Compare the2025 Audi Q8VS 2025 Mercedes G-Class

Both the Q8 and G-Class have child safety locks to prevent children from opening the rear doors. The Q8 has power child safety locks, allowing the driver to activate and deactivate them from the driver's seat and to know when they're engaged. The G-Class’ child locks have to be individually engaged at each rear door with a manual switch. The driver can’t know the status of the locks without opening the doors and checking them.

The Q8’s standard pretensioning seatbelts also sense rear collisions and remove slack from the seatbelts to help protect the occupants from whiplash and other injuries. The G-Class doesn’t offer a whiplash protection system.

Earlier warning of stopped traffic, traffic signals, dangerous road conditions, weather, or accidents, can keep driver's safer and prevent crashes. The Q8 has Car-to-X Services, a system that seamlessly communicates important warnings to the driver about impending danger, if they're available. The G-Class doesn’t offer a system that can receive automated systems from infrastructure.

A passive infrared night vision system optional on the Q8 Prestige helps the driver to more easily detect people, animals or other objects in front of the vehicle at night. Using an infrared camera to detect heat, the system then displays the image on a monitor in the dashboard. The G-Class doesn’t offer a night vision system.

For better protection of the passenger compartment, the Q8 uses safety cell construction with a three-dimensional high-strength frame that surrounds the passenger compartment. It provides extra impact protection and a sturdy mounting location for door hardware and side impact beams. The G-Class uses a body-on-frame design, which has no frame members above the floor of the vehicle.

Both the Q8 and the G-Class have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front and rear side-impact airbags, side-impact head airbags, front and rear seatbelt pretensioners, height adjustable front shoulder belts, four-wheel antilock brakes, all wheel drive, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, crash mitigating brakes, post-collision automatic braking systems, daytime running lights, lane departure warning systems, blind spot warning systems, rearview cameras, rear cross-path warning, driver alert monitors and available around view monitors.

The Audi Q8 achieved a “Top Safety Pick” rating from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) for the 2024 model year. This recognition was based on its impressive performance in the small overlap frontal crash test, updated side impact crash test, headlight evaluations, and pedestrian crash prevention testing. The G-Class has not yet been evaluated by the IIHS for 2024.

The Q8’s corrosion warranty is 7 years longer than the G-Class’ (12 vs. 5 years).

From surveys of all its subscribers, Consumer Reports’ January 2024 Auto Issue reports that Audi vehicles are more reliable than Mercedes vehicles. Consumer Reports ranks Audi 10 places higher in reliability than Mercedes.

On the EPA test cycle the Q8 gets better mileage than the G-Class running its gasoline engine:

For better stopping power the Q8’s brake rotors are larger than those on the G-Class:

For better traction, the Q8 has larger tires than the G-Class (285/45R21 vs. 265/60R18).

The Q8’s standard tires provide better handling because they have a lower 45 series profile (height to width ratio) that provides a stiffer sidewall than the G-Class’ 60 series tires.

For better ride, handling and brake cooling the Q8 has standard 21-inch wheels. Smaller 18-inch wheels are standard on the G-Class. The Q8’s optional 22-inch wheels are larger than the 21-inch wheels optional on the AMG G 63.

For superior ride and handling, the Audi Q8 has fully independent front and rear suspensions. An independent suspension allows the wheels to follow the road at the best angle for gripping the pavement, without compromising ride comfort. The Mercedes G-Class has a solid rear axle, with a non-independent rear suspension.

The Q8 has a standard automatic load leveling suspension to keep ride height level with a heavy load or when towing. The G-Class doesn’t offer a load leveling suspension.

For a smoother ride and more stable handling, the Q8’s wheelbase is 4.1 inches longer than on the G-Class (117.9 inches vs. 113.8 inches).

For better handling and stability, the track (width between the wheels) on the Q8 is 1.4 inches wider in the front and 1.9 inches wider in the rear than the average track on the G-Class.

