remove the ashtray and keep it somewhere else. This thing does not slide ahead and behind. This is the Audi phone box light, there's a wireless charging pad, some storage space here, two USB-C charging sockets which are important because this car does not have wireless Apple CarPlay or Android Auto connectivity. It is wired which is quite surprising. Piano black finish, continuous AC vent treatment here, auto dimming mirror. This does extend which is a good thing and there is obviously a light on the top as well. Just touch it to turn on the light. Let's actually open the sun blind. The sunroof is not that big somehow because of the sloping roofline. Now, they could not put a massive sunroof because technically two of these panels should be there, the rear one seems to be a bit smaller here. So, I'm going to open the sunroof which obviously brings in a lot of airy feeling inside because the cabin is all black but this is obviously light coloured. I think black colour is quite sporty and the right colour for the Indian market because things tend to get dirty very quickly. Come on, shut. The usual speed, it's not slow, it's not fast, it's just the right speed. Here you can see there are tweeters because this car's got 13-speaker system from Bang & Olsen and it has got 730 watt output. I remember the older car, the pre-facelift model that had 1960 watt output. I think that is also part of optional kit if you want a better audio system. However, audio quality is actually good. Listen to two audio tracks right away. Now, let's look at the screen overload, 12.3-inch screen, 10.1-inch screen, 8.6-inch screen, that's a lot of screens. Auto hold function, electric parking brake, gear lever has a leather treatment which is nice. Some buttons here, this is for volume control and to go ahead a track or behind a track. This is for the parking camera, this is for the parking sensors, something of that sort. Okay, this is for self-park. This is for the parking camera, I need to turn that off. Now, this is the parking camera which is actually quite nice in terms of quality. I can change a few things here, I can decide how I want the activation and the sound and all those things. So, from here, I can decide the volume and all. I can change if I want a camera view or the graphic view, this is a top view obviously. When I turn on the vehicle light, it makes this nice Audi intro sound which by the way, the Lamborghini Urus also makes because it is actually based on this very car. Here, I can change a lot of views because there are multiple camera views. Why is it not letting me change? Okay, let's get into reverse here. So, yeah, that is the camera. It has got adaptive guidelines and the software is done in a way, it shows that the camera is actually moving. Technically, it is not. Here, I'm going to come into multiple views. So, this is the side view. There are so many views here, it's quite amazing how good the camera is in this car and then obviously, the camera moves or tends to move at least both for the front as well as the rear. So, adaptive guidelines really help you here, which is a good thing. There, for the front camera also, it's showing that it is moving. Now, the best thing is obviously the 3D view because I can just move it around like that. The alloy wheels look a bit dull here and there is no sunroof in this particular car and the colour is also different. The attention to detail isn't that great. However, if I give an indicator, it shows me that the indicator is activated right now. Let me pinch it out. Yeah, it doesn't let me go on the top view, which is kind of disappointing but yes, the camera quality is amazing. I think they have updated the camera system also because that's something they had written somewhere. I definitely remember reading it. The typical Audi menu here, which is easy to browse. First and foremost, it has got some navigation plus. So, yes, it has got good quality of maps here. You don't have to rely on Google Maps, especially because there is no wireless connectivity, which is quite surprising. Let's get back. You know, it's so fast, the UI, which is actually quite nice. Let's get into the phone apps. Again, that's Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity. Let's get into the settings menu. Here, you can get into the virtual cockpit and make some changes here. So, what you want to see in terms of that display, that can be changed but that can only be changed from here, which is a bit cumbersome because why should I go inside a menu and make these changes? Why can't I do it from the outside itself and then I can child lock the rear climate control if I want. Easy to browse but nothing fancy because everyone is doing a lot of fancy stuff now. So, this is obviously an older system. The new one has come in the Q6 e-tron as well as the A6 e-tron. Things have got updated in the Audi world but not much right now in this particular car. So, that's something I am waiting for Audi to update. Here, you can get into the Audi drive select, multiple drive modes. You can customize it. You can also press this button to obviously customize the drive modes. This is for the traction control. This is for the air conditioning, hazard, light and this is for the drive assist. Audi, please send fatigue warning, distraction warning. It doesn't really have many ADAS features, which is a bit disappointing because Audi is not really offering us ADAS in India. In fact, both BMW and Mercedes are offering a lot of ADAS features. Let's get into the car function again. Let's get back from here because