---
title: '2027 Audi Q9 Review: The Biggest, Craziest Audi Luxury SUV Ever'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=smZ2A1i9BpM'
video_id: 'smZ2A1i9BpM'
date: 2026-10-27
duration_sec: 1749
channel: 'Doug DeMuro'
---

# 2027 Audi Q9 Review: The Biggest, Craziest Audi Luxury SUV Ever

> Source: [2027 Audi Q9 Review: The Biggest, Craziest Audi Luxury SUV Ever](https://youtube.com/watch?v=smZ2A1i9BpM)

## Summary

The video is a detailed review of the 2027 Audi Q9, Audi's first full-size luxury SUV. It covers the vehicle's dimensions, powertrain options, and pricing, then dives into an extensive list of quirks and features, including innovative lighting technology, automatic doors, and a massive sunroof. The review concludes with driving impressions and a final score comparing it to key rivals.

### Key Points

- **Audi Q9 Introduction** [00:03] — Introduced as Audi's first full-size SUV, positioned against the Mercedes-Benz GLS and BMW X7. It is 209 inches long, making it the largest Audi ever.
- **Powertrain and Pricing** [02:45] — Two versions available: the Q9 with a turbo V6 (430 hp) starting around $90,000, and the SQ9 with a turbo V8 (590 hp) starting around $120,000.
- **Exterior Lighting Quirks** [03:27] — Walk-up lighting sequence with animated taillights and illuminated Audi logo; turn signals project arrows on the ground; hazard lights transform taillights into a warning triangle.
- **Digital Matrix Headlights** [05:36] — Thanks to new US regulations, Audi's digital matrix headlights are now available. They sense oncoming cars and darken only that section, keeping high beams elsewhere.
- **Automatic Doors** [08:10] — Automatic doors open and close via handles, but can also be closed with a button on the door panel, the key fob, or pressing the brake pedal when seated.
- **Screen-Dominated Interior** [11:23] — The interior is dominated by screens, including a central infotainment screen that allows customizable backgrounds and a passenger screen.
- **Clear/Frosted Sunroof** [12:44] — The sunroof is 16 square feet, can switch between clear and frosted, and blocks 99.5% of the sun's rays when frosted.
- **Second-Row Amenities** [17:34] — Second-row captain's chairs are identical to front seats; various features include rear climate controls, heated seats, and an automatic door close button on the ceiling.
- **Third-Row Space and Features** [20:21] — Third row has decent space for kids, includes heated seats, power ports, and easy access via folding second-row seats.
- **Driving Experience** [22:32] — The SQ9 drives smoothly and quietly, with impressive acceleration and sharp steering, though it feels large in corners. Four-wheel steering helps reduce the sensation of its size.
- **Final Verdict and Doug Score** [28:12] — The reviewer concludes that the Q9 deserves a Doug score of 100, beating rivals like the GLS, X7, Escalade, and Navigator. He suggests buyers may prefer the regular Q9 over the more expensive SQ9.

## Transcript

This is the new 2027 Audi Q9 and it's Audi's first ever full-size SUV. This is the same size as a Chevy Tahoe, but with the luxury and features of a Range Rover. Audi has never made a car like this before. It's
completely brand new and today I'm going to review the new Q9 and show you all of to review the new Q9 and show you all of its quirks and features.
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Sell on Cars and Bids and join the best community to sell your enthusiast car. All right, time for the quirks and features of the new Q9, Audi's first features of the new Q9, Audi's first ever true full-size luxury SUV. Meant to
rival other big luxury SUVs like the Mercedes-Benz GLS and the BMW X7. Now, this is Audi's kind of first entrant in this segment, but the rivals have been out for years. The GLS came out almost 20 years ago as the Mercedes-Benz GL.
