RUMOR: Audi's Next-Gen Q7 To Sit On A BENTLEY Platform

no wonder driving audi's are such stale experiences. cuz of their mass-produced, stale vw counterparts.

i say let the poor have their vee-dub, the poor-man's audi or bentley or what-have-you. and the rich ignorant guys have their rich-man's vw. but we know better, us real car enthusiasts. :)

People who boast they are "car enthusiasts" are usually just stale fanboys/salesmen of a rival car -- and they usually don't 'experience' much outside their tunnel vision on their favorite car.

More "rumours" again about German vehicles from that small British car mag 'Autocar' (only No.8 in motoring mag sales in Britain)... instead of better information on German vehicles from the largest German car mags, each of which could swallow the entire circulation of all British car mags combined. And as we can see, Autocar is using a copyrighted photo from the Autozeitung -- in its May article -- already reported 2.5 months ago that the next-generation Audi Q7 was spied testing.

Autozeitung has already reported in May that the next Q7 will lose 400 kg of weight (about 970 lbs)! And that a Q8 is coming.
http://tinyurl.com/p8zgn8u
http://tinyurl.com/kbkt4b9

It's easy to lose focus on what's really important. What's more important is that the Audi Q7 has been top performer in its SUV segment. In any case, tests show there are differences between similar vehicles in the VW group.

- German car mag test: Audi Q7, Porsche Cayenne, BMW X5, Mercedes ML and VW Touareg
http://tinyurl.com/kpsnfls

- American car mag test: Audi Q7 3.0T, Acura MDX , BMW X5 xDrive35i, Land Rover LR4 HSE, Lexus GX460
http://tinyurl.com/lwg9l5w
http://tinyurl.com/6sa6xrb

00R: "To me it's funny that it's becoming more well known that there is an orgy of part sharing among VWAG's companies because the last several high-end Audi's I've piloted — the RS5 and S6 — I will say that at highway speed they both drive VERY similar to the Bentley Continental GT. That's a good thing."

What's even more funny is that the Bentley Continental GT and Bentley Continental Flying Spur share the Volkswagen D1 platform. The only other VAG car using that platform is the Volkswagen Phaeton. [The Audi RS5 is based on the MLB/MLP platform and the Audi S6 on the Volkswagen Group C platform]

Yup, it's a good thing to be owning and driving a car that is part of the world's largest group of luxury vehicles (Audi, Porsche, Bugatti, Bentley, Lamborghini, Ducati, etc.). Because when some people drive one car from this group, they dream as if they are driving all the luxury and sportiness from this group, lol.

And that imaginary 'Bentley Continental' illuisonary feeling must be why German car mag tests:

- chose the Audi RS5 over the Porsche 911 Carrera S
http://tinyurl.com/ny6y8gh

- chose the RS5 over the BMW M3 Coupe
http://tinyurl.com/k3e8h9y

- chose the RS5 over the BMW 650i Coupe
http://tinyurl.com/oynmq4c

And why America car mag tests:

- chose the 2013 Audi S6 (213 points out of 240) first ahead of the second-placed Mercedes E63 AMG (210 points) and the last-placed 2013 BMW M5 (193 points).
http://tinyurl.com/cqntdwx
http://tinyurl.com/6olv8mu

- In the same episode of PBS Motorweek, the 2013 Audi S6 was tested accelerating faster to 60 mph and to the quarter mi

- In the same episode of PBS Motorweek, the 2013 Audi S6 was tested accelerating faster to 60 mph and to the quarter mile -- than the 2013 BMW M5.
http://video.pbs.org/video/2365023984/
- PBS Motorweek: Audi S6 3.8 seconds to 60 mph... and 12.2 sec @114 mph to quarter mile... and 23.1mpg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtpXVIui_KI
- PBS Motorweek : BMW M5 4.1 sec to 60 mph... and 12.3 sec @117 mph to quarter mile... and 17.3mpg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rMG8d4TdSU

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94geo, in case you missed this: Don't forget to read my reply on why the car mag test data indicates the the Audi RS7 is likely to be faster than the Porsche Panamera Turbo S.
http://tinyurl.com/prgdx5z

I don't know why people are surprised about the platform sharing between Bentley, Audi, Porsche and Volkswagen. By using one platform as the base across all its luxury-brand SUVs, the Volkswagen Auto Group saves significantly on costs and those costs savings trickle down to the individual brands themselves.

