"Its Road-dominating Dimensions...."

[anonymous-user]

Nanook said:

mrnutty said:

No matter how much I try, I just can’t see someone using a brand new sparkling Q8 to tow a plough or move injured sheep around on a farm. Where I’m from most seem to favour a functional trusty Defender ? Or perhaps a Duster ? Funny thread!

The comment was about SUV drivers, it didn't seem to be any more specific than that.

Indeed.

[TooMany2cvs]

Nanook said:

I lived on a farm. We had harsh winters, several months with over a foot of snow on the road, I needed to be able to get in and out to work and elsewhere, I needed to be able to tow a trailer, I needed to be able to drive up a field

Doesn't sound like typical Q8 territory. In fact, it sounds like stiff suspension, mediocre ground clearance, mahoosive blingy alloys and thick-coat-of-black-paint road-biased tyres would be an absolute liability.

Nanook said:

I needed to be able to get a lot of stuff in the back of my car, and I occassionally used all 7 seats.

That's definitely ruled a Q8 out, then, with five seats and similar boot space to a Passat saloon.

[Flibble]

Brooking10 said:

Flibble said:

Brooking10 said:

Francis85 said:

DoubleD said:

Now its SUV drivers....should we follow?

Yes. They hate the environment anyway.

What on earth do you base this ridiculous comment on ?

Because they buy an overweight car with poor aerodynamics which will use more fuel than comparably sized vehicles built on a saloon platform.

Which saloon based car would you use on a farm, or take on a shoot, or a point to point, or turn up at the local pay and play quarry ?

None of them, but then the majority of SUVs never do those things anyway as they are owned by city folk.

[anonymous-user]

Flibble said:

Brooking10 said:

Flibble said:

Brooking10 said:

Francis85 said:

DoubleD said:

Now its SUV drivers....should we follow?

Yes. They hate the environment anyway.

What on earth do you base this ridiculous comment on ?

Because they buy an overweight car with poor aerodynamics which will use more fuel than comparably sized vehicles built on a saloon platform.

Which saloon based car would you use on a farm, or take on a shoot, or a point to point, or turn up at the local pay and play quarry ?

None of them, but then the majority of SUVs never do those things anyway as they are owned by city folk.

Ah I wondered when that old chestnut would arise.

But what about the many that aren’t ?

Plus off course you do realise that many city folk do country things too ?

See the problem with making ridiculously sweeping statements about large swathes of the car market and the people who buy them is you lay yourself open to looking a bit stupid.

Far better to stay quiet and leave people with their nagging suspicions rather than continue digging and provide absolute confirmation.

[anonymous-user]

Stridey said:

Brooking10 said:

Which saloon based car would you use on a farm, or take on a shoot, or a point to point, or turn up at the local pay and play quarry ?

A Fiat Panda 4x4. And I’m serious. Old square version ideally. Newer one fine.

Edited by anonymous-user on Sunday 23 September 10:18

I am assuming you haven’t actually done many of those things ?

I love the Panda 4x4 and would have one in a heartbeat but it simply wouldn’t work in many cases for the situations outlined.

[TooMany2cvs]

Nanook said:

TooMany2cvs said:

Nanook said:

I lived on a farm. We had harsh winters, several months with over a foot of snow on the road, I needed to be able to get in and out to work and elsewhere, I needed to be able to tow a trailer, I needed to be able to drive up a field

Doesn't sound like typical Q8 territory. In fact, it sounds like stiff suspension, mediocre ground clearance, mahoosive blingy alloys and thick-coat-of-black-paint road-biased tyres would be an absolute liability.

Nanook said:

I needed to be able to get a lot of stuff in the back of my car, and I occassionally used all 7 seats.

That's definitely ruled a Q8 out, then, with five seats and similar boot space to a Passat saloon.

Thanks for your input. The comment wasn't specific to a Q8 though, it was about SUVs, so none of the above is all that relevant.

The first comment applies equally to the majority of modern SUVs - and the second applies to all the similar "coupe-style" ones. There's nothing particularly unique about the Q8.