The X7 is coming up on 10 years. Now, Audi has had a larger SUV, the Q7, for years, but it was never a true full-size. It was a little bit bigger than its mid-size competitors, but never quite as big as a GLS or an X7. But now
there's the Q9, which is actually bigger. The Q9's around 209 inches long, which makes it the largest Audi ever. Then, it's considerably longer than the
Then, it's considerably longer than the X7 at about 203 inches long and the GLS X7 at about 203 inches long and the GLS at about 205. In fact, the smaller Q7 is at about 205. In fact, the smaller Q7 is actually closer in size to the X7 than
this, the Q9. This is a lot bigger. In fact, the Q9 is closer in length to the big behemoth Cadillac Escalade than it is to its European rivals. This a big one. And power is impressive to match
the size. Audi is offering the Q9 in two versions. There's the regular standard Q9, and then there's the sporty high-performance SQ9. Both come standard with all-wheel drive, and both have pretty impressive power numbers. The
pretty impressive power numbers. The regular Q9, which starts around $90,000, regular Q9, which starts around $90,000, uses a turbo V6 that makes about 430 horsepower, which is healthy. But, you can also step up to this. The sporty SQ9
can also step up to this. The sporty SQ9 starts around $120,000, and it uses a turbo V8 that makes about 590 horsepower, a massive number for a three-row family SUV. Both of these
vehicles should go on sale in the next few weeks. So, they're coming up fast. But, let's move on to the quirks and features, starting with lighting, which is responsible for some of the most interesting and unusual quirks on this
car. Starting with you walk up to the car, key in your pocket, it recognizes you're coming, and the taillights do a little dance to show that they welcome you to the car. They see you. It's cool. It's kind of a neat thing. The Audi logo
on the tailgate lights up. It's all a cool little effect when you walk up. And of course, this same thing happens up front, not quite as dramatic as in back, but again, still pretty cool and you still get the light up from the Audi
logo, which is fun. That is already pretty cool, but this car takes things way further than that in terms of lighting. As an example, check this out. When you turn the car off and you're sitting in the driver seat, the
headlights do a little dance projected out in front of you that ends by showing >> [laughter] >> which is pretty cool and kind of a neat
Easter egg. There's more, too. When you put on your turn signal, the turn signal flashes the side of the car you're indicating, makes sense, but it also indicating, makes sense, but it also projects this arrow pattern onto the
ground next to the car. You can see in back right here showing the direction the car is turning and the arrow image also appears up front. Now, Audi tells to really be visible in daytime, but at night in a crowded city with pedestrians
or cyclists, that arrow image could be really helpful, potentially even life-saving, projecting onto the ground showing the direction the car intends to turn. That's pretty cool. And how about this? You put on the hazard lights and
you can see they go on, but also the tail lights change their shape to show a triangle, like a warning triangle that you'd put out when your hazard lights are on. Suddenly, that's shown in the tail lights. You turn off the hazard
lights, they go back to being normal tail lights again. That effect only appears when you have the hazard lights on. But, undoubtedly, the coolest lighting effect in this car is Audi's new digital matrix headlight technology,
which is absolutely incredible. Audi's been developing this for over a decade, but US government regulations that were stuck in the old days have prevented Audi and other manufacturers from implementing it here in the states until
now. Basically, the way it works is you're driving on a dark country road, you have your high beams on, and another car comes toward you. Instead of dimming your lights, turning them down, the headlight can sense the position of the
car and darken the light only where the car coming towards you is located, but everything else stays brightly lit in high beams. And that way, you still preserve your view out in front with your high beams, but you're
simultaneously not blinding the driver coming. It's an amazing effect. It works tremendously well. I've driven cars that have it overseas, and it's wonderful that it's finally here and in this vehicle. A fantastic feature. Now, as
for other interesting exterior quirks, I have to say the exterior design of this car is actually pretty tame. I don't think it's boring or bland or ugly, but it certainly isn't out there and crazy expressive like some rivals, including
the Escalade. This car is a little bit more restrained, and I think that's Audi's intentional strategy. They're entering this full-size segment for the first time. They don't want to go too crazy. Instead, this car just sort of
uses Audi's general design language just scaled up a bit, and I think it the end result is pretty attractive. There are a few notable points, like for example, the very large front grille, as you can see, which includes a lot of these sort
of curved silver bits. It is definitely a very distinctive look up front and scales up the Audi grille to match the larger size of this car. You also have available 23-in wheels, the biggest ever installed in an
Audi. As you can imagine, this car has a lot of biggests for Audi. Although, pointed out, this car also has four-wheel steering, which actually significantly contributes to a relatively small feeling, especially in
tight spaces, despite its massive size. The rear wheels steering it around really give it a tighter turning radius and a more car-like feel than you might expect, even though it is a pretty big car. But, as for exterior styling and
quirks, again, kind of tame. The same, however, cannot be said of the interior, however, cannot be said of the interior, which has quite a few interesting and bizarre quirks and features. But, before we even cover the weird stuff inside, we
got to talk about the doors, which are automatic. Here's how it works. You walk handle, and then kind of move out of the way cuz there's sensors on them. Move out of the way, the door opens up automatically, and you can climb inside.
