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The 2018 Audi SQ5 is a gnaw among amongst luxury compact SUVs. The SQ5 is blazingly quick in the dry out and sure-footed on wet and snowy roads, helped past its driver assists and safety technology. The Audi cockpit is the epitome of upscale, restrained tastefulness, and proof that four adults tin can travel long distances in comfort. In other words, in that location'south a reason why you're paying so much.

Nicely equipped Audis don't come cheap. The base Audi Q5 starts in the low 40s. My exam SQ5 Premium Plus came in at just nether $66,000 and at that price did not have adaptive cruise control or lane departure warning, which are available only on the SQ5 Prestige trim line costing $four,000 more. The Q5 and SQ5 are sized and priced in line with like upscale offerings from BMW (X3) and Mercedes-Benz (GLC).

2d-Generation 2018 Q5 Is a Large Step Frontwards

From the exterior, the 2018 Audi Q5 and SQ5 look pretty much like the first generation Q5 of the 2009-2017 model years. That'southward deceiving. It's a significantly amend machine. The on-board engineering science does more than, the ride is better, there'due south less cabin dissonance, and handling continues to be responsive, albeit with modest route feedback from the ability steering.

The Q5 employs a 252-hp, 2.0-liter turbocharged 4-cylinder engine with a seven-speed sequential automated manual gearbox (that is, no clutch pedal). The performance-oriented 354-hp SQ5 uses a iii.0-liter turbocharged V6 TFSI (turbocharged, stratified fuel injection directly into the cylinders) and an viii-speed automatic transmission. Audi Quattro all-wheel-bulldoze is standard.

There's a lot of information available to the driver through MMI, the Multi-Media Interface, especially once you lot've spent a couple weeks with the motorcar and figured everything out. You tin't just button the ignition switch and dorsum out of the driveway until you've learned how to motility the gear selector: Depress a button on the side then push frontwards for reverse, pull all the way back for Bulldoze, pull back a 2d time for Sport Drive mode, and press a button at the base of the shifter for Park.

Audi Q5 employs two control wheels, for driving options (left) and book. Up-down toggle buttons aren't equally good.

Many Fiddling Reasons You'll Love the Q5/SQ5

Audi has done as good a job as whatsoever automaker in thinking about how people really use cars. A steering wheel scroll wheel (photograph to a higher place) is the best way to quickly control infotainment volume (or mute it with a tap on the wheel). Information technology besides controls entertainment and navigation volume and a prompt onscreen tells yous which yous're adjusting. A 2d curlicue wheel shifts amidst instrument panel information choices.

The virtual cockpit–that is, a 12.3-inch LCD behind the steering wheel–can be all gauges, a combination of gauges and maps, or a full-screen map that's easy to glance downwardly at. Information technology tin can be a traditional map or a Google Earth image, even (when you're stopped) a street-view image. Information technology's possible because the auto embeds 4G telematics, Audi Connect, carried over the AT&T network and including a multi-user Wi-Fi hotspot. Audi Connect bundles automated crash notification, a stolen vehicle locater, manual emergency calling, existent-fourth dimension information (traffic, atmospheric condition updates, fuel prices, internet radio streaming, picture show navigation, read-aloud personalized news headlines, and Twitter alerts), driver monitoring (curfew, speed, and valet alerts), remote lock/unlock, and a auto finder.

You can punch in the ride quality using the MMI controller. If you leap for the optional air intermission ($1,000) you go an additional ride setting, Condolement, that is as limousine-like as yous can get from a car with a 111-inch wheelbase (the longer the wheelbase, the less the automobile pitches going over bumps).

MMI on the Q5 now includes a touchpad with handwriting recognition (write an address one letter at a fourth dimension), map zoom using swipe/pinch motions, and eight radio button presets. There'south nonetheless the MMI control knob also, plus vocalization input.

There's a total-color head-upwardly display bachelor, giving you three places to see three different pieces of data: the center stack LCD, the musical instrument console in virtual cockpit mode, and the HUD.

Want more commuter assists? You need the $59,000 SQ5, not the $55,000 SQ5.

Adaptive Cruise, Lane Departure Warning Gets Costly

The 1 meaning drawback to the overall excellence of the Q5/SQ5 is that you need to specify the costliest trim lines in order to be able to gild adaptive cruise control and lane departure warning ("active lane assist" in Audi terminology). On the Q5, yous need the top Prestige trim line, which costs $9,000 more than than the entry Q5 Premium. Then yous must gild the $one,800 driver assist package. On the SQ5, you lot need the Prestige trim line too.

Audi might belittle at the idea of the Toyota RAV4 or Honda CR-V being contest, simply both have ACC and lane departure warning standard, and blind spot detection is offered. In the course of driving 1,000 mostly highway miles, about 100 of them in stop-and-go conditions, it struck me as odd that a high-terminate automaker doesn't include all three when the majority of its cars have as-equipped prices more than $l,000.

Dual USB jacks and aux-in jack inside the console bin are illuminated and so it'due south easy to run into where to plug in.

Room for Improvement: the Little Things

Prissy equally the Q5/SQ5 is, the car still has rough edges. The illuminated USB and line-in jacks in the console are genius: no hunting for a flashlight to guide them into place on dark days. Just: Tthose are the only two physical infotainment connectors in a five-person car. You get as many as six jacks from a Chevrolet Equinox and four from a Mazda CX-5, both $xxx,000 vehicles. Rear seat occupants must brand practise with a single 12-volt accessory jack, to which y'all can add together a USB charger. No 120-volt outlet is offered, either, unless you bring your own via a 12-volt adapter.

iPhone Plus won't fit the console telephone cutout.

