Audi's most recent reveal is yet another new SUV. The second-generation Q5, unveiled at the Paris Motor Show last month, is the mid-sized option in the carmaker's four-model strong SUV line-up.
It comes with a new look - Audi has subtly tweaked the exterior design so it matches up with the rest of the Q range – and sits on a lighter platform. The Q5 is also available with front-wheel drive for the first time too, so it should be more economical to run.
Some of the biggest changes happen inside, where the new interior has been inspired by the design and quality of the cabin found in the larger Q7. Stand-out optional extras such as the Virtual Cockpit system will be offered on the Q5 for the first time.
The new model will have its work cut out when it launches – it'll arrive as a rival for the recently released Jaguar F-Pace, as well as the BMW X3 and Mercedes-Benz GLC.
It's on sale early 2017. Here are all the details and what the experts make of the new Q5.
Design
The updated Q5 takes design inspiration from the Q3 and Q7, with a large, angular, chromed grille at the front flanked by LED headlights.
It's not a radical redesign. The car's overall silhouette is the same, but has stronger shoulder lines, larger wheel arches and a lower roofline. As standard, the Q5 will ride on 17ins alloy wheels, although wheels as big as 21ins will be available as optional extras.
Although the Q5 looks pretty familiar, it makes use of the Volkswagen Group's MLB platform, which also underpins the A4 saloon. That means that the second-generation Q5 is almost 200lbs lighter than the model it replaces.
Interior and practicality
Auto Express says the car's cabin has seen some of the biggest changes, even though it's the same horizontal design format you'll find on other new Audis.
The Q5 seats five people and the makeover brings improved materials, a lot more choice for finishes and much more interior space thanks to a longer wheelbase. Knee and legroom have been significantly improved for rear occupants.
As standard, the dashboard comes with a seven-inch infotainment screen, but range-topping models will get a 8.3ins display. Audi's Virtual Cockpit system – the large 12.3ins screen placed behind the driver's wheel - replaces the instrument binnacle with virtual and customisable dials and puts sat nav maps right in front of the driver.
The boot ranges from 550 litres to 610 litres, depending on seat position. Folding the rear bench down opens up a 1,550-litre loading bay.
Technology
The 8.3ins screen found on range-topping models can be equipped as an optional extra if you go for the MMI navigation with MMI touch package. As well as the larger infotainment display, a touchpad is integrated into the rotary dial used to navigate the menus, making it easier to make quick commands. It recognises handwritten entries – handy for entering postcodes into the sat nav – and you can alter the zoom on maps in the same way you do on a smartphone.
Audi is also introducing Personal Route Assist on the Q5. The system, which already features on the Q7 and A4, learns your likely destinations to suggest optimised routes - even if you haven't turned the sat nav on.
Other tech highlights include a wi-fi hotspot for eight devices, an optional Bang & Olufsen sound system, the rear-seat infotainment system the Audi tablet, Android Auto and Apple CarPlay.
Safety and driver assists
Some of the most important new technologies on the 2017 Q5 are driver assists and safety features. The car will get adaptive cruise control with traffic jam assistance to steer, accelerate and brake automatically in slow moving traffic. On motorways, a lane keep assist function will automatically help keep you between the lines too.
Audi will also offer collision avoidance systems. Its "Pre-Sense City" automatic emergency braking system can detect vehicles and pedestrians in your path and execute an emergency stop if it's safe and necessary to do so. It comes as standard equipment. There's also cross-traffic assist, which uses radar to warn of unseen hazards when you're pulling out into traffic.
Traffic sign recognition and park assist also feature, alongside a predictive efficiency assistant which can boost fuel economy.
Engines and drivetrain
The Q5 comes with five engine choices – four diesels and a turbocharged petrol.
The basic diesel is a 2.0-litre TDI available in three states of tune – an entry-level 148bhp engine with more powerful 161bhp and 187bhp versions above it. These will be the bread and butter of the range.
Audi claims the reworked 2.0-litre TDI is much more efficient, thanks to a significant reduction in fuel consumption, although much of this will be down to the front-wheel drive and a 198lbs (90kg) weight reduction over its predecessor. A six-speed manual or a seven-speed S-Tronic automatic gearbox will be available, as well as the choice of the new Quattro Ultra all-wheel drive system.