That works front or rear. The back doors do the same thing. Pull on the door handle, and they automatically open. If opening your door was too much work for you, well, you don't have to do that anymore. And, you don't have to worry
about closing them. From the outside, you just tug on the door handle again, and as you can see, the door closes itself up automatically. No need to get involved with pushing. [laughter] And, that's not the only way you can close
it. There's also a button on the inside, which you can press. Obviously, when the button and the door closes. That's pretty easy. But, you can also press it out of the way, and the door will close automatically. And, if you get into the
driver's seat and you put your foot on the brake pedal, kind of signaling your intent to start driving, the door will also close automatically. So, you don't have to involve yourself with any of that door opening and closing that the
riffraff must do. The coolest part, though, is that you can open the doors from the key fob. If you press and hold the unlock button on the key fob, you'll notice all of the doors come open automatically, front and rear. Now, he
tells me you can actually configure which ones you'd rather have open. So, open, you could configure that instead of all four at once. Then, when you hold down the lock button, guess what? All four doors close automatically, too. And
again, that also is configurable. That is a pretty cool touch. Shinola tells me is a pretty cool touch. Shinola tells me it's standard on the SQ9, this car, and optional on the regular Q9. But, anyway, you climb inside, and there's a lot to
talk about it here, but let's start with the very quirky turn signal situation. The turn signals are mounted here on a stalk coming off the steering column, but it's very different from any other stalk. It is fixed in place, and only
the end of the stalk actually goes up or down like your turn signal stalk does in most cars. You kind of push that up or down, the rest of it stays in place. It seems very weird and unorthodox, but actually, when you're driving around
using it, it seems totally normal, and you get used to it within a few minutes of driving. It's totally fine. A little bit less easy to get used to, I think, is the wiper controls, which are also mounted on this stalk and controlled
basically with this tiny little dial kind of inside the stalk. It's not have a suspicion that this will end up getting changed in a couple years when this car is updated. It's just not quite the easiest thing to work. But, the
signals actually works okay. Now, mirroring the signals on a stalk on the other side of the steering column, you have your gear selector. And again, you make choices by pushing on the end. So, push down to get into drive, push up to
button coming out of the end. It's all a little bit unorthodox and weird, these fixed stalks on the steering column, but that's how they're doing it, reinventing the turn signal stalk in the Q9. Now, other quirks in here, probably the most
noticeable when you first climb in is that the interior is basically completely dominated by screens on the dashboard. You have a giant screen on the left side stretching from the edge of the driver side all the way to the
another separate screen for passengers screen stuff in here. And you'll probably notice that one of the screens has a dog on it, and that's because you can upload whatever picture you want to
be your background on that central infotainment screen. Apparently, this dog belongs to Audi's like photographer. Uploaded the picture and there is the dog. But if you want your kids or your house or your other car
as a reminder, you can do that. Upload the picture and then that's your look at it, which is pretty cool. And you could also use a stock image that comes with the car, but if you can put a picture of your dog in your infotainment
screen, why wouldn't you? Other things I like in here, the wireless charging pad in the center console. You can see there are two big circles. These are magnets, which is actually a great idea. A lot of cars have a wireless charging pad, but
flying or at least get dislodged from charging. Here, the magnets will keep it in place. All in-car wireless charging pads should have magnets, and I like seeing that here. Another unusual item
is the sunroof, which again is the largest ever put in an Audi. In fact, their press release says the sunroof alone is 16 square feet. alone is 16 square feet. I've had bathrooms that size. Anyway,
the sunroof size is pretty standard for a vehicle like this, but the cool part is that you can make it clear or frosted with the tap of a few buttons in the screen. I'm in the screen sunroof menu, which is this one. And if I press right
