2022 Audi Q7

2022 is a carry-over powertrain year within the second-generation (Typ 4M) Q7: the volume 45 TFSI 2.0T makes 248 hp — the 13-hp bump to 261 hp did not arrive until 2023. Modest output for a ~4,900-lb three-row luxury SUV.

Peak torque of the volume 45 TFSI 2.0T; the optional 48-volt mild-hybrid 3.0T V6 delivers 369 lb-ft. Mid-pack for the segment — enough for everyday work, well short of the V8 and six-cylinder rivals.

Published 0–60 for the 248-hp 45 TFSI quattro. Adequate rather than quick for a mid-size luxury SUV; the V6 is over a second faster and the SQ7 far quicker again.

The EA888 2.0T is quiet and smooth in normal driving with only mild off-idle turbo lag, and the optional V6's 48-volt mild-hybrid system makes stop/start and coasting transitions nearly imperceptible. At 248 hp the four is audibly strained under full throttle in a ~4,900-lb three-row SUV, which keeps it out of the top band.

Every 2022 Q7 uses the ZF 8HP eight-speed Tiptronic automatic — a widely praised unit that shifts smoothly, holds sensible gears and rarely hunts, with competent paddle-shift manual control.

Maximum properly-equipped rating in any configuration, per this item's definition — the 3.0T V6 with the factory Trailer Tow package. The volume 45 TFSI is rated at 4,400 lbs, so a buyer of the volume trim gets roughly half of this.

quattro permanent all-wheel drive is standard on every 2022 Q7 trim, using a self-locking centre differential with a 40:60 default front/rear split that can send up to 70% forward or 85% rearward, plus an optional torque-vectoring sport differential. No low-range transfer case, which caps it below the top band.

A road-biased luxury crossover: roughly 8 in of ground clearance on the standard steel springs, no low range, no lockers or skid plates, and no off-road trim in the 2022 lineup (Premium, Premium Plus, Prestige only). The optional adaptive air suspension adds a raised allroad/offroad ride height and an offroad Audi drive select profile, which is the extent of its provision.

Three distinct gas powertrains span the US nameplate for 2022 — 2.0T I4, 48V mild-hybrid 3.0T V6, and the SQ7's 4.0T V8 — but nothing electrified beyond mild-hybrid assist: the Q7 TFSI e plug-in hybrid is a European offering not sold in North America, and there is no full hybrid or EV variant.

EPA combined figure for the volume 45 TFSI 2.0T quattro; the 3.0T V6 rates 20 combined. Both are quattro-only, and neither has a full hybrid system — respectable for a ~4,900-lb three-row SUV but no better than mid-pack among gas SUVs.

EPA city rating for the volume 45 TFSI quattro — unremarkable in town, and far behind the hybrid three-row rivals that post 30-plus city.

EPA highway rating for the volume 45 TFSI quattro; the eight-speed's tall top gears help, but full-time quattro and roughly 4,900 lbs cap it well short of the class leaders.

A large 22.5-gallon tank turns middling economy into genuinely long legs: EPA puts the volume 45 TFSI at 495 miles per tank, an above-average figure for the segment and one of the Q7's better efficiency-side numbers.

EPA's annual cost at 15,000 mi/yr. Even the more efficient four-cylinder sits near the top of the SUV cost band, because 22 combined MPG is being paid for at premium-grade prices.

Premium gasoline is recommended rather than required on both the 45 and 55 TFSI — the engines will run on regular with reduced output — but Audi's recommendation means most owners pay the premium spread on every fill of a 22.5-gallon tank. No plug-in, flex-fuel or diesel option exists in the US for 2022.

NHTSA never ran the frontal or side-barrier tests on the 2022 Q7 — its entry carries only a 4-star rollover result (15.7% risk, no tip) and a 5-star side pole result, with no overall rating. The structurally identical 2023 car, unchanged through the 4M facelift run, was fully tested at 5 stars overall, so that is the generation figure applied here per the item's latest-tested-year rule.