[anonymous-user]

TooMany2cvs said:

Nanook said:

TooMany2cvs said:

Nanook said:

I lived on a farm. We had harsh winters, several months with over a foot of snow on the road, I needed to be able to get in and out to work and elsewhere, I needed to be able to tow a trailer, I needed to be able to drive up a field

Doesn't sound like typical Q8 territory. In fact, it sounds like stiff suspension, mediocre ground clearance, mahoosive blingy alloys and thick-coat-of-black-paint road-biased tyres would be an absolute liability.

Nanook said:

I needed to be able to get a lot of stuff in the back of my car, and I occassionally used all 7 seats.

That's definitely ruled a Q8 out, then, with five seats and similar boot space to a Passat saloon.

Thanks for your input. The comment wasn't specific to a Q8 though, it was about SUVs, so none of the above is all that relevant.

The first comment applies equally to the majority of modern SUVs - and the second applies to all the similar "coupe-style" ones. There's nothing particularly unique about the Q8.

The strange thing is though that the platform the Q8 is based upon is capable of some relatively good off road prowess. Appropriate transmission , air suspension, underbody protection , knobblier tyres with smaller wheels are all available should you want them on q7, Cayenne and Bentayga and so one assumes (I haven’t checked) on q8 too.

I am not trying to claim it will a Land Cruiser beater but if required these vehicles can do more than most people assume or ask of them.

[J4CKO]

OT ish but saw my first Urus int he wild yesterday, going through the Manchester Airport tunnels, looked and sounded great, sounded like a Lamborghini should I thought, they dont look ridiculously enormous either.

[TooMany2cvs]

Nanook said:

Given that the comment made was that all SUV drivers are s, and the question was 'why would anyone drive on', I provided my reasoning

And then you took umbrage when the flaws in that reasoning were pointed out.

Nanook said:

and asked what else someone could reccommend.

Got any thoughts?

There really aren't many properly poor-surface capable seven seaters now. The D5 isn't a patch on the D3/4, which wasn't a patch on the D1/2. They've mostly been killed off by the "SUV", with ludicrous alloys and mediocre ground clearance, because very few people actually bought them for that. The lower ends of the Land Cruiser or Shogun range would be the most suitable, with Q8 and X6 among the very least suitable.

[legless]

Brooking10 said:

The strange thing is though that the platform the Q8 is based upon is capable of some relatively good off road prowess. Appropriate transmission , air suspension, underbody protection , knobblier tyres with smaller wheels are all available should you want them on q7, Cayenne and Bentayga and so one assumes (I haven’t checked) on q8 too.

To back this up, I took a first generation Q7 around Land Rover's Eastnor Castle proving ground and it performed admirably. I've no reason to suspect the current one would t be at least as good.

The contemporary X5 though, admittedly, was pretty hopeless.

[TooMany2cvs]

Nanook said:

So, in response to the question of "If all SUV drivers are s, what should I have driven" the answer would appear to be the exact vehicle that I was referring to.

There are degrees of itude.
People in cities buying Q8s and X6s with some lame justification are grade A, gold-plated, diamond-studded s.
People buying farm-spec Land Cruisers and Shoguns because they actually use them as intended are not.

I know where I think the majority of sales go - and, getting back to the start of the thread, where Audi's marketing is aimed.

I have no idea where on that itude scale you fall, but methinks the lady doth protest too much.

[anonymous-user]

TooMany2cvs said:

There really aren't many properly poor-surface capable seven seaters now. The D5 isn't a patch on the D3/4, which wasn't a patch on the D1/2. They've mostly been killed off by the "SUV", with ludicrous alloys and mediocre ground clearance, because very few people actually bought them for that. The lower ends of the Land Cruiser or Shogun range would be the most suitable, with Q8 and X6 among the very least suitable.

Mercedes GLS - very capable in both regards.

Interested to hear in what ways you consider the D5 deficient in the people carrying and off road stakes vs its predecessors. Aesthetically I am no fan but I can’t see how it is any less capable.

[TooMany2cvs]

Brooking10 said:

Mercedes GLS - very capable in both regards.

That's the mahoosive GL replacement, the one that's even bigger than the old ML/now-GLE?

As for the D5 - when even the entry level spec includes 19" blingy alloys...

[TooMany2cvs]

Nanook said:

See, you're still doing it. The conversation just now is about all SUV drivers being s, and why would anyone ever drive one.