here, the sunroof immediately goes frosted. Or if I press right here, it immediately goes back to clear. So you can choose frosted or clear, frosted or can choose frosted or clear, frosted or clear, and you You even select panels of
the sunroof to be frosted or clear in part. So, for example, if you want it to be frosted up front cuz you don't want any light, but your rear passengers want to embrace the sun, you can do that. You can select every other panel, whatever
you want. Audi says that by frosting the sunroof, it blocks like 99.5% of the sun's rays, which means you don't really need a traditional sunshade. This is way cooler anyway, this transparent or opaque sunroof at the push of a
button. Other interesting interior quirks, for one, you have insanely small especially in the center here, you're barely visible, these tiny little climate control vents, which apparently do a good enough job at heating or
cooling even this large cabin. Now, some people will be disappointed that all of your climate controls are in screen. There's no physical buttons here, and indeed, that can be a little annoying, especially to change the positioning of
the climate vents. Although, I will say there is one awesome feature. This little button in the screen will instantly adjust the climate vents to be blowing on your body, and this little button will instantly adjust them to not
be blowing on your body, which is a cool idea because a lot of the times those are the adjustments you're making, and here there's like an auto feature for little It's not quite on my face. It's it. Then you just tap the button and go.
Now, as for the infotainment system in general, I think it's fantastic. It's a big screen, it's very intuitive, very responsive, very high quality, seems very modern and high-tech. I love using it. It's very easy to figure out, and it
hides a couple of interesting quirks and features within. Like, for example, you can actually adjust the lighting signature that appears when you walk up to the car. I showed you the one that's like standard, but there are several
different options you can choose that will change the lighting signature that plays as you walk up. So, if you don't like that standard lighting signature, good news, you're in luck. You can change to one of the other lighting
signatures, which is a pretty cool little quirk. As for the other screens, the passenger side screen mainly just mimics what's in the center infotainment screen except a little bit closer to the passenger for a little extra
convenience, which is reasonably nice, I suppose. The driver's gauge cluster screen though is absolutely wonderful as it is in most Audi models. I love the fact that you can get like a full 3D map view directly below your line of sight,
which makes navigation directions incredibly easy, and it's very easy to configure this screen to show other stuff if you want to see like the music that's playing or your tire temperatures or various different things can all
appear pretty easily and pretty quickly on this screen with the push of some buttons on the steering wheel to make these configurations. Love Audi's gauge cluster screen, and that continues into this new model. The hand another
lighting related, a couple of them actually. There's a little status light inside, and it can like blink red if has a few features, but my favorite is that when you put on the turn signal,
yes, a little arrow lights up in the gauge cluster, but also part of the status light on the side your signaling lights up so that there's a larger visual representation in your field of view that your turn signal is on, which
is certainly kind of quirky. Also, speaking of lighting, when you change the climate temperature in here, the ambient lighting color briefly changes change you've made. So, if you make it hotter, you can see the ambient lighting
briefly turns red to correspond. As you make it cooler, which I'm doing now, the lighting changes to blue briefly before going back to the regular ambient lighting temperature after a second or two every time you change the
temperature so that it confirms your new temperature choice, cooler or warmer. And next up we move into the back seats, which are exceptionally roomy and nice. In fact, Audi told me that these back seats, the captain's chairs back here,
are basically the exact same shell that you have up front. So, the front passengers don't get any extra comfort benefits than the rear passengers and it's wonderful back here, roomy and nice and high quality and comfortable. And
if you don't want. Audi offers this with these second row captain's chairs, so two seats in front, two in the middle, two in the back for six seating capacity or you can get a bench seat back here three across and then you can seat
