Audi Q5 Sportback rides superbly
COUPÉ-INSPIRED TAKE ON THE MID-SIZED SUV HAS THE MATERIAL LUSTRE, REFINEMENT AND PERFORMANCE YOU’D EXPECT BUT ITS DESIGN LEAVES SOMETHING TO BE DESIRED
Imagine how different a company Audi must feel today than it did 10 years ago. Once the envy of the industry, the firm’s formerly phenomenal growth curve now looks to have permanently levelled off. Its closest competitors have overtaken it.
The ex-boss and a couple of his lieutenants have ended up in court. Perhaps even more worrying still if you’re an Audi employee, though, must be the prospect of the product strategy that has fuelled the company’s rise now suddenly seeming to have run out of road.
It was with those odd-numbered, designer Sportback saloons that the firm really started putting on the sales volume back in the noughties. Back then, too, came the Q-prefixed SUVs, whose appearance on the roads none of us can have failed to notice, and none of them seemed to miss their target market.
With another brand-new, big-selling mid-sized model along every year, how easy it must have been for besuited salesmen in shiny showrooms, over a couple of phone calls and meetings, to manoeuvre a regular client from A4 to A5, from A5 Sportback to A4 Avant, and then into a Q5; each time squeezing just a little more monthly bounce out of a customer who likes the brand, always wants the latest thing and has the disposable income to change their car like some of us buy shoes. That, folks, is how you grow a premium car brand in the modern world: with a fresh, baublelike product every five minutes.
But now that product expansion plan has played itself out to the point where new arrivals are Sportback versions of Q-car SUVs. (That gigantic product strategy Venn diagram on the office wall in Ingolstadt can’t have much vacant space left, can it?) Eighteen months ago, along came the first — the Q3 Sportback — and now we’ve got a bigger Q5 to take on the concept.
This is a sleeker, better-looking Q5, then. Well, that’s the idea. Competition for the likes of the BMW X4 and Mercedes-Benz GLC Coupé. Model for model, a Sportback will cost you about a bit more than a Q5 SUV, and although it offers marginally less cargo and passenger space than the regular Q5, it’s hoped that most customers won’t notice what they’re giving up. It’s hoped they will notice the styling, though, which gives the Q5 Sportback the usual plunging roofline, slightly bigger grille, bolder ‘implied air intakes’ (ugh) and betterdefined surfacing features than on the regular SUV.
From June, when UK deliveries start, you’ll be able to get one with a choice of bottom-end mild-hybrid four-cylinder petrol and diesel engines; in V6 TDIpowered SQ5 performance guise; or with either of a pair of petrol-electric TFSIe plug-in hybrid powertrains. All versions bar one gets a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox as standard. (The SQ5 is an eight-speed torque-converter auto.) Every model has Quattro four-wheel drive, with the more economy-minded ones swapping Audi’s Torsen centre diff for an intelligent electronic clutch- based coupling. Lower-end trims have fixed-height coil suspension and pricier ones get adaptive air springs.
Mechanically, that’s all the same choice as you’ll find in a regular Q5, though, so convincing yourself to trade in your existing SUV and sign up for a Sportback as soon as possible might not be that easy. I’d need some convincing. Then again, I’m not a particular fan of Audi’s current approach to design; and if you are, and you like what you see here, who could argue?
This is clearly not a bad-looking car, but it is trying quite hard (and ultimately in vain) not to look like a very predictable mid-sized German SUV. There’s a lot of chrome on those bumpers, isn’t there? It looks to me suspiciously like a Q5 that’s “living its best life” after having had “a bit too much work done”, dare I say. And that may very well make it absolutely perfect for the intended audience — but in terms of pure design appeal, at least to these eyes, it’s some way from being in the league of a Range Rover Velar or Porsche Macan.
Inside the car is a cabin that seems from a slightly bygone era compared with Audi’s latest new-model arrivals. The fascia’s not quite so rakishly angular in its styling as that of last year’s A3, nor has it been nearly as widely decluttered as the bigger Audis now have. There are still plenty of rows of physical buttons and knobs for adjusting things here: what joy.
Second-row passenger space is just a little bit meaner than you might expect from a high-sided car but will still be big enough for most full-sized adults, and the boot lacks the dishwasher-swallowing loading height of a proper SUV but is pretty generous in other respects. Unless you’re in the dishwasher trade, then, the compromise to practicality does indeed seem pretty negligible.
One thing that you won’t find in the Q5 Sportback is any kind of separate input device for the infotainment system. The regular Q5 lost its touchpad as part of its recent facelift, so the freestanding 10.1in tablet-like infotainment system is touchscreen-only. Still, it’s actually fairly easy to navigate thanks to the useful system of menu shortcuts.
Our test car struck a high standard for fit and finish and material richness, with a mix of black and brown leather and wood veneer trim that made a welcome change from the black-or-greywith-aluminium-or-carbon garnish you typically find in a modern Audi. Since the Audi UK model configurator makes no mention of the combination, though, we fear it may have been a quirk of left-hand-drive German specification, which seems a shame.
To drive, the Q5 Sportback feels every bit as plush-and luxurious-feeling as the cabin. We tested a 261bhp 2.0-litre 45 TFSI petrol and it had plenty of accessible torque and outright potency; good drivability and crisp responsiveness, with a readiness to rev when you need it to; and first-class mechanical refinement at a cruise (although wind noise isolation narrowly misses the same high standard).
Real-world economy was the snag. You’ll be doing well to better 30mpg in varied daily use. But the car is slick and dynamically adaptable on the move, with some power in reserve. The sevenspeed S Tronic gearbox works away very unobtrusively, and when you select a lower gear for yourself and let the powertrain work hard, the Q5 responds as urgently as most would surely want from a mid-sized luxury SUV.
Even so, it isn’t engaging to drive; nor is it really trying to be. Our test car had Audi’s air suspension, which worked very well to isolate the chassis from intruding lumps and bumps, and kept it level and under control at pace. But the steering is only medium-paced, pretty light and filtered-feeling, and chassis response, handling balance and body control are of the sort that makes for cast-iron stability and composure at speed, but not for a sense of agility or particular cornering poise.
So there you go: Audi’s latest and greatest, shiny new SUV ‘thing’ is a quiet, smooth, swift, precise and assured modern Audi right down to the bottom of its (optional) 20in alloy wheels. Let’s be honest, though: it’s showroom filler, isn’t it? Underneath it all, it seems to me little different from a regular Q5. And when it’s no longer the shiny new showroom arrival, how much will really be left to recommend it? AUTOCAR