Audi SQ5 TDI Launch Review
What’s hot: Uber-class interior, blistering performance but diesel efficiency
What’s not: Doesn’t “whump!” on upshifts
X-Factor: An SUV? Hardly. A performance car first and last, with compact wagon versatility
Vehicle style: High performance premium SUV
Engine/trans: 230kW/650Nm 3.0 litre Biturbo diesel/8-speed tiptronic auto
Price: $89,400 (plus on road costs and charges)
Fuel consumption listed: 6.8 l/100km | tested: 10.4 l/100km
OVERVIEW
This is a car for the sheer joy of driving - Audi’s superb SQ5 TDI.
But, while Audi may claim it as the fastest diesel SUV on the planet (and its numbers are very impressive: 230kW, 650Nm, a sprint to 100km/h in 5.1 seconds), lots of cars are fast.
No, it’s the way the SQ5 3.0 litre TDI Biturbo drives that sets this compact four-door performance wagon apart: the way it harnesses power and gets it to the road, the glorious sound from the quad-pipe rear, the feel at the wheel and the exquisite interior - it’s all these things that define it.
To drive the SQ5, to dive through a sweeping mountain pass, to feel the visceral growling lunge of the biturbo underfoot, is to feel a liberation of the spirit.
This, Audi’s new wild-child, the SQ5 TDI, is really something special.
Special too is the price. At $89,400 it’s not ‘cheap’ - no Audi ever is - but for what is packaged into this car, and certainly in the context of its German competition, it’s very seductive premium performance buying.
It seduced us; we think that if you drive it, it will also seduce you.
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