Crashworthiness is a clean sweep of Good — driver and passenger small overlap front, moderate overlap front, roof strength, head restraints, and Good in the tougher updated side test (a result many 2022 SUVs missed), with only driver pelvis marked Acceptable within it. It earns no IIHS award at all for 2022, however, and the sole reason is headlights: all three variations rate Poor. Held just below the award band on that basis, with the headlight failure itself scored at 3.3.1 rather than counted twice here.

The volume 45 TFSI Premium carries a broad standard set: Audi pre sense basic/front (AEB with pedestrian detection), pre sense rear with rear automatic braking, Audi side assist blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert, lane departure warning, automatic high beams, and front and rear parking sensors. What holds it to the middle band is that neither adaptive cruise control nor lane keeping assist can be bought on the Premium at any price for 2022 — the Convenience package adds only a heated steering wheel, surround-view camera and phone-box booster, and both driver-assist systems require stepping up to Premium Plus.

Top marks in both front crash prevention tests IIHS ran on this car: Superior vehicle-to-vehicle, with the Q7 avoiding the collision outright in the 25 mph run, and Superior daytime pedestrian across the crossing-adult and parallel-adult scenarios. It cannot reach the top band because the nighttime pedestrian test was not run on the 2022 car — the harder half of the evaluation is simply unmeasured.

Audi side assist is standard on every trim rather than package content, and coverage goes past alert-only — rear automatic braking is standard, and rear cross-traffic assist escalates from MMI indicator arrows to a warning tone and a brake jolt in critical situations. Kept out of the top band by the absence of trailer-aware coverage on an SUV rated to tow.

The volume Premium gets lane departure warning only — active lane assist is not on its option sheet for 2022 and arrives as newly standard content one trim up on Premium Plus, where it pairs with adaptive cruise assist for genuine hands-on lane centering that reviewers find smooth and confident. The deduction is availability on the trim being scored, not the system's behavior; it sits a little below the 2023 car because that year at least offered the centering hardware to Premium buyers.

Where fitted, adaptive cruise assist is a well-integrated full-speed-range stop-and-go system that folds distance control and lane guidance into one highway assist, and Traffic Jam Assist adds self-steering in slow traffic — newly standard on Premium Plus for 2022. The volume Premium cannot be optioned with it at all this model year, which is a harder limitation than 2023's package availability and is what keeps this in the middle band.

Audi sold no hands-free highway driving system in the US for 2022. Adaptive cruise assist is explicitly hands-on, requiring continuous steering-wheel torque, and nothing in the Q7 order guide corresponds to BlueCruise or Super Cruise.

The worst result on the car and the single reason it wins no IIHS award: every one of the three headlight configurations offered on the 2022 Q7 rates Poor for excessive low-beam glare, and there is no trim or option that buys out of it. The Premium's LED projectors add inadequate high-beam performance, and the mid-tier Matrix-Design LEDs add fair-to-inadequate visibility on curves. Audi did not re-aim the lamps until early in the 2023 model year.

Better than the three-row luxury norm thanks to a tall, boxy greenhouse and a small forward quarter window that opens up the A-pillar area, with reviewers calling the outward view excellent. Thick D-pillars and a high beltline still cost over-the-shoulder vision, and camera compensation is uneven on the trim being scored — backup camera and front/rear parking sensors are standard, but the surround-view system is $1,200 Convenience Package content on the Premium.

IIHS rates LATCH ease of use Good and credits the Q7 with extra anchor positions — all five second- and third-row seating positions carry complete child-seat attachment hardware, which is rare and makes multi-seat installs straightforward. Lower anchors are not buried too deep and need little force; the third row's tight legroom is what keeps it from a top score, since a rear-facing seat back there is a squeeze.

Unlike most mid-size luxury SUVs, the 2022 Q7 ships with a third row on every trim — seven seats are standard rather than optional, and no six-seat captain's-chair configuration is offered in the US.

