Reading through comments online, it seems like a lot of people don’t think the 2019 Audi Q8 looks bad. A lot of people think it looks nice—elegant, even. Most of us respectfully disagree and can recommend a good eye doctor if needed. The good news for pro-Q8 people is that Audi wants to spread the big SUV’s looks across its SUV lineup. The bad news is that they probably need to see our eye doctor friend.
Audi published a video, below, with Q8 designers Sascha Heyde and Mauricio Monteiro Dos Santos Tuesday, which talked about how the grille on the Q8 “will be the next grille silhouette for the whole range of upcoming Audi Q models.” That means barring any unforeseen circumstances or sudden realizations that it looks ugly, future Audi SUV grilles will be octagonal and likely patterned after a cage you’d see in the creepy neighbor’s basement in a horror movie.
Yikes, again.
When the new Q8 came out on Tuesday, Audi didn’t give much information on power or performance but said a few things about it: that it had the “elegance of a four-door luxury coupé” (???) and the practicality of an SUV, and that it was the “new face of the Audi Q family.”
That second part was ambiguous, as “new face” could just mean hey, hello, new face over here, nice to meet you, or it could mean Audi’s entire “Q” SUV line will look like that in the near future. Yet now we know it looks like Audi’s going with the second one, as far as exterior styling goes. Yikes.
It’s fair to say Audi has needed a design refresh for some time now—and diversity amongst its designs, since a lot of its vehicles, especially the sedans, are impossible to tell apart without a tape measure. If the goal was to scare us away from looking at the vehicles so we’d stop complaining about the similar looks already, it worked.