Q up for this beauty
Sportback is handsome, assured and good value
WHEN the first of Audi’s Q range, the 7, made its debut in 2005, it was a car for its time. Massive and brash, it epitomised everything about the booming world economy before the crash brought us all to our senses.
I remember driving one day and a Q7 pulled up behind me. It filled the entire rearview mirror and it was so threatening and intimidating, it felt like the world suddenly had gone dark.
The first time I drove one was in Austria, from Salzburg into the Austrian Alps, and I loved it there — in the city, with its five-metre length, not so much. You could park it in a space in the Stephen’s Green Centre and the back of it would still be at the Shelbourne.
Over the years, the Q cars have evolved: the Q7 was joined by the Q5, Q3 and Q2, and all became more streamlined and a lot prettier. Now the regular Q3 has been joined by this Q3 Sportback, with a honeycomb grille and a more coupé-style profile that tapers very gently from the roofline to the rear bumper, and it is actually very lovely indeed.
It’s also three centimetres lower than the standard Q3 and while that might not seem like a lot, it somehow softens the monolithic shape, arriving emphatically at the sweet spot between regular car and SUV.
Though it proved divisive, my test car also came in the Pulse Orange paint job you see here, and personally I loved it. Now that summer has disappeared entirely, it was like having the sun parked in the driveway and it cheered me up no end.
In S-Line, you also get 20-inch wheels, and while this makes the drive a little less engaging, it gives the car a lovely stance in profile, jacked up and proud and ready to rock whenever you want it to.
Inside, it is everything you’d expect of an Audi in S line trim. It comes with the Audi virtual cockpit, one of the best digital displays there is, and a 10.1-inch multimedia screen. Aircon still is controlled by dials, thankfully — you have too much of a good thing when it comes to touchscreens, and I honestly believe touchscreen temperature control is dangerously distracting, when muscle memory means you can lower or raise the heat without ever taking your eyes off the road. The seats are very comfortable, and the spacious cargo area has a 530-litre capacity.
Standard features include front and rear parking sensors, rear spoiler, Audi PreSense for safety stopping, Audi smartphone interface, hill hold and descent control, S line sports pack, full LED headlamps with dynamic rear indicators, LED interior pack, Audi Drive Select, cruise control with speed limiter, semi-leather seats, electronic parking brake, dual zone climate control, fourway electric lumbar support, and lane departure warning.
My test car added adaptive cruise control, multi-coloured ambient interior lighting, contrast bumpers and wheel arches in Manhattan grey, folding mirrors, heated front seats, panoramic sunroof, park assist, privacy glass, rearview camera, flat-bottomed steering wheel, and 12-volt sockets in the rear. With a couple of other extras, the total for those came to €7,897.
The Q3 35 TFSI is powered by a turbocharged 1.5-litre petrol engine, with battery-assisted mild hybrid function to produce 150hp, and a 0-100kph sprint of 9.6 seconds, which is lively enough. Top speed is 204kph, not that you’d ever need to hit it.
The lower height seems to improve the centre of gravity compared with some SUV/crossovers, and I found it very assured in all road conditions. Unlike some Audis of yore, the suspension also seemed more suited to Irish roads, and I didn’t feel like I virtually needed to crawl over speed bumps — you wouldn’t want to hit one at 60kph, but you don’t need to be too nervous at half that.
All in all, it’s a good package.
WLTP makes everything sound bad, but combined fuel consumption of 5.8 litres per 100km actually is impressive, and for the week I had it, I thought the dial was stuck, because it didn’t seem all that thirsty at all.
Entry-level pricing is €41,450, which is good value, but as always with Audi, you get what you pay for, and if the bottom-line impact on PCP repayments was an extra €50 or so a month, I’d start to walk up the food chain to get as much kit and caboodle as you can afford.
And, trust me and be brave — go for the orange!