2016 Audi Q7 Has Weight Of World On Its Shoulders

2016 Audi Q7

THREE WORDS make-up the marketing mantra:  consistency, consistency, consistency.  It helps brands build recognition by relentlessly consolidating identity. Never deter. Momentum mounts, a rising tide of inevitability and permanence befitting premium-ness. Audi has practiced this for twenty years, with frequent brand-boosting concepts such as the Avus. Each car builds upon its predecessor with ever-enhanced proportions and quality. Investment in LEDs asserted the brand further, championing the role of the detail designer. Underlying all of this is perfect stance, Atlas' shoulders for planet Audi. But in developing the new Q7, Atlas shrugged.



That Audi kept the same sketch of the out-going Q7 and used it for the new model is not the issue: the translation to 3D is. How did such a poised and slick design become so leaden? The new Q7 has always been a heavy car, and now looks it. Slab-sides span high shoulder and low rocker: no black-out here or deep shoulder to carry the mass. Surfaces hang heavily, like soaking sheets. All the depth of the bodyside has been used for chunky arches, leaving the shoulder a peculiar frown of creases. The greater Audi's efforts, the greater the car bears down on its wheels. Audi must re-find its spirit.