We've discussed it, we've answered it

Oh, my apologies. I forgot that you had the last word, and nobody was allowed to query it, move the conversation on a little further, or refer your conclusion back to the original topic.

[anonymous-user]

TooMany2cvs said:

Brooking10 said:

Mercedes GLS - very capable in both regards.

That's the mahoosive GL replacement, the one that's even bigger than the old ML/now-GLE?

As for the D5 - when even the entry level spec includes 19" blingy alloys...

Are you saying that a D5 isn’t a capable off road seven seater and for some reason the GLE should be excluded from the sample ?

[legless]

TooMany2cvs said:

There really aren't many properly poor-surface capable seven seaters now. The D5 isn't a patch on the D3/4, which wasn't a patch on the D1/2.

This just isn't true. I was on the development team for L319, and the D3 convincingly beats D1 (and especially D2) on every conceivable metric of off-road driving.

I no longer work for LR, but a contact of mine works in the power distribution industry. He says that his current D5 is the best off-roader he's ever used. It carries on in places where their Defender 110s get stuck.

[DoubleD]

Why does someone have to justify what car they want to drive?

Are people not allowed to buy what they like? Or do they have to ask permission from some stranger on the internet because that person dislikes something about their choice?

We end up like sheep following one another, first complaining about BMW drivers, then Audi drivers and now SUV drivers. Whats next?

[Dusty964]

Flibble said:

Brooking10 said:

Francis85 said:

DoubleD said:

Now its SUV drivers....should we follow?

Yes. They hate the environment anyway.

What on earth do you base this ridiculous comment on ?

Because they buy an overweight car with poor aerodynamics which will use more fuel than comparably sized vehicles built on a saloon platform.

Mine current car is massively overweight, its a 5.6 v8 with 8 seats. To be honest, with a need for 8 seats, a modicum of off road ability, and a boot large enough for a load of building materials, the choices were few and far betwen.
Ive had BMW, Mercedes, Fiat, Land Rover, Range Rover, Subaru, Renault, TVR, Westfield, Saab, Skoda, Jeep, Mercury, Volvo, Toyota, Honda, Peugot....

At no stage have i ever thought about a purchase (clearly, i owned a Peugot!) and considered its aerodynamics, nor what alternatives could have been found based on a saloon platform.

I suppose the notion of buying what you want angers some. For reasons unknown.


Fuel here is Dubai is cheap, so that doesnt influence a purchase- average is 14mpg at present.

I really dont understand why people complain quite so much about what a complete stranger chooses to drive around in.

[FiF]

Brooking10 said:

Flibble said:

Brooking10 said:

Flibble said:

Brooking10 said:

Francis85 said:

DoubleD said:

Now its SUV drivers....should we follow?

Yes. They hate the environment anyway.

What on earth do you base this ridiculous comment on ?

Because they buy an overweight car with poor aerodynamics which will use more fuel than comparably sized vehicles built on a saloon platform.

Which saloon based car would you use on a farm, or take on a shoot, or a point to point, or turn up at the local pay and play quarry ?

None of them, but then the majority of SUVs never do those things anyway as they are owned by city folk.

Ah I wondered when that old chestnut would arise.

But what about the many that aren’t ?

Plus off course you do realise that many city folk do country things too ?

See the problem with making ridiculously sweeping statements about large swathes of the car market and the people who buy them is you lay yourself open to looking a bit stupid.

Far better to stay quiet and leave people with their nagging suspicions rather than continue digging and provide absolute confirmation.

Agreed with that post, plus country folk also do city things. My Freelander2 (FL2) goes off tarmac every single day, some days it might be only half a mile or so up a farm track, or a couple of miles in the forest, other days much more, point is it's off metalled surfaces, sometimes quite muddy and rutted. Yet later in that day when I'm driving through the city, along with yummy mummies picking their special snowflakes up from school some arse on the internet thinks I'm a c-unit for using it in an urban situation.

Still if was running about on a tractor they'd find something else to moan about, the broad brush merchants just show up their petty prejudices and ignorance.

[Kenny Powers]

FiF said:

[...] Still if was running about on a tractor they'd find something else to moan about, the broad brush merchants just show up their petty prejudices and ignorance.

Interestingly no one has a problem with people using performance cars on the road that never see a race track