2018 Subaru Ascent VS AUDI Q8

Subaru Ascent VS AUDI Q8
Subaru Ascent 2018 VS AUDI Q8 2018
2018 Subaru Ascent VS 2018 AUDI Q8

2018 Subaru Ascent:
In terms of sales momentum, Subaru continues to ascend, a huge cartoon snowball somehow barreling uphill, picking up skiers, snowmobiles, and the odd yeti. It started with a U.S. sales record in 2009, when 216,652 Americans bought Subarus. Seven consecu­tive record years later, the brand came close to tripling that total, with 615,132 sales in 2016. Its industry-leading customer-retention rate means that more people come back to buy another Subaru than do the buyers of any other brand in the U.S. But there’s a limit to this momentum: Subaru customers regularly outgrow the brand’s lineup as they look for larger vehicles. In its portfolio of family-­friendly hatchbacks and wagons, it has nothing that seats more than five. The Ascent will change that. Subaru learned a hard lesson with its last attempt at a seven-seater, the B9 Tribeca (later called simply the Tribeca) that it introduced in 2005 and gave up on about a decade later. Aside from its odd looks, the biggest problem with the Tribeca was that it wasn’t big enough. There are smaller three-row SUVs out there still, but not in the indispensable this-or-a-minivan class. That won’t be a problem this time around. The Viziv-7 concept that first previewed the Ascent was longer than a Chevrolet Traverse and as wide as a Ford F-150. We’re guessing the production Ascent might shrink a little bit, but either way, it’s clear that Subaru intends to get the interior space right this time...
http://www.caranddriver.com/features/the-2018-subaru-ascent-is-a-car-worth-waiting-for-feature

2018 AUDI Q8:
Audi’s recent SUV product offensive shows no sign of letting up and the firm has an new 4x4 in the pipeline for 2018, which will sit right at the top of the range as a flagship vehicle and a rival for the likes of the Range Rover. It’ll be the all-new Q8, a car previewed in concept form at two of this year’s biggest motor shows so far – the Detroit show in January and Geneva in March. Judging by the styling of the concepts it’ll be a large but rakish SUV, sitting above the Q7 with a slightly more coupe influenced side profile similar to other premium SUVs like the BMW X6 and Mercedes GLE Coupe. When the Q8 goes into production it’ll be built at Audi’s Bratislava plant in Slovakia, sharing a production line with the Q7. The concept shares a similar footprint to the current Q7 – it’s over five metres long and has a wheelbase of three metres – but is 40mm lower. A sloping roofline and tapered rear end mean the concept only has four seats, however the production version is expected to be available with a five-seat layout. The Q8 concept has a 630-litre boot. Showcased as a plug-in hybrid e-tron model, the Q8 concept is powered by a 3.0-litre TFSI engine paired with an electric motor, which runs from a 17.9kWh lithium-ion battery. The powertrain develops a combined 438bhp and 700Nm of torque. Audi claims 0-62mph takes 5.4 seconds and the car has a top speed of 155mph, while it emits 53g/km of CO2. Power is delivered via an eight-speed automatic gearbox and quattro four-wheel drive. There’s a good chance the petrol-electric powertrain will be made available in the production model, because Audi says: “Their use in the study demonstrates their importance once again.” On electric power alone, the Q8 concept can travel up to 37 miles, and the lithium-ion battery takes two and a half hours to fully recharge. Those wanting more performance will eventually be able to upgrade to an Audi SQ8. The high performance model is likely to use the same 4.0-litre bi-turbo V8 diesel as the SQ7, developing 429bhp. When asked about the SQ8 in Detroit, Audi’s board member for sales and marketing, Dietmar Voggenreiter said, “That’s something I would like to do.” The concept adopts a wider version of Audi’s single-frame octagonal grille, which is flanked by new matrix LED headlamps.