Audi Q5 3.0 TDI SE review

by David Finlay (12 February 2009)

Even though it would have meant neglecting several responsibilities - not least, dear reader, to yourself - I came very close to deciding that I wouldn't write about this car at all. My concern was that, in the form tested, it did not properly represent what the Q5 is really like, but a colleague I discussed this with reminded me that it does represent the Q5 in the form many people will buy it. He was quite right, so here goes.

The issue is one that is increasingly likely these days to come into the conversation whenever two or more motoring journalists get together and start chatting: the tendency, particularly in the UK, for cars to be sold with inappropriately large wheels and low-profile tyres.

The Q5 3.0 TDI SE tested here is a very good example of what we're complaining about. As standard, this model is fitted with 235/60 tyres on 18" wheels, but Audi chose to fit the press car with the lower, fatter 255/45 tyres on 20" wheels which are available as an £1175 option on top of the SE's basic price. It's a combination which surely wasn't - in fact, can not possibly have been - considered ideal for the car by the engineers, but which must instead have been suggested by the marketing department.

The only reason for a customer to specify these wheels and tyres would be to improve the look of the car, and I can see the point there. They are undeniably attractive, and they help jack up the visual appeal of what doesn't strike me as the most beautiful SUV on the market - that huge bonnet keeps making me think that the front end of a very large car has been grafted on to the rear of a much smaller one. There is also no point in criticising Audi for making the option available, since the company knows from experience that UK buyers just love this kind of thing.

But the rubber/alloy mix wrecks the Q5. It makes the car feel clumsier than it really is, and spoils the ride on every one of the many road surfaces I encountered in a 1500-mile journey. I played around with the three-mode (Comfort, Auto, Dynamic) Drive Select system, which resets the adaptive shock absorbers (among other things) according to different road conditions, and which adds a further £1665 to the cost, but it didn't help as much as it was intended to because it couldn't address the basic problem that the car was on the wrong tyres.

And this isn't the end of it. On dry and preferably smooth tarmac the wheel/tyre option might give you a little extra grip, but on wet roads, or ones with a slight dusting of snow on them, they make the Q5 feel very unsure of itself (though not nearly as unsure as I felt of myself while I wondered if I was going to able to keep to my line round a corner or go swishing straight on instead). If it strikes you as ironic that a four-wheel drive SUV should inspire so little confidence in less than ideal road conditions, I'm right with you.

The pity of it is that in many ways I liked the Q5 very much indeed. That 237bhp three-litre turbo diesel (which comes with the excellent seven-speed dual-clutch S tronic gearbox as standard) is a lovely unit, giving the car a lot of punch when you need it - just look at that 6.5-second 0-62mph time! And it's so quiet: even under full acceleration it doesn't sound too diesely, and on a cruise you'd hardly know it was there at all.

Other good points? Great seats, though possibly better for people lower than six feet rather than those of us who extend further, an impressive amount of room in the rear, absolutely wonderful steering and a useful cargo section which can carry between 540 and 1650 litres of stuff depending on how many seats are in their normal place and whether or not you load right up to the roof.

It's not cheap, of course. The official on-the-road price is £34,665, but as well as the Drive Select system and those bloody wheels and tyres the test car was also fitted with a panoramic sunroof, adaptive cruise control, electrically adjustable front seats, all-round heated seats, a CD changer (yes, available only as an extra), an upgrade to the parking system, a Technology Pack (including satellite navigation, an electric tailgate and the highest form of the MMI control system) among several other things.

But I would mind about the price less if I liked the car better, and I think I would be a Q5 fan if I drove one with the wheels and tyres that the chassis department wanted it to have in the first place. If you pay attention you can sense that this is a car which, like the larger Q7, would normally be able to ride and handle far better than anything of its size and weight ought to. What a shame that this silly option - possibly the worst way of spending £1175 in an Audi dealership - masks that important fact.

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