Arriving a little later than the 2.0-litre diesels will be a six-cylinder 3.0-litre option, with 283bhp and 457lb-ft of torque.
If you'd like a petrol Q5, the 2.0-litre TFSI will be available from launch. It produces 248bhp and a claimed 41.5mpg.
Prices and release
Audi confirmed the Q5 will arrive in UK showrooms at some point in spring 2017 and order books could open late this year. UK prices have not yet been revealed, but CarBuyer expects them to kick off from £39,000.
Audi Q5 first drive
The Week joined Audi for the international launch of the Q5 in Mexico, where twisting back roads, pitted gravel tracks and pristine highways provided the ideal testing ground
The new SUV looks sharper and more purposeful than its predecessor – and that urgency is evident behind the wheel, too. The 3.0-litre TDI is particularly punchy – helpful for overtaking the dilapidated American saloon cars that make up much of the traffic at the southern tip of Mexican California. The 2.0-litre petrol version is also swift and smooth, and both models feel comfortable and refined on adjustable air suspension (an optional extra).
Adaptive cruise control, which varies your speed to keep you in sync with the car in front, takes some of the strain out of motorway driving, as does the high driving position. But the biggest step forward inside the cabin is Audi's Virtual Cockpit – a customisable 12-inch flatscreen instead of a dashboard and a head-up display at the base of the windscreen.
It looks slick and futuristic while being practical at the same time: having your speed and sat nav directions beamed on to the glass means your eyes no longer flit from road to dashboard to centre console.
The rest of the interior is equally well thought out, and the build quality is hard to fault. The only compromise is that the back seats, while roomier than they were, still feel less spacious than might be expected given the overall size of the car.
That's a result of the swooping roofline, which trades interior space for class-leading aerodynamics and efficiency. Combined fuel economy for the 2.0-litre TDI model is 57.7mpg – impressive for a mid-size SUV.
Audi's clever Quattro Ultra system, available on all but the 3.0-litre diesel car, keeps fuel consumption down by switching between two- and four-wheel-drive, depending on how and where you're driving. On the motorway or pootling around town, only the front wheels are powered and the rear prop-shaft disengages, allowing the back wheels to coast.
As soon as you put your foot down, or hit a patch of sand or ice, the system re-engages the rear wheels and restores full four-wheel-drive. The change happens in 200 milliseconds and is imperceptible – unless you're an Audi engineer with an iPad plugged into the Q5's electronic brain.
Driving out of the town of San Jose del Cabo, the iPad read-out revealed the Q5 selected two-wheel-drive more than 70 per cent of the time - but that number plummeted as we turned off the main road and on to a rutted dirt track that bisects the Baja California peninsula.
On rough ground, pushed way beyond the needs of most Q5 owners, the car is poised and stable. Cocooned in the leather-clad, air-sprung cabin, it's easy to forget that beneath your feet the wheels are hammering away over treacherous ruts and rocks.
You may never need that kind of performance. But if the morning school run is getting you down, it may be comforting to know that your car could take you almost anywhere else.
Reviews
While the Q5 car won't arrive on sale for another six months or so, first-drive reviews are already in.
Auto Express kicks off by saying the second generation will pick up where its predecessor left off as one of the most popular premium SUVs on sale. It's a worthy rival to the likes of the BMW X2 and Mercedes-Benz GLC, adds the mag, and although not thrilling, it's an excellent family cruiser.
"It offers a comfortable, refined driving experience, but doesn’t quite match the X3 or Jaguar F-Pace for driver involvement," it says.
However, Auto Express adds that the quality of the car's interior and infotainment options compensates for the lack of excitement and that the four-cylinder diesel engines will be the ones to go for at launch.
What Car? thinks much the same, concluding that the Q5 is a "very comfortable car, with a smooth, forgiving ride" but a mid-sized SUV that won't trouble the Porsche Macan or Jaguar F-Pace for thrills.