I want to get into lights and vision. I get into exterior lighting and here I can see the digital light signatures. There are four of them. So, that's a nice feature to have that you can change your light signature. Audi really focuses a lot in terms of the lighting but here is a bit of a problem because now I want to change the ambient lighting. Again, to individual, I have to change the surfaces and contours differently. The steps I have to take, multiple steps is just way too much. Only 30 colors for the ambient lighting. I expected more colors. So, you can change the contours differently and then you can change, I mean, there are 30 colors for each, not 64 colors. So, like 34 colors less here obviously but ambient light looks beautiful there. It looks beautiful here. It looks beautiful there as well. So, multiple ambient lighting in this car. Ambient light is actually nice. Three preset one, you can obviously pair it to the Audi drive select as well if you want but yeah, it could be better. Seats have nothing here. Just easy entry for driver seat. You can move the seat ahead and behind but where is the ventilation function? Don't be disappointed there. In fact, I'll come into the car, I'll show you the AC here. That is the AC control. I can control the AC from here but this is actually the screen for AC control. I can change the climate control air conditioning from here. Stop start system, downhill assist, self-park and this is to turn off the screen. So, all those features are given. This screen is a bit extra. It's not needed honestly. I don't know why they overloaded this car with too many screens which actually brings me to this lever which is for the cruise control. This is obviously for the indicators. That is for the wipers. Let's turn off the air conditioning. Steering wheel is actually adjustable but manual adjust. Yeah, that's a bit weird at this price point and it has got buttons. So, these are the buttons for the audio system, voice command. These are the buttons for browsing through this screen. So, if I press this view button, I can actually change stuff. It's actually very easy to use because I can just change it like this and come into multiple views here. Actually, the quality is still quite nice. It's a little old now obviously. However, it is very crisp display. So, it tells me I am having a lot of fatigue right now. Obviously, I'm extremely tired making videos on multiple cars. Let's change this menu. You can browse through a ton of information but this screen could have been a little bit more flamboyant. It's a bit boring. It says 3.4 kilometres per litre because I have been sitting in this car since quite some time now. I like this stitching. That stitching has been updated as well which definitely looks quite cool. The cabin is a bit old now in terms of the UI, in terms of the features, in terms of the screen and all those things. Trust me on this, it still is amazing in terms of quality. Where is the secret storage space? It obviously, why is the wiper working all of a sudden? Automatic wipers. There is the secret storage space where you can keep stuff. You get a proper dead pedal there. Yeah and I think these seats are really nice and comfortable in terms of the bolster. So, that's a nicely done job for sure by Audi but enough of me yapping, yapping, yapping. How is this car to drive? Before that, let's do the horn test. Horn is also awesome. Let's go. Alright, let's get inside the car. Every time you unlock the car, it shows this Audi logo from a curtain which is quite cool. Let's actually turn on the vehicle. There the seat is actually moving ahead. This sound is so soothing. I love it but I don't love it when it plays in the Urus. Straight away, we are going to be getting into, okay, I want to continue as a guest. Come on, load the system very quickly. Let's change the drive mode. Yeah, this is a bit slow. I don't know why the car is still figuring out what to do in life but straight away, we will come into dynamic. So, it's actually here in dynamic. Somehow, it's not showing on this screen. Should be showing. Now, we are in dynamic. Obviously, whenever you change the mode, the car walks in through like that which is quite cool. So, let's get into dynamic mode. Yeah, you have to touch it. It has this haptic control to it which feels a bit different. By the way, the rear seats also slide ahead and behind. So, you can decide if you want to make a slight bit of compromise with the rear seat passengers to give more space in the boot but if you want more space, why you would get this car, you would get the Q7 which is also cheaper. We'll talk about that later. Air conditioning off. Traction control, I'm going to turn off. Do I keep it pressed? Will it turn off something else? Yeah, completely switched off right now. We straight away get into sport drive mode. Yeah, left foot on the brake, right foot on the accelerator. Let's use the wipers. It started raining all of a sudden. There's no display here which I can put which is kind of disappointing because we should have some sport displays. None of that and I'll actually change this to the map view. Again, there's not much to see in this cluster either. So, that's also a little bit disappointing. Handbrake down, hazard lights off and no launch control and off we go. Car was very slow off the line. I'm quite surprised it did not let me launch. So, that's something which Audi really needs to work on offering launch control because BMW offers it even with the X1. So, why does this car not have launch control? Audi is like, you know, we