Generous front headroom for the class, measured with the panoramic sunroof that is standard equipment on every 2022 Q7 trim. Dimensions are unchanged from the rest of the facelifted Typ 4M run.

Adequate rather than expansive front legroom — the Q7's 117.9 in wheelbase is spent making three rows work rather than stretching the front footwell.

Second-row headroom is strong for a mid-size luxury SUV thanks to the Q7's upright roofline, and it does so while carrying a third row underneath the same roof.

The second row is genuinely adult-sized at 38.8 in and slides fore/aft to trade legroom with the third row — a meaningful advantage over two-row rivals occupying the same footprint.

A real third row that a two-row X5 or GLE simply does not have, power-folding on every trim and carrying complete LATCH hardware back there — but 29.2 in of legroom and 35.9 in of headroom make it a children-and-teens space, with adults tolerable only for short hops.

With the third row folded the Q7 offers 35.7 cu ft — competitive with the two-row X5 but modest against three-row mainstream SUVs, and only 14.2 cu ft survives with all seven seats occupied.

69.6 cu ft maximum is below the three-row SUV norm — the Q7 spends its interior volume on a third row rather than a long load bay, and reviewers name the Volvo XC90 as offering more.

Competent, conventional storage: a deep covered console bin, usable door pockets, an underfloor cargo well and a near-flat load floor when both rear rows drop. Nothing innovative — no household AC outlet, no configurable console, and the second-row bench does not offer a 40/20/40 split.

Heated eight-way power front seats with memory and leather upholstery are standard on every 2022 trim and reviewers praise their long-haul support; the sliding second row is comfortable for adults. Held below the top band by flat third-row cushions and by ventilated seats being confined to the V6-only Prestige.

The standard steel-spring setup absorbs broken pavement well and keeps the body flat, and reviewers describe the ride as pleasing; it is firm at low speed on the larger wheel packages, and the adaptive air suspension that makes it genuinely plush is standard only on the Prestige.

Isolation is one of the Q7's signature strengths — acoustic glass and thorough sealing keep wind and road noise well suppressed at highway speed. The 248-hp 2.0T making itself heard under hard acceleration in a ~4,900-lb SUV is the only real intrusion.

Tri-zone automatic climate with rear A/C, heated power front seats, leather, a panoramic sunroof and — new for 2022 — standard ambient interior lighting and heated power-folding mirrors on every trim. Kept out of the top band because the heated steering wheel is Premium Plus content and ventilated seats are exclusive to the V6-only Prestige.

The 248-hp 45 TFSI Premium is the entry 2022 Q7 at $57,500 before Audi's $1,095 MY2022 destination charge. Pricing held steady through the model year — unlike 2023, which took a mid-year increase — so there is a single entry figure for 2022.

Premium Plus is the volume Audi trim and the 248-hp 45 TFSI is the volume Q7 engine — the same configuration the rest of this scorecard describes — and for 2022 it is where adaptive cruise assist with traffic jam assist, active lane assist, the top-view camera and premium audio become standard. Real 2022 Premium Plus cars typically stickered in the low $60Ks.

Nothing is included on a 2022 Q7 — the owner pays from the first 10,000-mile service — and years 4–5 fall outside the 4-year/50,000-mile warranty on a near-5,000-lb SUV with 48-volt mild-hybrid hardware, adaptive air suspension and 19-to-21-inch tires, so the back half of the period carries real repair exposure. Published sources spread very widely, so this is a mid-range figure rather than a single citation.

The Q7 sheds value faster than its luxury mid-size SUV class average, and 2022 cars are depreciating from a pandemic-inflated transaction price — buyers who paid at or above sticker in the 2022 seller's market are giving that premium back. Real 2022 cars are already at roughly 43% of original MSRP after four years, which puts the five-year figure just above 40%.

Audi's 4-year/50,000-mile bumper-to-bumper term matches BMW and Mercedes-Benz for 2022 and beats the 3-year/36,000-mile mainstream norm, but trails Genesis's 5-year/60,000-mile coverage — squarely mid-band.

