Audi Q5 review - Engines, performance and drive

The Q5 focuses on being safe, composed and comfortable to drive, and it makes a good fist of it, too. We’ve tried cars fitted with the most expensive chassis set-up (adaptive dampers with air suspension) – but despite the cost, the ride can occasionally feel unsettled on British roads.

On the largest 21-inch wheels available, potholes tend to thud into the cabin, and the car doesn't feel settled at speed. Although it's not uncomfortable, it can't match the Mercedes GLC for ride quality. It’s predictable, easy to drive quickly and happy enough to change direction if you’re throwing the Q5 between corners.

What it is not, however, is overly thrilling. That’s because the steering in particular is short on feedback; it’s easy enough to trust, and accurate enough for you to place the Q5 into a corner with confidence. But it doesn’t really give you much of a sensation of what the front wheels are doing and how they’re interacting with the road surface below.

The roughest surfaces encountered by the average Q5 are likely to be a particularly dusty corner of a Waitrose car park, but should the driver get desperately lost and end up on a gravel track, they can have confidence in the car’s ability. It’s not exactly a Land Rover Discovery Sport in terms of off-road prowess, but it’s capable enough for the majority of situations. This is particularly true if the air suspension is specified, because it can lift the car up to maximise its ride height over rocks and mud.

As with lots of Audis, the Q5 has a wide variety of dynamic settings available through its ‘Drive Select’ button. This allows you to select different modes that affect everything from the throttle response and traction control systems to the gearbox mapping and steering weight. The two settings you’ll flick between on roads are ‘Comfort’ and ‘Dynamic’ – although there is a further option, ‘Efficiency’, which stymies the throttle response further in a bid to eke out better fuel economy.

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It is also possible to mix your favourite settings from key elements of the car – ‘Dynamic’ steering but ‘Comfort’ suspension, for example – and store these under an ‘Individual’ setting that’s just as easy to select as the manufacturer presets.

The seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox is excellent, with rapid, smooth shifts and software that does a decent job of kicking down when necessary. You can always override the system, too, by flicking paddles behind the steering wheel to shift manually – although they’re not as nice to use as the aluminium ones in the Alfa Romeo Stelvio.

The Q5 is quiet on the move, with the plug-in hybrid models delivering a smooth transition from electric power to firing up the combustion engine. Select hybrid mode, and the Q5 will err towards utilising its battery power, although it will cross over to the petrol engine under stronger acceleration.

0-62mph acceleration and top speed

The 2020 facelift introduced mild-hybrid technology for the standard Q5 petrol and diesel versions, bringing improvements in power, performance and overall efficiency.

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The entry-level 2.0-litre four-cylinder petrol unit now produces 261bhp (up from 247bhp), while the 2.0-litre oil-burner delivers 201bhp (up from 187bhp). That’s a 14bhp increase over the (pre-facelift) diesel model and it now includes a new 12-volt mild-hybrid system, which uses a belt-driven starter-generator (BSG) to deliver a little extra power and torque to assist with pulling away. The diesel is our pick of the range, as it's punchy enough, efficient and reasonably refined - managing the 0-62mph sprint in 7.6 seconds and a top speed of 137mph.

Company car users – and private owners looking for plug-in hybrid flexibility – will be best served by the TFSI e models. The 362bhp 55 TFSI e version is no longer available on the Q5 price list, but there’s plenty of performance on tap from the 295bhp 50 TFSI e, while real-world economy will be respectable if you keep the batteries topped up. Select Hybrid mode and the Q5 does a great job of juggling between conventional and electric power more or less imperceptibly.

0-62mph for the 50 TFSI e version takes 6.1 seconds, with the 55 variant managing the same dash in an impressive 5.3 seconds and a 149mph maximum. The SQ5 in both bodystyles just pips the top-spec plug-in hybrid by delivering a 0-62mph sprint time of 5.1 seconds.

The SQ5 that was available with a petrol 3.0-litre turbocharged V6 was on sale from 2017 to 2019 produced a punchy 349bhp and 500Nm of torque. This allowed for a 5.4-second 0-62mph time and 155mph top speed.