don't make our road cars sporty. That's the reason they do quattro. That's the reason they don't do rear wheel drive. That's the reason they don't offer drift modes in their cars because they're like, no, we don't want to do that. We are more aimed towards practicality and in that regard, that's fine. I'll not complain much about it because it's an SUV at the end of the day but launch control will be so cool. So, it has that initial lag. This is a 3-litre V6 turbocharged petrol engine which makes 340 horsepower and 500 Newton meters of torque. There is no change in the output numbers. It's the same when compared to before but it gets a 48-volt mild hybrid system which means that I can splash some water here. Yeah, that's a lot of water. So, this Swift wants to drive in the centre lane. I don't know why. Now, the 48-volt mild hybrid system obviously gives torque assist, stop-start system and energy regeneration and all that happens when you apply the brakes but that's about it. Even with the traction control off, nothing really happens because quattro, right? All-wheel drive system ensures that there is always good amount of grip and traction. In fact, it channels, I think, 60% of the power to the rear wheels and 40% to the front wheels. Usually, typically that's how a quattro system works and since this is not an RS model, it will not going to, I mean, it's not going to channel more power to the rear as such. So, that's how it works. Anyways, ground clearance is good. So, you don't have to really worry when you go over bad roads. In terms of acceleration, this car goes from 0 to 100 kilometres per hour in 5.6 seconds which is decently quick. Meanwhile, the top speed is 250 kilometres per hour which is, I think, electronically locked because definitely this car can go faster still. Over bad roads, you feel the firmness, yeah, it does feel firm and then the low-profile tyres don't really help its cause but the ride is actually quite good because as you speed up, the ride becomes better and it's a typical European ride, stiff at lower speeds, it's firm, it's not harsh in any way, it's actually firm. So, it works quite well. Let's actually use the wipers. Okay, headlight washers also work, so much spray, amazing wipers, yeah. The quality in the cabin is just super-duper awesome. In terms of drive modes, we have got six drive modes. There's efficiency, then there's comfort, there's auto, there's dynamic, there's individual. Did I say six? Yeah, there's off-road as well. It just tweaks the ESP system, I think, in off-road so that, you know, you don't put too much power and that's so inside the sand if you're going off-road. What all does it change? Not much actually. So, if I get into the settings, I can see the drive system can either be efficient, balanced or dynamic. Suspension can be comfortable, balanced or dynamic. Steering can be comfortable, balanced or dynamic. So, right now, let's put everything in dynamic only because obviously that feels the in terms of driving but the ride goes for a slight toss. It has got adaptive dampers, there is no air suspension here. Air suspension is optional. So, in terms of adaptive damping, obviously, comfort will have the best damping for better ride. However, when you come into the dynamic mode, the ride is little bit bad because it feels slightly more stiffer there. Look at this, okay, yeah, you can feel a bit of it. However, the handling improves. The problem here is that the steering isn't that great in terms of communication. I mean, it's direct, it's responsive, you know where you're pointing to. So, it doesn't feel hairy in any way, it just doesn't communicate enough and that's an inherent problem with a lot of Audi cars. Since a lot of years, cars are very neutral in the way they drive. So, not very sporty, yeah, they're not very sporty as such. So, that's a bit of a problem. Let's come here and onto the throttle. I love the horn on the car, it's just amazing. Around the corners, body roll is very well contained. It does feel glued to the road because of the wide tyres and the traction from the quattro system. However, the handling isn't that engaging. I mean, body roll is well contained, there's some amount of roll obviously and the handling is decent by SUV standards but it's not very dynamic like say a BMW X6. Now, over these bad bumps, I do have to be careful but I can avoid being careful as well, avoid being that careful as well because I know the sidewall is decent. It's 45 profile actually, it's not 30 or 35 profile and I've driven few cars recently which had that profile of a tyre and still I wasn't that careful. Now, the problem here is Audi is not offering the diesel engines in India. A 3-litre V6 diesel would be so amazing in this car but unfortunately, Audi is like, we will only offer you petrol engines because of the whole diesel game scandal. They realise it's no point in a market where there are so small numbers to take the headache of selling diesel, why do that? But they're still selling diesels in Europe right now because Europe is a largely diesel dominated market. Acceleration is brisk, mid-range is actually sweet, top end isn't that great and doesn't really sound too sporty either, so that's a bit of a hiccup here. Now, let's get into the full map view. It has an 8-speed automatic gearbox which is obviously a torque converter unit, I have got paddle shifters so I can manually take control of the gears if I wish and in terms of efficiency, I mean it's not really spectacular, it can't be either considering it's a heavy car and then petrol