2017 Audi Q7

Audi has had plenty of time to get this one right: The four-ringed brand’s engineering team began to work on the second-generation Q7 SUV as early as 2009. And even then, the original was already four years old. Shown first as thePikes Peak concept in January 2003, the production version bowed in 2005.

There are valid reasons why it took Audi six years to get the successor to market. During that period, Audi switched its development chief twice, and in both cases the car was thoroughly re-examined. Moreover, the new 2017 Audi Q7 is the pilot vehicle for the second-generation MLB architecture, which is very important for the VW Group—it serves as the basis for many future models from Audi, VW, Bentley, and Porsche. "The new Q7 needs to make a clean production launch," says R&D chief Ulrich Hackenberg. And there is another explanation: With more than 500,000 units sold worldwide, the previous model has been so successful that Audi was in no big hurry to replace it.