The Q7 was redesigned for 2017 – and it got better! The 2nd row now has 3 individual seats, and all have LATCH!
This Q7 is a fabulous vehicle for 3-across in the 2nd row… just don’t plan to use the 3rd row.
Note that tall car seats & high back boosters in 2C will cause some amount of driver visibility impairment when looking in the rear view mirror.
We strongly recommend thinking of the Q7 as a 5 seater, not a 7 seater, as the 3rd row in this vehicle is very tiny. As a result, we do not recommend having kids or adults sit back there. While it is true that you can slide the 2nd row seats forward to make the 3rd row roomier, you can’t slide 2D or 2P if there is a car seat on that particular vehicle seat as then the 2nd row seats are too close to the front seats.
To clear up confusion – the Volkswagen Atlas & Audi Q7 are very different vehicles – they are not even built on the same platform – and have vastly different interiors. Sadly the Q7 didn’t borrow from the Atlas’ playbook and the Q7 doesn’t offer a car seat safe tilt for 3rd row access with a car seat installed on that 2nd row seat.
2007-2015 Audi Q7
The Q7 was first introduced for 2007.
There is overlap between 2D & 2C that makes 2 side-by-side (in 2D & 2C) and 3-across in this vehicle exceptionally challenging – the overlap is made worse by the fact that 2D has a rigid buckle. If 2D had a flexible buckle this slight overlap likely wouldn’t be much of a problem – but here it is a major problem. Many car seats that we’ve tried in 2C sit on top of 2D’s buckle (which is obviously problematic!).
We’ve found very few combinations of seats that work side-by-side in 2D & 2C. One that does is a rear-facing Clek Fllo in 2C and a rear-facing Clek Foonf in 2D (both installed with the seat belt).