New Audi Q5: Love at First Sight

The great Indian middle class is saddled with a strange sense of satisfaction with what we have and nowhere else is this more apparent than in our cars. You love sports cars and convertibles and yet say things like “But what use is a car that goes till 250 on our streets? It’d be scraping the top of each speed breaker”. “What? It only seats two? What use is that?” “No Roof – so you can only drive it for two months when the weather is pleasant!” And then end by making some noises about how a car is a dead investment.

I dare you to come up with one self-assuring middle-class excuse for why you shouldn’t buy an Audi Q5 (apart from the fact that it starts at 43 odd lakhs in Delhi). The new Q5 is one of the best cars we’ve driven all of last year and that includes the R8 – if you are an SUV guy, it’s one of those cars that make you fall head over heels in love. Barring the slightly ill equipped lady known as the voice inside the navigator who is insanely entertaining to ignore – there isn’t too much you can fault about the new Q5. This is, of course, a sharp contrast to what you could say about the version it replaces. The older Q5, though our favourite size out of the Q series (the Q3 was too small and the Q7 too big), has disappointed on the excitement front and it’s this that Audi has managed to take care of. And we say the Q7 is too unwieldy knowing that everyone from Katrina Kaif to John Abraham own one. That said, in terms of pure road presence there aren’t too many SUVs that would be able to stand up to the Q7 and we aren’t just talking about the Audi stable.

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The Q5 in all stages of tune (it comes in 2 L petrol, 2L TDI and an even more exciting 3L TDI) produces more torque and thus, more acceleration and is also more fuel-efficient. Which loosely translated into FHM language means more wheel-spin starts and sudden accelerations for relatively lesser money. Here is where the car makes so much sense because if you buy one and toss the keys to a chauffeur, then you don’t deserve it – the Q5, should you have the money to own one is the perfect start to a Monday – it’s the car that you’ll happily run up to 160 kmph on a flyover in Delhi without breaking into a sweat.

The interiors aren’t something that you would spend too much time on – though they do look distinctly brighter than before, the exteriors get design elements at the right places with no major nips or tucks besides newly designed headlamps, new rear tail lights and a not too generous sprinkling of chrome. There is a new MMI interface though. While the temptation to get into comparisons between the older and the newer one is significant – it’s best left to the academic discourses you read in automotive magazines.

The most fun part of the Q5, apart from the new engine, is what it shares with the older Q5 – Audi’s phenomenal panoramic sunroof. It’s perfect if you are not as OCD about getting the glass ceiling dirty as us.

In fact, this review could have been started and finished in exactly three words – Good Car. Should Buy. Okay, that’s four but you get the point. The most obvious comparison would be between the Q5 and its odd-numbered competitor – the BMW X3. And it would be fair too if you didn’t want to get an Audi simply because in several Indian suburbs you see as many A4s as Honda City’s, but then if it’s exclusivity you are after, you should buy a Santa Fe or a Suzuki Grand Vitara.

From the February 2013 issue of FHM India.