Again, the interior is the car's trump card. "No rival can live with its quality feel, ease-of-use, or its technology," says the site, and overall, it should be at the sharp end of the SUV market when it arrives.
It comes with a new look - Audi has subtly tweaked the exterior design so it matches up with the rest of the Q range – and sits on a lighter platform. The Q5 is also available with front-wheel drive for the first time too, so it should be more economical to run.
Some of the biggest changes happen inside, where the new interior has been inspired by the design and quality of the cabin found in the larger Q7. Stand-out optional extras such as the Virtual Cockpit system will be offered on the Q5 for the first time.
The new model will have its work cut out when it launches – it'll arrive as a rival for the recently released Jaguar F-Pace, as well as the BMW X3 and Mercedes-Benz GLC.
It's on sale early 2017. Here are all the details and what the experts make of the new Q5.
Design
The updated Q5 takes design inspiration from the Q3 and Q7, with a large, angular, chromed grille at the front flanked by LED headlights.
It's not a radical redesign. The car's overall silhouette is the same, but has stronger shoulder lines, larger wheel arches and a lower roofline. As standard, the Q5 will ride on 17ins alloy wheels, although wheels as big as 21ins will be available as optional extras.
Although the Q5 looks pretty familiar, it makes use of the Volkswagen Group's MLB platform, which also underpins the A4 saloon. That means that the second-generation Q5 is almost 200lbs lighter than the model it replaces.
Interior and practicality
Auto Express says the car's cabin has seen some of the biggest changes, even though it's the same horizontal design format you'll find on other new Audis.
The Q5 seats five people and the makeover brings improved materials, a lot more choice for finishes and much more interior space thanks to a longer wheelbase. Knee and legroom have been significantly improved for rear occupants.
As standard, the dashboard comes with a seven-inch infotainment screen, but range-topping models will get a 8.3ins display. Audi's Virtual Cockpit system – the large 12.3ins screen placed behind the driver's wheel - replaces the instrument binnacle with virtual and customisable dials and puts sat nav maps right in front of the driver.
The boot ranges from 550 litres to 610 litres, depending on seat position. Folding the rear bench down opens up a 1,550-litre loading bay.
Technology
The 8.3ins screen found on range-topping models can be equipped as an optional extra if you go for the MMI navigation with MMI touch package. As well as the larger infotainment display, a touchpad is integrated into the rotary dial used to navigate the menus, making it easier to make quick commands. It recognises handwritten entries – handy for entering postcodes into the sat nav – and you can alter the zoom on maps in the same way you do on a smartphone.
Audi is also introducing Personal Route Assist on the Q5. The system, which already features on the Q7 and A4, learns your likely destinations to suggest optimised routes - even if you haven't turned the sat nav on.
Other tech highlights include a wi-fi hotspot for eight devices, an optional Bang & Olufsen sound system, the rear-seat infotainment system the Audi tablet, Android Auto and Apple CarPlay.
Safety and driver assists
Some of the most important new technologies on the 2017 Q5 are driver assists and safety features. The car will get adaptive cruise control with traffic jam assistance to steer, accelerate and brake automatically in slow moving traffic. On motorways, a lane keep assist function will automatically help keep you between the lines too.
Audi will also offer collision avoidance systems. Its "Pre-Sense City" automatic emergency braking system can detect vehicles and pedestrians in your path and execute an emergency stop if it's safe and necessary to do so. It comes as standard equipment. There's also cross-traffic assist, which uses radar to warn of unseen hazards when you're pulling out into traffic.
Traffic sign recognition and park assist also feature, alongside a predictive efficiency assistant which can boost fuel economy.
Engines and drivetrain
The Q5 comes with five engine choices – four diesels and a turbocharged petrol.
The basic diesel is a 2.0-litre TDI available in three states of tune – an entry-level 148bhp engine with more powerful 161bhp and 187bhp versions above it. These will be the bread and butter of the range.
Audi claims the reworked 2.0-litre TDI is much more efficient, thanks to a significant reduction in fuel consumption, although much of this will be down to the front-wheel drive and a 198lbs (90kg) weight reduction over its predecessor. A six-speed manual or a seven-speed S-Tronic automatic gearbox will be available, as well as the choice of the new Quattro Ultra all-wheel drive system.
