Newspaper Article

The Q5 - probably the best mid-size SUV in the world

John Simister Road Test

2008

Overview

Now there's an Audi Q5. It looks like a smaller Q7 but it's still hefty, having a wider, tougher version of the Audi A4's platform. Those who crave an SUV to help them feel secure and powerful will find all the psychological support they need. Audi says that just two per cent of SUV owners have ever driven across rough country. It also says there's an \"immense growth of interest in adventure tours\". Some of that growth presumably involves driving across rough country, which might raise that percentage of SUV off-road use. I hope so, because then such a car is justified. The Q5 is more evidence that Audi's engineers have recently discovered the secret of driver-pleasing vehicle dynamics having missed the point for years. Specifically, the Q5 has unusually sophisticated suspension design, and it can be had (as in the cars I drove) with Audi Drive Select. This lets you choose Comfort, Auto and Dynamic settings which affect suspension firmness, steering weight and accelerator eagerness, and, if you dig further into the car set-up part of the Audi Multi-Media Interface (a sort of iDrive), you can change those settings individually for each parameter.

• Publisher: Independent Digital News & Media