- Doors and Seats
5 doors, 5 seats
- Engine
3.0DTT, 6 cyl.
- Engine Power
230kW, 650Nm
- Fuel
Diesel 6.8L/100KM
- Manufacturer
4WD
- Transmission
Auto
- Warranty
3 Yr, Unltd KMs
- Ancap Safety
5/5 star (2009)
First drive review: Audi SQ5
- Audi Q5 gains new high-performance turbo diesel engine and new SQ5 name
- Quicker than some hot-hatches: 0-100km/h in 5.1 seconds
- Priced from $89,400 plus on-road costs
After providing a taste test of the world’s fastest diesel-powered SUV in Germany last year, Audi has now launched in Australia the enigmatic but outrageously rapid SQ5 TDI all-wheel-drive Quattro.
Australia’s appetite for luxury performance cars is showing no sign of waning as they continue to expand into fresh territory.
Diesels shouldn’t sound like this, or perform so spectacularly …
We were impressed with the mid-sized five-seater SQ5 on foreign soil, and now our opinion has been emphatically reinforced following a vigorous drive over some of Tasmania’s challenging roads.
The Audi SQ5 is a marvellously capable, very speedy luxury carriage, with even lower fuel consumption than we’d expected.
To reiterate, the SQ5 - the first diesel model to wear the sporty S badge - delivers belting performance courtesy of a 3.0-litre biturbo engine good for 230kW and 650Nm, translating to a 0-100km/h blast in just 5.1 seconds and then with indecent haste on to a top speed of a (speed-limited) 250km/h.
Showing a more virtuous side to its character, the family friendly SQ5 TDI will eke out an average of a mere 6.8 litres of fuel per 100 kilometres travelled, an excellent reward for a light right foot in a nearly two-tonne vehicle.
Pleasing news for intending owners is that last year’s projected price of $100,000-ish mentioned at the preview was a trifle pessimistic. The Audi SQ5 TDI is available from $89,400 plus on-road and dealer costs.
Audi doesn’t have to do the hard sell with its turbo diesel technology. The take-up is already booming. With technology drawn directly from its Le Mans-dominating sports cars, Audi’s local TDI volumes have gone from virtually nothing in 2001 to close to 45 per cent today (and 70 per cent of the Q5 range). Every Audi model bar the R8 supercar now has a diesel offering.
It helps the acceptance of the SQ5 that the donor Q5 is the most popular model in Audi’s local catalogue, holding around 30 per cent of the marque’s volumes. In a nod to its all-round appeal, Audi Australia’s newly minted managing director Andrew Doyle expects the SQ5 to account for nearly one-third of all Q5 SUV sales.
The SQ5 looks the business with some subtle cosmetic changes. The exterior, with its bold grille xenon-plus headlights and LED daytime running lights, is more assertive and athletic. The rig gets side skirts, diffuser, and four elliptical tailpipes.
Inside is all quality with the electrically-adjustable sports seats trimmed in fine Nappa leather and Alcantara, Instruments are grey with white needles, with aluminium-look gearshift paddles and a choice of fascia inlays. There are eight airbags and three-zone climate control. The SQ5’s added equipment extends to MMI Navigation plus, reversing camera, flat-bottom sports steering wheel, tyre pressure monitor, and electric driver and passenger seats with memory function (including mirrors).
There’s keyless entry and keyless start, bottle holders in every door, four cup holders, and storage bins under the seats. The rear bench seat slides back and forth, an the electric tailgate is programmable to suit the user’s height and reach.
To more serious driver-related stuff … the SQ5 is lowered by 30mm, has electromechanical steering with speed-dependent power assistance and gets firmer springs and improved damper control, wider front and rear tracks, and bigger front brakes with two-piston callipers. It rides on 20-inch alloys and 45-series rubber.
But there is no adaptive suspension. Audi says the SQ5 was developed around one optimal suspension tune. It works brilliantly – taut, yet pleasantly controlled over any lumpy surfaces, without any jarring.
Responding to the unswerving trend that customers tend to go for loaded high-end vehicles at launch, the initial shipment of 60 SQ5s come with a Launch Edition package at $14,720 and including 21-inch alloys, dynamic steering, Bang & Olufsen audio, digital radio, high-beam assist, adaptive headlights, seat heating for four of the five bums, carbon atlas inlays, privacy glazing, luggage rail system, partition net and alarm. All 60 cars have been allocated. This was the version Drive experienced this week in Tasmania.
We were impressed with the dynamic steering, which alters the steering ratio depending on the vehicle speed while simultaneously adjusting the steering torque to match the ratio. The SQ5 changes direction with relish, the steering being nicely weighted (leaning to the heavy, sporty side) and responding instantly to any directional changes.
Engine performance is strong, easy and effortless, with no detectable wind noise. A conventional eight-speed tiptronic auto gearbox, employed to cope with the high torque loads, shifts quickly and smoothly, finds the appropriate gear without prompting, driving power through the permanent four-wheel drive system.
Like the A6 and A7 Biturbo cars, a sound actuator in the exhaust system gives the twin-turbo V6 a sonorous non-diesel (artificial) sound. Whatever.
Importantly for Australian owners who take journeys into the country, the stability control and anti-lock brakes have been retuned to with a higher threshold on our loose gravel surfaces. Stability control sensors also detect when there is an added load on the roof rails, compensating for the higher centre of gravity.
Bonnet, tailgate and front cross member made from aluminium in the interests of weight saving, and consequent fuel-saving virtues.
The SQ5 comes with just a puncture kit, but Audi says a space saver is under development.
Coming soon, too, is the Audi RS Q3 compact SUV powered by the 265kW turbo in-line 2.5-litre five-cylinder engine from the ultra quick TT-RS. Price tag will be below $100,000.
Vital statistics
Price: $89,400 plus on-road costs
Engine: 3.0-litre Biturbo V6 common-rail TDI
Power: 230kW between 3900 - 4500rpm
Torque: 650Nm between 1450 - 2800rpm
Fuel use: 6.8L/100km combined
Major features: 20-inch alloys, tri-zone a/c, exhaust sound actuator, reversing camera,
Target market: Typically male 40-50; multiple car households into art, culture and sport
Main rivals: New Range Rover Sport, perhaps.