Arriving a little later than the 2.0-litre diesels will be a six-cylinder 3.0-litre option, with 283bhp and 457lb-ft of torque.
If you'd like a petrol Q5, the 2.0-litre TFSI will be available from launch. It produces 248bhp and a claimed 41.5mpg.
Prices and release
Audi confirmed the Q5 will arrive in UK showrooms at some point in spring 2017 and order books could open late this year. UK prices have not yet been revealed, but CarBuyer expects them to kick off from £39,000.
Audi Q5 first drive
The Week joined Audi for the international launch of the Q5 in Mexico, where twisting back roads, pitted gravel tracks and pristine highways provided the ideal testing ground
The new SUV looks sharper and more purposeful than its predecessor – and that urgency is evident behind the wheel, too. The 3.0-litre TDI is particularly punchy – helpful for overtaking the dilapidated American saloon cars that make up much of the traffic at the southern tip of Mexican California. The 2.0-litre petrol version is also swift and smooth, and both models feel comfortable and refined on adjustable air suspension (an optional extra).
Adaptive cruise control, which varies your speed to keep you in sync with the car in front, takes some of the strain out of motorway driving, as does the high driving position. But the biggest step forward inside the cabin is Audi's Virtual Cockpit – a customisable 12-inch flatscreen instead of a dashboard and a head-up display at the base of the windscreen.
It looks slick and futuristic while being practical at the same time: having your speed and sat nav directions beamed on to the glass means your eyes no longer flit from road to dashboard to centre console.
The rest of the interior is equally well thought out, and the build quality is hard to fault. The only compromise is that the back seats, while roomier than they were, still feel less spacious than might be expected given the overall size of the car.
That's a result of the swooping roofline, which trades interior space for class-leading aerodynamics and efficiency. Combined fuel economy for the 2.0-litre TDI model is 57.7mpg – impressive for a mid-size SUV.
Audi's clever Quattro Ultra system, available on all but the 3.0-litre diesel car, keeps fuel consumption down by switching between two- and four-wheel-drive, depending on how and where you're driving. On the motorway or pootling around town, only the front wheels are powered and the rear prop-shaft disengages, allowing the back wheels to coast.
As soon as you put your foot down, or hit a patch of sand or ice, the system re-engages the rear wheels and restores full four-wheel-drive. The change happens in 200 milliseconds and is imperceptible – unless you're an Audi engineer with an iPad plugged into the Q5's electronic brain.
Driving out of the town of San Jose del Cabo, the iPad read-out revealed the Q5 selected two-wheel-drive more than 70 per cent of the time - but that number plummeted as we turned off the main road and on to a rutted dirt track that bisects the Baja California peninsula.
On rough ground, pushed way beyond the needs of most Q5 owners, the car is poised and stable. Cocooned in the leather-clad, air-sprung cabin, it's easy to forget that beneath your feet the wheels are hammering away over treacherous ruts and rocks.
You may never need that kind of performance. But if the morning school run is getting you down, it may be comforting to know that your car could take you almost anywhere else.
Reviews
While the Q5 car won't arrive on sale for another six months or so, first-drive reviews are already in.
Auto Express kicks off by saying the second generation will pick up where its predecessor left off as one of the most popular premium SUVs on sale. It's a worthy rival to the likes of the BMW X2 and Mercedes-Benz GLC, adds the mag, and although not thrilling, it's an excellent family cruiser.
"It offers a comfortable, refined driving experience, but doesn’t quite match the X3 or Jaguar F-Pace for driver involvement," it says.
However, Auto Express adds that the quality of the car's interior and infotainment options compensates for the lack of excitement and that the four-cylinder diesel engines will be the ones to go for at launch.
What Car? thinks much the same, concluding that the Q5 is a "very comfortable car, with a smooth, forgiving ride" but a mid-sized SUV that won't trouble the Porsche Macan or Jaguar F-Pace for thrills.
Again, the interior is the car's trump card. "No rival can live with its quality feel, ease-of-use, or its technology," says the site, and overall, it should be at the sharp end of the SUV market when it arrives.