In that location's a smartphone cutout in the center console, but it won't hold an iPhone Plus model or similarly sized Android phone. Nor will a Plus-size iPhone fit in the cubbyhole at the base of operations of the center stack. That said, the phone interface is excellent, either through MMI or Apple CarPlay/Android Auto.

The 2 console beverage-holders are securely recessed to concur big beverages; it's unlikely any beverage volition tip over when yous endeavour a 0-60 run (about v seconds) in the SQ5. But Dunkin sold me a lawsuit-hot medium coffee that scalded my mitt when I tried to pull the java out from the depths of the cutout, dislodging the height and sloshing coffee on my fingers.

The base Audi Q5 uses halogen headlamps; other models utilize LEDs.

The Best Audi Q5 to Get

Driving the SQ5 was enjoyable, especially with the air suspension. Audi's Due south models are meant to compete with BMW M-badged vehicles and Mercedes-Benz AMG editions, and toll about $70,000 if you lot want all driver assists. Too, the low-profile tires volition exist susceptible to damage where potholes aren't speedily filled in. Nigh will be happy with the mainstream Q5 and its turbo four. Outside the The states, for 2018 you can get Audi's fabulous V6 diesel fuel engine with a 48-volt arrangement running an electric turbocharger, offer hybrid operation and almost 400 hp.

The base Q5 Premium, $42,475 including $975 shipping, is reasonably equipped other than commuter assists. It does take a backup camera, Audi Pre-Sense Basic (which tightens seat belts and starts closing windows and sunroof in a possible crash situation) and Audi Pre-Sense City (which detects pedestrians and cornering or stationary vehicles at speeds upward to 52 mph or 85 kph and brakes in a potential collision situation). Navigation, telematics, a sunroof, and heated front seats are options. The instrument panel consists of traditional gauges with a 5-inch monochrome multi-information display. Headlamps are xenon-based.

The mid-level Q5 Premium Plus, $46,475, incorporates LED headlamps, Audi Side Help, and Pre Sense Rear. Side Assist comprises blind spot detection, vehicle exit help that warns if you're almost to open the door with other cars or cyclists virtually to pass yours, and rear cantankerous traffic alert. Pre Sense Rear applies Pre Sense Bones to cars approaching from the rear, to minimize possible injuries if you're rear-ended. It also includes the panorama sunroof, keyless entry with an auto-open rear tailgate, and heated front seats.

Premium Plus options are navigation with touchpad input plus the virtual cockpit ($2,600), warm atmospheric condition bundle with ability-ventilated front end sport seats and rear side sunshade ($one,450), cold weather package (heated steering bike and rear seats, $500), and 19-speaker, 755-watt Bang & Olufsen audio ($950). Rear side airbags ($350) are important, but potentially chancy if children fall asleep and slump against the side doors.

The Q5 Prestige, $51,775, integrates the virtual cockpit LCD, navigation, half dozen months of Audi'south premium telematics service, the B&O speaker system, and Parking System Plus (front and rear acoustic sensors, surround view photographic camera, and superimposed lanes on the center display). The driver assistance package ($i,800) is a must-have if yous're spending $50K on the machine: adaptive prowl control, Turn Aid (detects oncoming traffic and warns when you're virtually to make a left turn at 1-seven mph), Traffic Jam Assist (slow speed follow), lane continue assist, automatic high beams, and traffic sign recognition. Adaptive damping (air intermission, $1,000) is worthwhile for passenger comfort and sporty driving. Warm and cold weather packages are also available. A fully equipped Q5 Prestige would be $56,875.

If yous really want all the driver assists–and you should–you lot're in for at least $53,575 on the Q5 Prestige. This is the Q5 to go. That or a loaded SQ5 at nearly $70K.

Audi Q5 has a plethora of driver assist systems if y'all check the options boxes.

Audi Q5 vs. the Competition

Audi's closest competition is the major High german automakers. The Mercedes-Benz GLC, new in 2016, is 183 inches long, an inch less than the Q5. (A meaty SUV is 180 to 190 inches long.) All-bike-bulldoze is optional and the interior isn't quite as desirable as Audi'southward. The third-generation BMW X3, 186 inches long, is all-new for 2018 with first shipments in November. I've driven at X3 briefly, at a racetrack, and there it was fabulous. The cockpit has been upgraded. Like Audi, it will offering four- and half dozen-cylinder versions.

Other competitors include the Porsche Macan (less carrying room), Jaguar F-Pace, Alfa Romeo Stelvio (great exhaust sound, questions on reliability), and Volvo XC60 (first-class highway cruiser, lots of safety features), Cadillac XT5, and Lincoln MKC.

The 21018 Q5 has been on sale for nigh of this year and ranks second in sales behind only the Lexus NX, although at that place's less Audi cross-shopping than with European competitors. The top 5 currently are Lexus NX, Audi Q5, Acura RDX, Mercedes GLC, and BMW X3.

For those who want their compact SUVs both luxurious and sporty, with solid driver and safety assists, the Audi Q5 is the best bet today. Our only concern is that you accept to pay mid-fifties to get safety features standard on mainstream SUVs from Honda and Toyota.