Cars with Jan Coomans: Audi Q5 review — smooth operator

And, while I don’t pretend to speak for everyone, the Q5 does look rather pretty. At least the regular one does, as I’m not a huge fan of the silly trend to add coupe-inspired roof lines to SUVs. I don’t remember which manufacturer exactly started this, but I wish they’d cut it out. Stop cross-breeding body styles. Anyway, back to the Q5. I reckon it’s a very good looking car, and in a very non-generic way as well, which is something that I find a lot of contemporary cars struggle with. And there really is plenty of space inside for a young family for example — assuming they don’t have an even number of kids greater than two. Mid-size means “pretty damn large” these days, apparently. If you look at the next step up, the Q7, that is an absolutely massive piece of machinery. The Q5 is large enough to be practical to live with both inside and when you need to park it somewhere.

So, the Q5 gets you to where you’re going in style and comfort without the need to shout about anything. On the roads near Rostov-on-Don and the Utkino Country House Resort where we stayed, it was positively awesome. We did have to cancel the off-road driving as heavy rains had turned the course into a mud bath which the summer road tires would not have dealt with very well. But again: who would take their car off-roading in the first place? There’s plenty of ground clearance and traction from the Quattro all-wheel-drive system to deal with whichever surface you’ll likely be driving on in reality. And besides, the fact that a bit of time opened up in our schedule due to poor weather conditions meant that I could go for a spot of fishing, where I got the skin of my forehead sunburnt for good measure. Climate change in a nutshell, basically.

But in any case, I was left with a very solid impression of the latest Q5, it’s just so good at what you’d expect it to do on a daily basis. I would even say that, sitting inside, it probably feels like the most premium and upmarket car among its direct competitors. So if you do happen to be shopping around for an SUV of this size and class then you need to go and drive one. Odds are, you’ll be glad you did.