engines obviously tend to drink a lot more. Maybe a plug-in hybrid here would be nice or a strong hybrid because 48V is not really going to help the cause in terms of efficiency in any way, which actually brings me to the price of this car. I said Rs 1.39 crores on road Mumbai, actually this car is based on the Q7, very much like the Q7 and the Q7 costs around 23 lakhs cheaper, offering two more seats but this being more flamboyant and coming via the CBU route is more expensive and because this is coming via the CBU route, customisation options are unbelievable to the moon and back but it's going to take four months for those customisations to happen. This car seems very plain and basic, this seems like the base variant right now, there's only one variant though and if you want more optional kit, well, you can simply tick the boxes and get whatever you want. Now, ADAS is not there in this car in the sense that there's no lane keep assist and a lot of those things which I expected should have been there considering the price point, so yeah, the competition is becoming very stiff now because Mercedes and BMW are going bonkers, Audi has not been doing much of late, this thing feels little old, yeah, this infotainment feels old, they have a new infotainment system which they have advanced quite a lot, a bigger screen, better instrument cluster, bigger instrument cluster, all that has also come, another passenger screen is also there in the Q6 e-tron, so yes, once this car gets updated, it will, I mean, the next generation model will definitely be awesome, however, there's a caveat, it's not going to be called the Q8, I think, it's going to be called the Q9 because Q8 is the SUV equivalent of the A8 and then there was the R8 which was the sporty equivalent of the A8, not sporty equivalent, that is a supercar, however, the R8 has been discontinued, quite unfortunate that is and the A8's next generation will be called A9 because all the even numbers are now relegated to EVs and the odd numbers are going to be relegated to ICE powered cars, so the A6 has become A7, A8 will become A9, A4 has become A5, that's kind of a wrong strategy because A4, A6 and A8 are the most iconic cars from Audi, when you say A6 or A8 or A4, what comes to your mind or rather when you say Audi, what comes to your mind, obviously, A8 comes to my mind first, the R8 also comes to my mind, R8 is discontinued in lieu of the e-tron GT which again seems quite unfortunate, I am not sure what direction Audi is taking right now but the cars are still, even though old, quite desirable because the interior is lovely, I mean, it's very classic, it's not flamboyant, it doesn't have new big screens and all but everything works here, slick, high quality cabin and understated elegance is how I would like to put it, so this actually brings me to the point that should you buy this car because if you are looking for a coupe, there's a stone on the road, if you're looking for a coupe SUV, well, your options are very much limited, we are in manual mode right now, so let's see if it holds on to a gear, so we are in second, no, it doesn't hold on to a gear, it will upshift around 6,300 RPM because the GLE coupe is not available in India, the X6 coupe, the X6 is the coupe version of the SUV coupe version of the X5, that's also not available in India which is quite surprising and all those cars were coming via the CBU route anyway, so I don't know why they have discontinued it, they will come eventually I think after some time but the real competitor for this car is obviously the Porsche Cayenne coupe which is priced at Rs 1.68 crores on road Mumbai which is like what, 29 lakhs more expensive than this car, that car also has no features because everything in Porsche is part of optional kit, such bad roads, low profile tyres are not the solution when you encounter such bad roads, so that's a bit of a problem, engine does rev quite fast, it's a fast revving motor, I honestly am waiting for the RS Q8 which is like the Mini Urus or the Shasti Urus because it has essentially the same 4 litre V8 engine which is absolutely bonkers, this engine is not very fast but it gets the job done, you will not at all miss more grunt, obviously the torque rush of a diesel is something else and the fuel efficiency of a diesel is also something else and because of the fuel efficiency, the diesel obviously has a higher range per full tank of fuel, so that again is something else, so that's something which Audi is missing out on by not offering diesel engines and Mercedes, BMW, Land Rover, I'm not saying Jaguar because Jaguar doesn't sell any cars and I say it's **** because they made fab cars like the XE but they discontinued it, now they want to discontinue their whole ICE lineup and go EV only, so yeah Jaguar is disappointing even more than you can imagine and then Volvo is like we are going to make EVs only and now they are backtracked, they are going to make hybrids but Volvo has relegated itself to 4 cylinder engines, here we are getting a 6 cylinder motor, 6 cylinders, more cylinders, better efficiency in terms of, not really better efficiency but better smoothness, better refinement, better fun, more power baby, that's what matters, not downsizing like how Mercedes is doing it, the kind of downsizing which Audi does is different only altogether because Audi's downsizing is like we will remove the engine only completely, we will not reduce the cylinders, we will just remove the engine altogether and now it's time for the brake test, let's see how the brakes perform, that's a lot