Audi Q3 review by TopGear
Comfortable interior, good engines, neat detailing, zero excitement. Oh dear.
The ride isn't hard (except with the S-Line chassis), but it's annoyingly clumpy, letting you know all the time how hard it's working. There are optional adaptive dampers, but you probably shouldn't bother. If you're really looking for improvement in this department, buy a different car.
The base 138bhp diesel with FWD and a manual gets along OK, but most people will get the same 2.0-litre diesel uprated to 175bhp and with quattro drive. It's an impressively quiet installation. The petrol is Audi's 2.0-litre TFSI quattro set-up, in 168bhp and 208bhp outputs. They're smooth, and the 208bhp one is brisk.
Not distinctive enough to mark you out at a driver of, erm, distinction. So no, then.
Despite being a smallified Q5, it's still built like an Audi, and so the cabin quality and attention to detail is very, very impressive.
Much of the suspension is as per the Volkswagen Tiguan's, because it's tougher than what's under an A3 and can cope with medium-duty off-roading. The cornering's surprisingly capable if you don't mind the dead electric power steering.
Thanks to its engine being mounted transversely, it doesn't actually give up that much space to its larger Q5 sibling. Boot capacity is 460 litres with the seats up, and 1,365 litres with the seats down, comparing unfavourably with the BMW X3's 500/1,600-litre split. Even the Evoque gets 1,445 litres of down-seat space.
Choose the 2.0-litre TDI and you'll benefit from 54.3mpg and 138g/km of CO2, both better figures than an equivalent BMW X3 with a 2.0-litre diesel (50.4mpg and 149g/km). You only lose 2mpg and 5g/km of CO2 if you plump for the 211bhp 2.0-litre TFSI (36.7mpg and 179g/km of CO2), while still good for a 6.9 second 0-62mph dash.
Article source: www.topgear.com