The Q5’s exterior styling was mildly tweaked for 2021.


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The Audi Q5 is well known, like truly well known. Audi moved additional than 50,000 of them in the US very last yr, plenty of to make the Q5 the brand’s best-selling merchandise. In actuality, Audi shipped virtually 2 times as several Q5s as it did Q3s, its upcoming most-well known design. You can blame present day SUV-obsessed motorists for this lopsided showroom effectiveness, but that’s only element of the tale, since from refinement and capabilities to luxurious and effectiveness there is loads to like about the 2021 Audi Q5.

Table of Contents

Like

  • Refined and powerful powertrain
  • Exceptional infotainment technique
  • Fantastic refinement

Do not Like

  • Middling leather high-quality
  • Lethargic transmission
  • Limited backseat

This crossover’s looks have been refined for 2021, even though the adjustments are subtle. The notable Singleframe grille is a bit broader than before and its outer trim is slimmer. Flanking that conspicuous opening are conventional LED headlamps. The Q5’s sills have been reworked and it has a new rear diffuser insert and accent strip on the hatch. Enhanced as it might be, it is really even now debatable whether or not the Q5 is additional attractive than the BMW X3, Lincoln Corsair or Volvo XC60, three of its primary rivals.

Tug on a person of the Q5’s exterior door handles and you are greeted with a extremely pleasant inside. The dashboard’s layout is attractive and purposeful, angled a bit towards the driver so virtually all the things is within just easy arrive at. Apart from its leather seating surfaces, which neither appear very good nor experience pleasant, the Q5’s product high-quality is usually superb, with loads of attractively grained comfortable plastics. Continue to, in this case in point, a small distinction would be pleasant. Dim-brown, open-pore wood accents on the black dashboard and door panels appear a small dour. Like in other Audis, the Q5’s a variety of switches and knobs experience excellent, with all the buttons building the identical pronounced clicking audio when pressed.

Front and heart on the dashboard is a new ten.1-inch display screen, household to Audi’s MIB 3 infotainment technique. Incredibly responsive and easy to use, this is a person of the greater multimedia arrays on the sector now. For extra benefit, Apple CarPlay and Android Vehicle are conventional, with the previous smartphone-mirroring technique in a position to connect wirelessly to the Q5. If you are rocking a Google-driven cell phone make confident to provide a cable. A single nifty available attribute is Audi Digital Cockpit Moreover, which puts a lively twelve.3-inch electronic instrument cluster appropriate in entrance of the driver. This set up presents a large amount of features nonetheless is even now exceedingly easy to use.

Enhancing the Q5’s safety, this SUV comes conventional with blind-spot checking, lane-departure warning, parking sensors at the two finishes and even rear cross-visitors warn, which can be a godsend in crowded parking tons. My tester is also fitted with a crisp 360-diploma digital camera technique and adaptive cruise control, the two of which get the job done properly. Other goodies involved in the $4,800 Top quality Moreover deal are a panoramic sunroof, car-dimming mirrors and lane-retaining assist that very last attribute is mainly efficient, even though often it does get bewildered when a person lane splits into two. Audiophiles are confident to value the available 19-speaker Bang & Olufsen audio technique, which provides excellent audio high-quality for just $950. 

2021 Audi Q5 45 TFSI

When not fairly a masterpiece, the Audi Q5’s inside is even now wonderful.


Craig Cole/Roadshow

The Q5’s entrance seats are broad and firm, and considerably additional comfortable than they appear. However, the back again bench’s 38 inches of legroom is simply Okay, getting a little bit of a squeeze for 6-footers. The X3 and Corsair both have a slight advantage in this location. But no make a difference your peak, the Q5’s rather narrow rear doorways can make ingress and egress a little bit of challenge.

In the cargo hold, Q5s fitted with a sunroof give 25.6 cubic toes of storage house. Fold the backrests down and that determine grows to 53.5 cubes. Once more, the two the X3 and Corsair have an edge, even though there is even now loads of baggage house in this Audi.

Q5 45 TFSI designs are driven by a two.-liter turbo-4. Smoother than buttercream frosting and quieter than a boy or girl that’s up to no very good, this refined engine provides a powerful 261 horsepower (an increase of 13 for 2021) together with 273 pound-toes of torque. The engine also gains a twelve-volt mild-hybrid technique, which is applied to clean out start-quit situations, and in fact they are virtually imperceptible. That hybrid components does not, nevertheless, do anything to boost effectiveness. Rounding out this utility vehicle’s under-hood bits is a seven-pace dual-clutch automated transmission and Quattro all-wheel generate with Extremely technologies, which engages the rear axle when excess traction is necessary and leaves it disconnected in regular circumstances for enhanced gas financial state.

2021 Audi Q5 45 TFSI

This Audi’s engine is silky-clean and virtually silent. 


Craig Cole/Roadshow

Talking of effectiveness, the conventional Q5 stickers at 23 miles for each gallon about city and 28 mpg on the highway when burning quality gas, which is what is actually suggested. Mixed, it is really rated at 25 mpg, a lifeless-correct estimate in mixed use I managed to normal 25.5 mpg in accordance to the vacation computer system.

Economy be damned, if you bury the accelerator this Audi’s drivetrain is saucy plenty of to get you to sixty mph in 5.seven seconds. Acceleration is powerful thanks to plentiful midrange torque, the dual-clutch gearbox shifting immediately and effortlessly. If only it have been additional responsive at minimal speeds. Off the line, this transmission is annoyingly lethargic, behaving practically like it is really not reacting to throttle inputs. This sluggishness makes the Q5 experience sluggish and unresponsive right until it is really shifting at double-digit speeds, at which point it is really fairly pleasurable. Switching to Dynamic mode increases points a little bit, but sad to say, isn’t going to fully rectify the trouble. If you want even bigger effectiveness than this version presents, the plug-in hybrid Q5 and SQ5 designs are also available.

Despite rolling on optional 20-inch, five-spoke wheels, this Q5’s experience is shockingly supple. Only the largest impacts transmit any harshness to the passenger compartment. Even even though its experience is clean, the vehicle’s physique continues to be properly controlled although cornering, not that it is really a canyon-carver. Regular for an Audi, the Q5’s steering is featherlight at parking-large amount speeds, which makes it a snap to maneuver about pedestrians or shopping buggies pedestrians have been way too lazy to stow in a cart corral. The wheel’s excess weight improves properly at better velocities for enhanced security.

2021 Audi Q5 45 TFSI

You will find loads to like about the 2021 Audi Q5.


Craig Cole/Roadshow

Underway, the Q5’s cabin continues to be incredibly refined, with practically no discernible wind or street sounds breaching its NVH defenses. The way it carries alone at pace is similarly impressive. It feels like you are performing about 55 mph when the speedometer needle is pointing at 80 mph. On additional than a couple of occasions I’ve experienced to dial points back again since I was inadvertently driving significantly quicker than the posted limit.

A further point that’s important is the Q5’s selling price — significantly less than you might be expecting, that is. This automobile kicks off at an exceedingly acceptable $44,395, a determine that includes requisite place prices, which come to $1,095. The Top quality Moreover design shown here with optional navigation, the upgraded audio technique, 20-inch wheels and a couple other extras buzzes the hard cash sign-up for $53,040, an fully honest selling price.

Apart from some iffy leather within and the transmission’s regrettable minimal-pace effectiveness, the 2021 Audi Q5 is a worthwhile luxurious SUV, a person you should really think about if you are shopping for a automobile in this phase. Following my time in this a person, it is really easy to see why the Q5 is the 4-ring brand’s bestselling design.