of sound coming I think from the ABS system, but since this is a brand new car which has done just 500 kilometres, the brakes were actually smoking yesterday, so yes you need to run in your car very smoothly, now this car obviously has quattro which I've already told you about but it has got a centre locking differential, not really a car you would like to take off-road because then approach angles and all those are not great but quattro here is for better drive experience, it's not about going off-roading and the weight of this car is around 2115 kgs but somehow it doesn't feel its weight at all, now I'm going to slot this on the left, I'm going to get into proper manual mode to see how it functions, so downshift, come on give me another downshift, where's the downshift, yeah into first gear, yeah it will not hold on to a gear, it will upshift immediately as soon as it hits the red line, so it doesn't give you manual control of things here which is fine because then the gearbox itself is so good, yeah it's not the fastest around but it is smooth with shifts and such bad roads, what is happening, a little bit of drops of rains fall onto the road and then we get such craters and that's the reason cars like these one, the car which is going from the left right now overtaking me, that is also slowed down so much because the body roll is there is absolutely boggling, mind-boggling, that's the reason why you need something really rough and tough on Indian roads because such roads are plenty, although I'm really stupid and I'm driving on this lane, I can be driving on the last most lane which is exactly that rough and tough car is doing right now, yeah you need such cars on our roads at least in the monsoon but trust me, this car does handle everything beautifully well in spite of the fact that it really does have low profile tyres, big wheels, yeah really big wheels, was it needed, probably not, does it add to the show factor, definitely yes, don't underestimate the potholes, you can see them right here with the 3D view camera which automatically shuts when I cross 40 kilometers per hour, now it's the time to take a u-turn, good thing is that in spite of the fact this particular car does not have rear wheel steering, there is still good amount of ease in terms of the turning radius, so that's not a hiccup here at all, so like I'm telling you 1.3 lakh crores is actually the price of this car, 23 lakhs more than the top end of the Q7, the Q7 is actually available in three variants, I think the limited edition variant is the one I'm comparing it with which is kind of wrong because that bold edition is obviously more expensive, Audi has managed to sell 1 lakh cars in India, now is the time we actually need the camera to see what is exactly there, so I think it will properly go there, so we're just turning like this, yeah this is a very small this thing, entry and off we go, I love how the mid-range is so punchy in this car, so there's only one variant which is actually the 55 TFSI Quattro, hopefully there should have been a 50 TDR, that would have been so amazing here, 16 lakhs actually goes for the registration of this car, 4.82 lakhs goes for the insurance for the first year of this car, so since the X6 and the GLE Coupé are not available in India, technically speaking this car is competing with the regular GLE and it is also competing with the X5, both of them are absolutely brilliant cars, I obviously prefer the X5, definitely look at the kind of potholes, it's super duper stupid how big these potholes are, when you pay your taxes, but then it all depends on how you look at it, yeah it's not the latest car in the market, it is not the best in terms of the technology and the gadgetry, but it's a no-nonsense car, amazing quality, drives really well and it will be very exclusive as well because it's coming via the CBU route, so everyone is going to customise their cars hopefully, in that regard, if you have the money, opt for the Q8 or just save money, get the Q7, a lot more practical, but in spite of the fact that it is more expensive, it's still not less practical because I can see clearly through the rear window, I'm not having an issue here at all usually which is the case with coupe SUVs because they have a very small window at the rear, let's go full beans through this corner and look at the way, even with traction control off, the way it stays glued to the road, so it's enjoyable to drive, I just wish the steering had more feel and feedback, it's a bit numb here, but it's a very refined and a smooth car and if that's what you want, then it's difficult to beat and that's one of the reasons why you would opt for the petrol over the diesel, but the diesel is not available only, so that option is only not there, I'm sorry, I can't give you that option only, it's not even rained like for more than like 10 minutes and already we are having big big puddles on the road, which is fine, big potholes there, so you have to manoeuvre yourself and in that regard, firstly it feels like a big car, it's not small in any way, it is big, yeah, it has the size, it has the feel and it is quite an unique car in that sense. Okay, let's stop and launch this car again, here I am, left foot on the brake, right foot on the accelerator, manual mode, revving the motor and off we go. So guys, this is my video of the Audi Q8 facelift, quite a nice car, I just wish the interior was a bit updated, considering what I've seen with the latest Audi cars, I have huge expectations from the next generation of the Q, oh sorry, not Q8, Q9, bye-bye.