seven. It's your choice. But, regardless of what you do, the back seat is pretty features back here. You can see rear seat climate controls, which is always nice, and the climate control area also includes rear heated seats, which is
also nice. There's a little center storage area, a little tray here along with lighted rear seat cup holders, which is a nice touch. And you also have individual charge ports back here. You can see on the backs of the front seats,
driver and passenger side charge ports for rear passenger devices. But, possibly the coolest luxury feature of all back here is the automatic door press the button on the door panel and the door will close, but you don't even
have to reach that far. There's also a button mounted here on the ceiling directly above the seat. And so, if you don't want to close your door manually and you don't want to reach out and press a button to close your door
automatically, there is a third level of lazy. You can just reach up and press the button on the ceiling and it closes, which actually could be pretty useful, can't reach all the way out to close the door. You push the button here, it's a
lot more reachable, and the door will close automatically, kind of a nice here that I really like is that the seat belt the buckles are lighted. You get can't find where to plug in the seat belt. Well, here, it's lighted, so
you'll find it very easily. It's a nice feature. And I like the fact that we have rear armrests back here to add to seating comfort, but makes it a little bit challenging to walk through the second row seats to get to the third row
so Audi tells me these armrests can actually be removed, which makes it a little bit easier to get into the third row. And speaking of third row access, if you don't want to simply walk through the center aisle and get back there,
it's very easy to fold the second row seats forward. You just press this button here, and the seat folds automatically and retains its shape, seat out of the seat in order to move it forward, which is a wonderful feature.
the way forward, there's a nice big pathway to get into the third row, makes it very easy to climb back there. Now, as for the third row itself, it's not exactly the roomiest thing in the world, but it's decent size, two seats back
there, not huge for adults, especially with the second row seat pushed back to give a lot of comfort to rear passengers, kind of intrudes on third row space, but if you push the second row seats up, you can cram back there,
and it certainly works for kids, which is probably the primary target audience anyway. And there's some decent luxury features in the third row, too. Like, there and a little storage tray. The third row also gets power ports on both
sides, which is a pretty nice feature to have. And impressively, it even has heated seats for the third row, which is tremendously uncommon, not something you're seeing very often, but this is a very high-quality full-size luxury SUV,
and so it has all the amenities. And finally, as for the cargo area in back, open up the tailgate, power operated of course, and is actually surprisingly large back here. I'm surprised how much cargo space you have behind the third
row given the sizing of this vehicle. It's pretty decent packaging to get in here and still have this much cargo space back here. It's not bad. And of course, these third row seats can drop down very easily if you want more cargo
space. You can drop them individually, power operated one at a time. The left button, very easy, or the right seat. But, I also like these two kind of shortcut buttons over on the side. You can see one has like seats and people.
And when you press that, the seats automatically go up. The other one has luggage. And when you press that, that means you want to load luggage in the car and the seats automatically go down. So, you don't have to do them one by
one. You can do them at the same time with those little shortcut seat up, seat down buttons. So, there's a tour of your quirks and features of the new SQ9. But, obviously, I'm very excited to see how a full-size Audi luxury SUV drives. So,
let's get behind the wheel. Let's get out on the road and find out. All right, out on the road and find out. All right, driving the SQ9, the big Audi, the biggest Audi. Uh it's going to be interesting. Audi's
never gone into this world before. So, I'm curious to see how they do it from a driving perspective. My first impression is good, good, good. This car feels nice and smooth and modern and high-tech. You have a great driving position. You're
You definitely don't have like a low crossover feel in this car. You have a little bit of that kind of Range Rover sitting above everything else. In fact, I just went past a Q3 and uh you're considerably higher up than that.