Audi publishes no standalone extended powertrain warranty, so engine and drivetrain coverage on a 2022 Q7 simply expires with the bumper-to-bumper term at four years — below the 5–10 year range this item is graded against and far behind the 10-year powertrain coverage several mainstream and Korean rivals offer.

No complimentary scheduled maintenance of any kind came with a 2022 Q7 — Audi's included first service ended after MY2019, and for MY2020 and newer Audi Care exists only as a prepaid 10k/20k/30k/40k plan bought on top of the car — so the owner pays from the very first service. What is included is real but ordinary: 4-year/50,000-mile roadside assistance running with the warranty, the 12-year corrosion warranty, and an Audi connect trial. That places it in the "no complimentary coverage" band, well behind Genesis (scheduled maintenance plus valet service) and behind the 2022 BMW X5, whose Ultimate Care covered scheduled service for 3 years/36,000 miles.

$63,500 volume-trim price minus its estimated resale value after 5 years (41% retained, or about $26,035) leaves about $37,465 in depreciation. Add the projected $7,300 in 5-year maintenance and repairs, and owning this vehicle for 5 years costs about $44,765 in total.

Both model-specific sources land below average for this exact model year, and they agree with each other. Consumer Reports states the 2022 Q7 is less reliable than other cars from the same model year, and J.D. Power rates this model year 64/100 for Quality & Reliability — a "Fair" grade and a full 14 points below the 78/100 it gives the 2023 car, so the weakness is year-specific rather than an artifact of the nameplate. RepairPal agrees on direction, rating the Q7 2.5/5.0 and recording 0.9 unscheduled shop visits per year against 0.7 for luxury full-size SUVs. The one genuine counter-signal keeps this off the floor: RepairPal puts the probability that a given repair is severe at 13% versus a 19% class average, so the pattern is frequent nuisance faults rather than catastrophic ones. Scored below the 2023 sibling (66) because CR reads that car as about average and this one as outright below it.

The single most relevant study measures precisely this car's cohort and it is Audi's worst reading of the run: the 2025 J.D. Power Vehicle Dependability Study surveys original owners of 2022 model-year vehicles at three years and puts Audi at 273 PP100 against a 202 PP100 industry average — near the bottom of the industry and well behind both German rivals, with BMW at 189 and Mercedes-Benz at 243. The 90-day endpoint on the same cohort is bottom-third too, at roughly 239 PP100 against a ~180 average in the 2022 IQS, so both ends of the ownership window agree. What holds this a few points above the bottom band is that the sources genuinely disagree on severity rather than agreeing on catastrophe — Consumer Reports places Audi mid-pack at 13th of 26 brands for predicted reliability, which is a materially kinder read than J.D. Power's.

Three NHTSA campaigns across four model years on the road, and every one of them is a Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 111 rearview-camera compliance action — nothing touching the powertrain, structure, airbags or fire risk. That is a benign recall profile in absolute terms and a better one than the adjacent model years, which carry two airbag campaigns apiece (a side/window airbag recall and a front-passenger occupant-classification sensor recall) that this car escapes entirely. Held below the top band because one of the three is not a software patch: 22V806000 requires dealers to physically replace the infotainment main unit after internal damage occurring at shutdown, an expensive component and an early signal of the MMI fragility that shows up in this generation's owner complaints.

The volume 45 TFSI pairs the EA888 Gen 3 2.0T with the ZF 8HP eight-speed and quattro — arguably the best-proven combination Audi could have put under this car. The ZF 8HP is one of the highest-volume and most durable modern automatics in the industry, and Gen 3 of the EA888 specifically corrected its predecessor's two signature faults, adding dual port/direct injection to suppress intake-valve carbon and a metal chain tensioner in place of the plastic unit that caused Gen 2 timing failures, with markedly fewer oil-consumption reports as a result. Real but manageable wear items keep it out of the top band: valve-cover oil seepage around 75–90k miles, water-pump and PCV failures. The optional 55 TFSI V6 (EA839) is the weaker of the two, carrying a documented water-pump design flaw — vacuum-actuated impeller whose internal rod seals let coolant into the vacuum circuit, superseded by a revised 6-bolt-pulley pump — plus direct-injection carbon buildup, though it too commonly runs past 150–200k miles when maintained.

