Alex has four kids...I may have gone a little far in my critique of lifestyle choices.

It was for a good cause

Q7 sounds like no fun for even that type of vehicle, but it’s that type of vehicle, so it’s sad.

My Armada seated 7. It was the right vehicle at the right time in my life. Even without the towing. The 7 seater minivan that came a few years later was also the right vehicle at the right time. The only bad thing about it was it was a minivan. Same thing the only thing wrong with the E46 was that it was a BMW

I’ve got 3 kids and have had 7 seaters for the last 14 years, we felt a need for it because between the kids friends, nieces and nephew there were many times where the third row was needed.

Finally now that 2 of the 3 kids drive we are at the point where the third row is not used as often ... most likely when the lease is up we will be getting my wife a sedan.

The third row in the Q7 is useful for double amputees and kids under the age of 8. Maybe. My 7 year old got back there and his first question was "do these seats go back farther??" (spoiler: no).

My daughter (nearly 12) claims that we could use the third row all the time to haul her friends around. She is wrong. None of her friends would want to sit back there in a parking lot, let alone while the thing is in motion.

Honestly, we found the jump seats in the back of the first Tesla useful on...half a dozen occasions, potentially, and that was just because the kids were both still in car seats. We could have gotten by without them. If it meant never having to drive this Audi again, I'd hire an uber on those occasions.

On one of my trips to CA for my brother, I rented a VW Atlas. It actually was a decent car. I don't know if it is related to the Audi Q7 or so - it was 'big' and had that 'square shoulder' feel that you mentioned.

But - I liked it. I actually did. The first rental in quite a while I would not mind owning.

I've been through a few iterations of that over the past 18 years. Including also owning an Armada, which hauled 8. It was, absolutely, the correct type of car for us at that time.

Our Pilot (current Gen) had a perfectly usable 3rd row, and we carried teens and adults back there on many occasions with no complaints about legroom. The Pilot and Q7 are similarly sized on the outside, so perhaps the difference is that Audi isn't very good at efficient packaging on the interior (?). Actually, see my comment above about the A4.

You could say the same things about a Suburban or a Tahoe, but they serve a purpose. We rent something like that every year when we go on a family ski trip. Five adults plus all of our gear fit comfortably in them. It's hard to do that in a wagon.

And I suspect this isn't your demographic, but there are huge swaths of the American population who go on family trips every year towing travel trailers. Or boats. Or jet skis, or whatever. I agree that big SUVs suck to drive every day, but if you can't afford two vehicles (or don't have the space, or don't want two vehicles) then it makes sense to own one. As a kid I went on tons of camping trips with my friends' families, and we all piled into massively-overloaded minivans or full-size vans to make those trips. I'd much rather drive a Q7 than a Chevy Express.

I remember all the uproar when Ford introduced the Excursion. Why would anyone need such a massive mall-crawler? Well I'll be damned if those pieces of Ford garbage aren't still super popular with racers and off-roaders and outdoorsman because they swallow a lot of gear, they have 4WD, and you could buy them with a diesel. :dunno:

If this thing drives anything like the GL, the problem with it is that it makes my diesel pickup truck feel small and agile in comparison. The GL lumbers in a way that I simply can’t understand and makes it one of the largest feeling vehicles I have ever driven.

8 now that I married another dumbass.

Alex

*Do you have lots of dogs? *Do you have a weekend house?

I think you're also forgetting the pet factor and the frequent travel to a remote destination. We maxed out our X5 every weekend we drove out to Rappahannock. Three dogs in the way back, kid in the backseat, and all our gear, occasionally a couple of cats as well. (Plus a stop for groceries midway, because we had no real stores closer than 30 miles).

There were many times my kid had his feet on top of boxes or bags, and stuff crammed in all around him. The dogs, too.

We couldn't leave a rooftop carrier on the X, because it wouldn't fit in the garage that way. And we couldn't face putting it on and taking it off every other week.

I will concede that the X5 form factor is the biggest thing I ever want to drive regularly. And, I avoid driving it as much as I can.