Like that has kind of a small crossover, almost like a tall hatchback sort of feel to it. That's not the situation here. Uh this car is definitely an SUV with a driving feel to match. I I have no doubt that Audi's primary competition
for this car is the GLS and the X7, but you have to assume that the Escalade and the Navigator, which are kind of big, tall, trucky SUVs, you have to assume those cars are also on their list of, you know, vehicles to target and take
down in addition. First impression just very smooth, very quiet in here. Very nice, which you totally expect. I mean, at this price point, at this price point, um at this, you know, level of car,
uh you really expect sort of a soft, comfortable ride, which actually is an upgrade compared to some of its rivals. The The primary drawback that you get from the Escalade, um and from the Lexus LX, for example, are because they're
truck-based, they they do not ride this smooth. They get close. They do very well for a truck-based vehicle, but they do not ride like this or like a GLS. And this car is just very competent, very comfortable, very smooth, and you have
to assume um that it would be even smoother if it wasn't the SQ9, if it was just a regular uh I do feel a little bit more road um in this one because it's the sporty one and I'm driving it in sport mode than I think I would expect.
And yet still it feels very smooth, very controlled, very comfortable in here. And you hear nothing of the outside world. This really is like a complete noiseless chamber in here, which is nice. Now, while the ride may be a
little bit harsher than usual because it's an SQ9, the benefit of the SQ9 is it's an SQ9, the benefit of the SQ9 is that it is fast and it is indeed fast. You step on it and it's like, I cannot believe just how quick this is, uh which
powertrain. Now, the other interesting benefit uh is that it's actually pretty sharp in terms of steering and handling. You do feel ponderous uh going sharp going, you know, hard around like a pretty tight corner as I am now. It's a
big SUV and you feel the weight you feel some body roll but the steering is surprisingly direct and surprisingly quick and the acceleration >> Holy crap. The acceleration is incredible.
hadn't floored it yet. Uh the acceleration is exceptional in the SQ9. I'm not really sure why that's necessary um but Audi probably figures hey we're making a Q9 we got to do an S version of
it like let's there's going to be some people who want the performance and boy does this perform. That's an excellent acceleration [laughter] for a vehicle like this. The other other interesting thing by the way is that
despite its heft and this is a big car like I've mentioned um despite its heft it doesn't actually feel quite that small. Um all these big SUVs now have four-wheel steering including this one. That does a pretty good job of sort of
tidying up some of the sort of bulbousness that carried these these vehicles in the past. You have a lot more sort of vague largeness if you drive like an old Mercedes GL or an older Escalade. In today's world with
steering they really tidy it up to the point where you don't it doesn't feel quite as big as it is. And then in a parking spot you know you have all these cameras like this vast array of high quality cameras which also helps to kind
of eliminate the size problem of this car you know feeling so big. It it ultimately uh it just doesn't have that issue quite as much even despite its engineer some of that out. And then it just also feels very modern in here a
a lot of the YouTube commenter crowd is is a little people who buy these cars are now expecting that their car is like as high-tech as possible and this car certainly feels that way. It may go a
little too far into the realm of kind of modern high-tech [clears throat] with thing and all that. Uh Um but generally speaking, I think this is a this is a pretty appealing uh vehicle for the types of people who are
going to be buying it. Overall, you know, Audi took a long time to fully enter this segment. The Q7 kind of played a role in here, but it wasn't a big enough compared to some of the rivals. Audi is finally here with a big
full-size like totally going at it rival in this segment. And I think this is a pretty credible car. Um it's the GLS has gotten old, the X7 is getting old, it
very car-like drive, but I think that this has rocketed to the very top of the very, very best, if not number one itself, uh which honestly it probably is. Just a really compelling uh excellent full-size luxury SUV, really
well done. Again, late to the party, but with a really impressive entrant in the with a really impressive entrant in the end. And so, that's the new 2027 end. And so, that's the new 2027 Audi SQ9. This is an impressive vehicle,
and it's been a long time coming since most of its competitors have already been on sale for a long time. But now that the new Q9 is here, it very much seems like it was worth the wait. And now it's time to give this SQ9 a Doug
now it's time to give this SQ9 a Doug score. 100, which put the SQ9 here against rivals. It basically beats out every relevant car, the GLS, the X7, the Escalade, the Navigator, and it deserves
to. This offers excellent technology, surprisingly strong performance, a nice ride, great practicality, and competitive pricing. To me, this is the new best full-size three-row luxury SUV. Though, I'd probably skip the 590
horsepower SQ9 and its sort of high price tag. It's a little overkill, and I would just get a more supple, still plenty fast, more affordable regular Q9.