The cabin is the strongest thing about this vehicle and reviewers are close to unanimous on it, describing genuine leather, matte real wood, brushed aluminum and piano-black trim assembled into an understated rather than ornate design, with heavy low-gloss surfacing and extensive sound deadening that make the interior notably hushed. Even the door weight reads as premium on opening. That is class-leading material quality for a mid-size luxury three-row and comfortably justifies the top band; it sits at the same level as the 2023, 2024 and 2026 siblings, which is correct because 2022 is a carry-over year within the facelifted Typ 4M generation and the cabin is materially unchanged.

Assembly quality in the narrow sense earns real praise — reviewers repeatedly single out excellent fit and finish, tight panel work and a solid, rattle-free feel, and the Bratislava-built Q7 has never been a car with alignment complaints. What pulls the score to the middle of the band is the initial-quality record for this exact cohort: Audi posted roughly 239 PP100 in the 2022 IQS against a ~180 industry average, a bottom-third result. That penalty is applied at a discount rather than in full because IQS problem counts in this era are dominated by infotainment and driver-assist complaints rather than build defects — but the discount is not total, since this car's own infotainment main unit proved defective enough to require a federal recall and physical replacement, which is a hardware fault, not a usability gripe.

Roughly 300–315 franchised US Audi dealers cover all 50 states, which gives metro and suburban Q7 owners comfortable access but is visibly the thinnest of the German three — BMW runs around 350 rooftops and Mercedes-Benz around 380 — so rural owners face materially longer drives, and a Q7 is not a car most independent shops will take on for air-suspension or MMI work. The service experience itself is the better half of the story: Audi has historically ranked at or near the top of the luxury segment in the J.D. Power Customer Service Index, having ranked highest among luxury brands in dealer service satisfaction and posting the largest gain of any luxury brand across the preceding decade, with particular strength in Service Quality and Service Advisor. Adequate-to-good coverage with a genuinely strong service reputation lands mid-to-upper in the middle band, in line with the other 2022 Audis.

Availability is fine and cost is the problem. Parts flow reliably through VW Group's US supply chain and the EA888 four in the volume trim is the most widely produced engine in the group, so mechanical components are abundant and enthusiast aftermarket support is real. But RepairPal puts the Q7's average annual repair cost at $1,185 and explicitly characterises that as poor ownership cost — well above the Q5 and Q3 and above the luxury full-size SUV norm — and owners visit the shop unscheduled 0.9 times a year against 0.7 for the class. The expensive systems on this car are the ones that fail with age: adaptive air suspension, the quattro driveline, the V6's superseded water pump, and an infotainment head unit that costs real money once the recall window has closed. Scored just below the Q5 sibling because the Q7 is the larger, more heavily optioned car with more air-suspension exposure.

Every 2022 Q7 uses Audi's MIB3 dual-screen stack — a 10.1 in upper display for infotainment and an 8.6 in lower display for climate and seat functions. No larger screen is available on any trim, so 10.1 in is both the volume-trim and maximum figure, modest by 2022 standards.

MMI touch response is quick, sharply rendered and logically organized, with haptic click feedback that makes blind inputs possible. It loses ground for moving climate control onto the lower screen — a glossy panel that collects fingerprints and demands a downward glance where a knob would not.

Phone projection is standard on every 2022 trim, but only Apple CarPlay runs wirelessly — Android Auto is wired-only for 2022, and wireless Android Auto did not arrive on the Q7 until 2023. Half the market therefore still plugs in, which is squarely the mid-band case.

MMI navigation plus is standard on all trims with cloud-connected Audi connect traffic and points-of-interest search, and for 2022 Audi expanded the natural-language "Hey Audi" assistant and personalization features so conversational destination and climate commands work. It stops short of the best in class on off-topic queries and depth of vehicle-function control.