The Q8 Prestige handles at .83 G’s, while the G 550 pulls only .62 G’s of cornering force in a Motor Trend skidpad test.

The Q8 Prestige executes Motor Trend’s “Figure Eight” maneuver 2.9 seconds quicker than the G 550 (26.9 seconds @ .69 average G’s vs. 29.8 seconds @ .58 average G’s).

For better maneuverability, the Q8’s turning circle is .7 feet tighter than the AMG G 63’s (43.6 feet vs. 44.3 feet). The Q8’s turning circle is 1 foot tighter than the G-Class’ (43.6 feet vs. 44.6 feet).

The Audi Q8 may be more efficient, handle and accelerate better because it weighs about 500 to 1850 pounds less than the Mercedes G-Class.

The Q8 is 10.2 inches shorter in height than the G-Class, making the Q8 much easier to wash and garage and drive (lower center of gravity).

Unibody construction lowers the Q8’s center of gravity significantly without reducing ground clearance. This contributes to better on the road handling and better off-road performance and stability. In addition, unibody construction makes the chassis stiffer, improving handling and reducing squeaks and rattles. The G-Class doesn’t use unibody construction, but a body-on-frame design.

The design of the Audi Q8 amounts to more than styling. The Q8 has an aerodynamic coefficient of drag of .39 Cd. That is significantly lower than the G-Class (.55). A more efficient exterior helps keep the interior quieter and helps the Q8 get better fuel mileage.

For excellent aerodynamics, the Q8 has standard flush composite headlights. The G-Class has recessed headlights that spoil its aerodynamic shape and create extra drag.

The Q8 has 2.9 inches more front legroom, 1.7 inches more front shoulder room, .7 inches more rear legroom and 1.1 inches more rear shoulder room than the G-Class.

The Q8’s liftgate lifts up in one piece, completely out of the way of loading and unloading, while sheltering the cargo loading area. The G-Class’ swing out door blocks loading from the driver’s side.

To make loading and unloading groceries and cargo easier when your hands are full, the Q8’s power cargo door can be opened just by kicking your foot under the back bumper, leaving your hands completely free. The Q8’s power cargo door can also be opened or closed by pressing a button. The G-Class doesn’t offer a power or hands-free opening cargo door.

The Q8’s standard towing capacity is much higher than the G-Class’ (7700 vs. 7000 pounds).

The Q8 Prestige has a standard heads-up display that projects speed and navigation instruction readouts in front of the driver’s line of sight, allowing drivers to view information without diverting their eyes from the road. The G-Class doesn’t offer a heads-up display.

Heated windshield washer nozzles are standard on the Q8 to prevent washer fluid and nozzles from freezing and help continue to keep the windshield clear in sub-freezing temperatures. The G-Class doesn’t offer heated windshield washer nozzles.

Laser headlights, standard on the Q8 Prestige, produce their light by firing blue lasers through phosphorus, a process that uses one-half the power of the G-Class’ LED headlights. Laser headlights can have double the range of LEDs with a much smaller surface area.

The Q8’s standard side window demisters help clear frost or condensation from the side windows in the winter. The G-Class doesn’t even offer side window demisters, so the driver may have to wipe the windows from the outside to gain side vision.

To shield the driver and front passenger’s vision over a larger portion of the windshield and side windows, the Q8 has standard extendable sun visors. The G-Class doesn’t offer extendable visors.

A manual rear sunshade is optional in the Q8 and power rear side window sunshades are optional in the Q8 (except Premium) to help block heat and glare for the rear passengers. The G-Class doesn’t offer a rear or rear side window sunshades.

The Q8 Prestige’s Park Assist Plus can parallel park or back into a parking spot by itself, starting, stopping and changing direction automatically. Remote Park Assist Plus will park and retrieve your car remotely: press a button and watch it park itself. This is ideal for tight locations. The G-Class’ automatic parking system does not offer parking by remote control.

The Audi Q8/SQ8/RS Q8 outsold the Mercedes G-Class by 35% during 2023.