2010 Audi Q7

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Safety - What the Auto Press Says

The federal government gives the 2010 Q7 top five-star scores for driver and passenger safety in frontal crash tests and for front- and rear-seat safety in side crash tests. It gives it a four-star rollover score, which means it has just an 18 percent risk of rollover in a single vehicle crash. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety gives the 2010 Q7 top scores of "Good" in frontal offset, side impact and rear crash protection tests.

The Q7 comes standard with driver and front passenger seat-mounted side thorax airbags, head curtain airbags for all three seating rows, and Audi's ultrasonic parking system (with an added rearview camera on Premium Plus and Prestige models).

Rear side airbags for second-row outboard occupants are a $350 option for all models. However, that's the only safety option you can get on the base model. Trading up to V8 Prestige gets you standard Side Assist, which monitors blind spot areas at about 150 feet around the car at speeds over 19 miles per hour. It informs the driver of nearby vehicles using LED lights in the outside side mirror. Optional on V8 Prestige models is adaptive cruise control, which automatically reduces speed to maintain a driver-selected distance from vehicles ahead.

• "The roof line and thick pillars impede the view to some corners and dead-astern, though the optional rearview camera compensates." -- Consumer Guide
• "As with most safety technologies, Side Assist is programmed conservatively and will detect cars in the side lanes just behind the Q7. In heavy traffic, we had to ignore the flashing and move into the next lane over anyway. Radar-based adaptive cruise control is also available on the Q7, although our test car didn't come with it." -- CNET
• "Like many of its competitors, the Q7 has a rearview video camera for backing up; unlike most of the others, this display adds curved lines to the screen when you are in reverse and turning, indicating just where your turn is going to take you. And the video clearly indicates exactly when your rear bumper will nudge whatever lies behind -- very smart." -- New York Times