A strong audio ladder: a 10-speaker system standard on Premium, a Bang & Olufsen 3D system standard from Premium Plus up, and the range-topping 23-speaker B&O 3D Advanced setup among the better factory systems in any luxury SUV.

The 12.3-inch Audi Virtual Cockpit full-digital cluster is standard on every 2022 Q7 trim — crisp, highly configurable, and able to display full-width navigation. Virtual Cockpit plus with additional layouts arrives higher in the range.

Audi connect delivers over-the-air navigation map and infotainment content updates on the MIB3 Q7, but there is no whole-vehicle OTA channel — control-unit and feature software still require a dealer visit, and Audi shipped no feature-adding OTA campaigns for the 2022 Q7.

The myAudi app covers the core set — remote lock/unlock, vehicle status, car finder, send-destination-to-nav — but it is gated behind an Audi connect PRIME subscription after the trial, there is no phone-as-key on the Q7, and no factory remote engine start is offered in the US.

USB ports front and rear plus a 12V outlet cover the basics, and wireless phone charging with a signal booster is standard from Premium Plus up. No household AC outlet and no third-row power keep it mid-band.

Keyless entry and push-button start are standard on every 2022 trim, and unusually for the segment the hands-free power liftgate is standard on the base Premium rather than package content. Capped below the top band by the absence of phone-as-key and of any factory remote engine start in the US.

A rear camera plus front and rear parking sensors are standard on the volume Premium, and the 360-degree top-view camera system is standard from Premium Plus up, with remote park assist plus on the Prestige. Useful coverage for a 199-inch SUV, but the surround view costs a trim step.

A color head-up display exists but only as Prestige standard equipment, and for 2022 the Prestige is offered exclusively with the 3.0T V6 — so a buyer of the volume 45 TFSI cannot get a HUD in any trim or at any price.

Unusually good child-seat logistics: IIHS rates LATCH ease of use Good and credits the Q7 with extra anchor positions — all five rear seats across both rows carry complete hardware, so three-across and multi-row installs work. Wide rear doors and a sliding second row help; the 29.2-inch third row complicates rear-facing seats back there and only 14.2 cu ft remains for a stroller with all seven seats up.

Crashworthiness is a clean sweep of Good and pre sense AEB, blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert and rear automatic braking are standard on the volume Premium — but 2022 is the weak year of the run for families: all three headlight configurations rate Poor for glare, so the Q7 won no IIHS award at all, and adaptive cruise with lane centering cannot even be optioned onto a Premium, arriving only one trim up.

Three rows, a quiet cabin, tri-zone climate with rear A/C standard, second-row USB power and roughly 495 miles between fill-ups make multi-hour trips easy for five. It falls short of the top band because the third row is a kids-only space and luggage capacity collapses to 14.2 cu ft once it is in use.

Effortless in traffic: the 248-hp 2.0T and ZF eight-speed pull smoothly from low revs, the steering is light at parking speeds, visibility is better than the three-row luxury norm and the cabin insulates well from commuting noise. Marked down for touch-only climate controls, a firm low-speed ride on the larger wheels, and the fact that the volume Premium cannot be fitted with the stop-and-go adaptive cruise that makes a traffic commute genuinely relaxing.

An expensive commute: 22 MPG combined from the volume 45 TFSI on Audi-recommended premium fuel, about $3,450 a year at 15,000 miles. Luxury-brand consumables, a 4-year/50,000-mile warranty with no separate powertrain term and no included maintenance add to the per-mile bill.

A big vehicle in a city: 199.3 inches long, 77.6 inches wide and a 41-foot turning circle — the BBC once singled the Q7 out as too large for a standard parking bay. Standard front and rear sensors make it manageable, but the 360-degree camera costs a trim step and all-wheel steering is a Prestige-level option.