It's a very simple formula:

1) Use one MLB platform across your luxury brand SUVs
2) Save money by not making a new platform for each brand
3) Customize each platform depending on which brand it is being used for
4) Make the individual brands more profitable than if they had to each individually create a new platform themselves.

"Autozeitung has already reported in May that the next Q7 will lose 400 kg of weight (about 970 lbs)! "

400kg = 880lbs

Current q7 is such a pig. Hopefully it looses as much weight as it it rumored to, b/c the current model is almost 4-500lb heavier than many if its equally equipped rivals. Plus many of the new versions of rival cars like BMW trimmed another 2-300lbs off their newest versions, so the Q7 will have to drop at least 7-800lbs to be competitive.

94geo: Thanks for correcting my mistake. In my boredom I had made a typo and calculated 440 kg instead of the 400 kg I had stated.
Fortunately my 90 lb mistake wasn't as big as you claiming BMW reducing its car weights by 200 to 300 lbs... despite the reality being far from that :)

It's unfair to describe the "current q7 is such a pig.. b/c the current model is almost 4-500lb heavier than many if its equally equipped rivals."

Take a look at the link for dimensions and curb weight of the Audi Q7, BMW X5 and other SUVs.
The Q7 is 9 inches longer and 2 inches wider than the BMW X5 -- i.e., the Q7 is substantially bigger than the X5 and other SUVs tested.
Thus it is understandable that the Q7 is 485 lbs heavier than the smaller X5.
The Q7 is not such a pic: the Q7 posts a decent sprint to 60 mph; the Q7 is almost as fast as an X5 over the quarter mile; and by 110 mph the Audi Q7 will overtake the X5... leaving the BMW behind to be caught by traffic police. Car and Driver rated the Q7 almost as fun to drive as the X5.
http://tinyurl.com/lwg9l5w

If the Q7 does drop 880 lbs, it might be the lightest SUV relative to its overall size -- or at least one of the lightest. The weight savings will come from increased use of aluminium and smaller, lighter (yet better) engines.

Don't forget to read my reply on why the car mag test data indicates the the Audi RS7 will likely be faster than the Porsche Panamera Turbo S. Having thought more about it, the 616 HP Bentley Continental Flying Spur probably can't catch the RS7. The RS7 will probably be the fastest four-door sedan in straight line acceleration. The only issue is whether Horst von Saurma will be able to drive it faster at Nurburgring than the Porsche Panamera Turbo S he twice set lap records on (making it the fastest four-door production car on that track). I would guess that Audi put together the Dynamic Plus Package for such an attempt at the Nurburgring.
http://tinyurl.com/prgdx5z

"Fortunately my 90 lb mistake wasn't as big as you claiming BMW reducing its car weights by 200 to 300 lbs... despite the reality being far from that :)"

Actually its only 70lb from the top of my RANGE. So your mistake was bigger : )

xDrive35i lighter by 170 lbs (than predecessor)
xDrive50i lighter by 230 lbs (than predecessor)

Actually your nebulous comment could be read as it's as much as 130 lbs from the top of your range ("BMW trimmed another 2-300lbs off their newest versions" and "xDrive35i lighter by 170 lbs")... so your mistake could still be bigger :)

Though I understand that it's not as colossal a mistake as you claiming that "the panamera turbo S with 555hp and 590lb-ft WITHOUT A DOUBT is faster than the RS7" when the opposite is indicated by actual acceleration data in German car mags :)
http://tinyurl.com/prgdx5z

I keep hearing (and hoping) that BMW is reducing the weight of their vehicles, but so far I'm not seeing it.

From the BMW USA web site:
335i coupe - 3,582 lbs
435i coupe - 4,505 lbs (per website)
2010 650i - 3,814 lbs
2013 650i - 4,275 lbs

You should check the new 3 series vs the old one, and the new x5 vs the old one. Also the 4 series weight is a typo (-1000) on the website and is lighter than the outgoing model.

So if a 1,000 error is accurate (which has yet to be vetted), the new 4 is exactly 77 lbs lighter - - - which is a long, long ways off from 200 to 300 lb reductions I keep hearing about. Then there is the 6 series, just no excuse for that weight gain.

The new "light weight" X5 still weights in at a portly 200+ pounds more than a Porsche Cayenne.

I believe 200-300lb is in reference to the BMW X5 which is accurate. The First model where you will se significant weight reduction is the next 7 series, from there it will flow through to the rest of the line up.

Other way around. Audi is solely responsible for the MLB platform. The Q7 (or may Macan) will debut the MLB Evo platform.

Headline could have read, "New Bentley to sit on Touareg platform". Talk about spin.