• Seats five in comfort
• Excellent leg room in the rear, headroom is decent
• Boot is smaller than the Q7’s but competitive with rivals

How much space is there?

The Audi Q8 is a big car, and it makes the most of this to offer plenty of interior space for people. Up front there are two large, comfortable chairs with plenty of adjustment, but it’s the rear seat that really impresses. There is loads of legroom, and though inevitably the middle passenger is short changed compared with the two outer seats, it’s still a comfortable place for moderate-length journeys.

Similarly, headroom suffers slightly compared with the Q7, but you’ll need to be well over six-foot before this is actually a problem. The rear space is really one of the better selling points of this car.

Boot space and storage

Pop open the Q8’s automatic tailgate and you’re presented with a flat, well-shaped load bay providing 605 litres of space. There’s a small lip from the boot entry to the boot floor, but nothing too severe. Handy cubbyholes with netting provide additional storage for smaller items, while, thanks to the Q8’s standard-fit air suspension, the rear of the car can be lowered to make loading heavy items easier.

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The rear seats can be folded in a 40:20:40 split, creating a vast 1,755 litres of luggage space. Both the rear-seats-up and rear-seats-down boot capacity figures are competitive with rivals including the BMW X6, Porsche Cayenne Coupe and Range Rover Sport.

Is it easy to park?

The Q8 is shorter than its Q7 sibling but it’s still five metres long. And two metres wide (2.2m if you include the door mirrors). The blindspots aren’t actually too bad, but physically fitting one of these into a regular parking space is occasionally going to be a challenge.

Gladly, front and rear parking sensors plus a rear camera are standard, while automatic parking and a 360-degree camera system are available at extra cost to make like even easier. In this instance, definitely worth it.

Safety

• Five-star Euro NCAP crash test rating
• Lots of safety tech
• Much is restricted to top-spec models

The Q8 has a relatively recent five-star Euro NCAP crash safety rating, dating from 2020. The test has gotten tougher since then, but this should still be a safe car. Not least because of the vast array of advanced driver assistance (ADAS) technology available.

This is not all fitted as standard equipment on every version, only top-spec Vorsprung variants get all the toys included in the asking price. However, Audi does offer a range of options packs that bundle key features together – worth considering since the jump in cost from middle-ranking Black Edition to Vorsprung is quite substantial.

One thing you can’t get outside of the Vorsprung trim level is facelift model’s new HD matrix LED headlights. As well as having a highly adaptive beam pattern that aims to maximise visibility at night, these come with the new digital OLED rear lamps that have a neat safety-enhancing trick. If you’re at a standstill and a car closes within two metres, these will automatically flash to warn them you’re not moving, hopefully reducing the chances of a rear-end impact.

Watch: Audi Q8 Euro NCAP crash test video