Genuine towing for a luxury crossover — 7,700 lbs with the 3.0T V6 and the factory tow package — but the volume 45 TFSI is rated at only 4,400 lbs, there is no bed, and a 69.6 cu ft maximum hold with a car-like load floor limits it to light hauling.

A luxury-oriented vehicle with no fleet or work reputation, and 2022 is the worst-rated cohort of the run: leather and wood surfaces, premium fuel, air suspension complexity on optioned cars, and post-warranty repair costs that argue against hard duty cycles. The proven EA888/ZF 8HP hardware is what keeps it off the floor.

Almost nothing work-oriented: cargo tie-downs, a cargo net, roof rails and an optional hitch are the full extent. No onboard AC power, no washable surfaces, no bed access features, and no meaningful upfit ecosystem behind it.

This is the Q7's strongest mission: a quiet, well-isolated cabin, supportive heated power front seats, a composed highway ride and roughly 495 miles between fill-ups from the 22.5-gallon tank. Held below the 2023 car because the fatigue-reducing adaptive cruise assist with lane guidance is not merely optional on the volume Premium for 2022 — it is unavailable.

Standard quattro all-wheel drive, roof rails, up to 7,700 lbs of tow rating for a boat or trailer, and an optional air suspension with an offroad lift setting make gravel roads, ski trips and bike racks easy. It stops there — roughly 8 inches of clearance, no low range, no lockers or skid plates, and no off-road trim in the 2022 lineup.

Flexible if not cavernous: a power-folding 60/40 third row, a sliding and reclining second row, a near-flat 69.6 cu ft load bay, underfloor storage, roof rails for a box or bikes and an available hitch. The ceiling is the volume itself — 35.7 cu ft behind row two is mid-pack and 14.2 cu ft with seven aboard is restrictive.

More composed than a near-4,900-lb three-row SUV has any right to be — body lean is well restrained and quattro gives confident mid-corner grip, with optional all-wheel steering shrinking the effective footprint. Reviewers reserve genuine agility for the SQ7, so the volume 45 TFSI sits mid-pack rather than at the top of the class.

Well-weighted and accurate off-center, so the Q7 tracks straight and places precisely, but the rack is slower than the segment's best and the electric assist filters out most surface feedback — precise rather than communicative.

Firm, progressive pedal with strong initial bite and no regen-blending oddities to manage on the non-electrified 45 TFSI; stopping distances are competitive for a vehicle of this mass. No instrumented 2022 45 TFSI test was located, which caps the confidence and the score.

The 248-hp EA888 2.0T and the ZF 8HP eight-speed are a well-matched pair — clean tip-in, unobtrusive shifts, sensible gear selection and no hunting. Mild off-idle turbo lag and a slightly noticeable stop/start restart on the four-cylinder keep it out of the top band; the optional V6's 48-volt mild hybrid smooths that away.

Near-inaudible when cruising, with good isolation through the wheel and pedals. The deduction is character: at 248 hp for 2022 the 2.0T sounds strained and thrummy when worked hard in a vehicle this heavy, where the optional V6 stays smooth and pleasant.

A 41-foot circle is poor for the SUV band and a direct consequence of the 117.9-inch wheelbase — the Q7 needs real room for a U-turn unless the optional all-wheel steering is fitted.

A commanding, highly adjustable seating position — heated eight-way power front seats with memory standard, a wide-range tilt/telescope wheel, an upright glasshouse with a small forward quarter window that opens up the A-pillar, and a clean layout anchored by the standard Virtual Cockpit. The touch-only climate panel on the lower screen is the one real ergonomic step backwards.

Competent and satisfying rather than entertaining — the Q7 rewards with polish, quiet and effortless pace, not character. The 2022 45 TFSI's 248 hp and 6.9-second 0–60 give enthusiasts little to seek out, and that itch is answered by the 55 TFSI or the SQ7 rather than the volume trim.

