Audi SQ5 TDI

FINAL REPORT Easy-to-live-with sporty SUV doesn't know what it wants to be

 

I'VE lived with this Audi SQ5 Sportback for nearly 12,000 miles now. Depending on who you believe, that's more than double the annual mileage of the average UK motorist in 2022, and I've come to a conclusion: the Audi has something of an identity crisis.

I've touched on it before, but I'm firmly of the opinion that the SQ5 doesn't quite know what it wants to be.

That's not to say it's a bad car - far from it because it has many admirable qualities, which I will come to - but it could be better. It doesn't know whether it wants to be an agile, sporty athlete of a car, or a tucked-up-in-a-blanket-with-awarm-drink cruiser.

Take the engine. I've praised the grunty turbodiesel for the 700Nm of torque it serves up, but the moment you apply an S badge to a sleeker-bodied car like this, you expect more: sharper response, more hunger for revs and a more authentic soundtrack. I'm still not totally sold on the artificial noise piped through the speakers in Dynamic mode, even if it has grown on me a little.

Sportier