Audi Q5 Sportback review: Fashionably late

Singapore

IF it ain't broke, don't fix it. But no one said not to make it sexier, which is where the Audi Q5 Sportback comes in. It's a coupe-sport utility vehicle mashup, of the sort invented by SsangYong with 2005's Actyon but glamourised by BMW's X6 in 2008.

Ever since that car became a hit, the three German brands that count have scrambled to churn out slinky versions of their big selling SUVs. With some help from corsets and skinny jeans, the BMW X3 begat the BMW X4 while the Mercedes GLC spun off the, er, Mercedes GLC Coupe. Either is the kind of car you could imagine Paris Hilton driving if she were down to her last million.

The Q5 Sportback is Audi's riposte to those two, though it arrives years and years after them. I guess you could say it's a fashionably late car.

The only one you can get here is a 2.0-litre turbo with 249 horsepower, although you can have an S Line version if you fancy a bit of sporty glamour on the bodywork, plus bigger wheels, active suspension and fancy OLED taillights.

Either way, the Sportback shape will run you something like S$20,000 extra, even though it isn't all that different from a regular Q5. Whereas BMW's X3 and X4 feel like different creatures, the Q5 Sportback makes little attempt to distance itself from the SUV that it's based on.

It's only slightly more rakish in appearance, at least to my eyes. The roof does sweep down to meet the car's hiney so it sheds some boxiness, but the Sportback is only 7mm longer than the Q5, and is just 2mm down on height. In car design, longer and lower equal sexier, so you do wonder if Audi missed a trick here.

Then again, the Q5 Sportback leans more towards practicality than glamour. Despite the more fetching backside, it loses just 10 litres of boot space (leaving a still generous 510 litres) from the Q5. If you fold the rear seats down you're somehow down 40 litres instead, but you still have 1,480 litres, and if that isn't enough for you, you probably weren't looking at a Sportback to begin with.

Seating in the rear isn't bad, either, because even though the roof does start to dip lower there, there's still headroom for a full grown adult, and maybe even a pompadour. The windows aren't tiny, so sitting in the back doesn't feel like incarceration.

The front half of the cabin is all but identical to that of the Q5, which isn't a bad thing because it feels high quality and has the same sharp 10.1-inch touchscreen. That's a doddle to use, and it works with both Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, but thankfully there are still physical switches for the air-con, so changing the fan speed isn't a matter of complicated jabbing.

Just as the Q5's controls balance the virtual and physical nicely, the driving experience strikes a middle note between sportiness and comfort. The steering feels nicely weighted and the body keeps an even keel through bends, and on the test car's optional 21-inch wheels the Audi took bumps surprisingly smoothly.

But what will probably matter more to buyers is that the Q5's height helps to make the driver feel like he's in a commanding position. Bolstering that kingly feeling is the fact that the engine packs a good punch if you rev it.

That said, few four-cylinder turbo engines make music, and the Audi's is no exception, so it's heavily muted, which seems like the smart thing to do. Unless you're working it hard or crawling along in the carpark, you can't actually hear the engine much of the time.

It has a mild hybrid system so it actually shuts down sometimes even when you're on the move, but if you can't hear it when it's running you certainly can't hear it when it's dormant, so this on/off transition escapes attention.

That feature saves fuel by the millilitre, but it reflects the car industry's desperation to meet increasingly stringent efficiency standards. The engine may have been heavily influenced by legislation, but the Q5 Sportback's appeal has more to do with the bit that was shaped by fashion.

AUDI Q5 SPORTBACK 2.0 TFSI QUATTRO S TRONIC S LINE

Engine 1,984cc, inline 4, turbocharged Power 249hp at 5,000-6,000rpm Torque 370Nm at 1,600-4,500rpm Gearbox 7-speed dual-clutch 0-100km/h 6.3 seconds Top Speed 237km/h Fuel Efficiency 8L/100km Agent Premium Automobiles Price S$285,511 with COE Available Now