2022 is a genuinely additive year: rear-seat side airbags, heated power-folding memory mirrors, the ambient lighting package and direct TPMS all became standard across the Q7 line, and Premium Plus gained standard adaptive cruise assist with traffic jam assist plus active lane assist with emergency assist — driver aids that Audi later moved back into a paid Convenience Package for 2023. On top of that the base Premium already includes three rows, quattro, a panoramic moonroof, leather with heated power front seats, navigation, the dual-touchscreen MMI and a 12.3-inch Virtual Cockpit, where the BMW X5 and Mercedes GLE are five-seaters that charge for a third row. Held short of the top band because base-trim adaptive cruise and the matrix LED headlights still cost extra at a $58K sticker.

Judged as a three-row luxury SUV the 2022 Q7 is fair-to-good value — a $58,595 entry price buys seven seats and standard quattro that a comparably configured X5 or GLE cannot match without options, and the cabin materials read above the price. Working against it: the volume 45 TFSI's 248 hp is modest for the money in a near-5,000-lb SUV, the third row and cargo hold are small for the class, and the platform's age means buyers pay current-year prices for 2017-vintage architecture. In practice 2022 buyers also captured little of that value, because the car rarely transacted below sticker.

Five configurations for 2022 — 45 TFSI and 55 TFSI in Premium and Premium Plus, plus a V6-only Prestige — with the 500-hp SQ7 sitting above as a separate model, and a new Black optic package added on the 45 TFSI. Reasonable choice with clear gaps: quattro is the only drivetrain, there is no FWD or long/short body option, no US plug-in hybrid, and content moves in packages rather than à la carte.

2022 was the Q7's weakest year of the generation's back half — 17,887 US units, down 29.5% from 25,363 in 2021 — but the cause was supply, not demand: the semiconductor shortage capped what Audi could build, and volume snapped back 48% to 26,470 the moment supply eased in 2023. The Q7 remained one of Audi of America's leading nameplates and cars sold as fast as they arrived. Scored mid-pack rather than in the bottom band because the decline is a build-rate artifact, but well below the 2023 result since the item measures sales strength and trajectory as they actually were.

Audi is a genuinely aspirational German premium badge with a strong design and interior-quality reputation, and the four rings carried enough showroom pull in 2022 that constrained Q7 supply sold at or above sticker. It sits a step below BMW and Mercedes-Benz in US luxury mindshare and, more concretely for an owner, a step below them in resale strength — the Q7 depreciates faster than its class average — which keeps this short of the top band.

Scored for buyer benefit, 2022 was close to the worst year on record to buy a Q7. Semiconductor-constrained supply meant dealer incentives were at record lows and roughly nine in ten vehicles transacted at or above MSRP nationally; Audi's own support for the model year amounted to a $500 retail order credit and an MSRP-lock program for factory orders, which protects an ordering buyer from a price increase rather than discounting the car. That is squarely the "sells at or over MSRP; no deals to be had" band, and materially worse for buyers than 2023, when discounting returned as supply normalized.

2022 is the sixth model year of the second-generation (Typ 4M) Q7 and the third since the 2020 facelift — mid-cycle, current but not new. The 48-volt mild-hybrid hardware and the dual-touchscreen MMI were still contemporary in 2022, and Audi's second facelift was not announced until January 2024, so a 2022 buyer had three model years before a visibly newer car appeared. Held below the top band because the underlying architecture dates to 2015/2017 and rivals like the Genesis GV80 and refreshed X5 were newer designs.

Well-reviewed and, for at least one major outlet, the pick of the class — Edmunds ranked the Q7 its number-one vehicle of this type, praising the interior, ride and tech — but the wider verdict for 2022 is a notch below what 2023 earned. U.S. News placed it #6 of 2022 Luxury Midsize SUVs at 7.7/10 (against #1 and 8.1 for 2023), dragged down by reliability, and The Car Connection scored it 7.0/10. Decisively, the 2022 Q7 won no IIHS award: it earned Good in every crashworthiness test and Superior front crash prevention, but headlights rated Poor across all trims for excessive low-beam glare, which is precisely the defect Audi fixed for 2023 to take Top Safety Pick+.