MARK TAKAHASHI: Hey, everybody.
We're here with the new 2018 Audi Q5.
It's a significant deal this year,
because it's fully redesigned after an eight
year run with its predecessor.
Honestly I think they knocked it out of the park.
Let's take a look.
So the most significant change for the 2018 Q5
is, obviously, styling.
It's adapting Audi's new design language
which was more angular, sharper, more aggressive.
Overall, I like it.
In particular, I like how the headlights in the grill
are nicely integrated.
They kind of bleed into each other.
There's a nice following line that continues throughout.
And this satin metal grille look, it's pretty sharp.
One of the cooler things is they're now
putting these really, really sharp creases in the bodywork.
And these creases really weren't that possible to manufacture
a couple of years ago.
It's got this nice character line,
this sharp crease that runs all the way from nose to tail.
And it's a nice kind of sculpting on the side.
There's a lot of the same character that
carries over from the last Q5.
It's got a little bit of a fastback slant in the back,
but not so much that it impedes on rear seat comfort
and headroom or cargo space.
In the back here, we have these nice sculpted tail lights,
which mimic what's going on with the headlights up front.
It's got these sharp LEDs that kind of glow at night.
And there's a nice character line here at night as well.
I mean, it makes it instantly identifiable at night
that it's an Audi.
The character line continues all the way around the back.
One thing that's cool, too, is even on the lowest trim level,
you get a standard power lift gate.
One thing that bothers me on almost all cars
nowadays are these kind of red running lights
that have to be there for regulations in some countries.
Because, you know, if the tailgate's up
and you have the hazards on, you need something
to flash back there.
Overall, I'm really happy with the design of the Q5
and, actually, Audi's in general lately.
They've really just made a good balance
between aggressive sportiness and classy luxury.
So there's only one engine that's
available with the 2018 Q5, and it's this,
the 2 liter turbocharged four cylinder.
It puts out 252 horsepower, which quite honestly is plenty.
If you want more, if you want more performance,
well, then you go to the SQ5, which
has a 3 liter turbocharged V6.
That puts out 354 horsepower.
Attached to this one is a seven speed
dual clutch automatic transmission.
It's really nice and buttery smooth, quick shifts,
and really just keeps you in the power.
And at the top end, it gives you great fuel economy, because you
have that seventh gear.
Quattro all-wheel drive is also standard across the line.
One of my favorite things about Audi's in general and this Q5
is the interior.
They do this incredible job of squeezing
a whole bunch of features in, but making
it easy to use without a whole bunch of buttons cluttering
everything up.
It's a very minimal design, but it's still really functional.
Every button, every knob, every control has the same click
and has the same weight.
It's a little attention to detail.
But it gives you the impression that this is a premium vehicle.
So you have this great MMI controller,
which most of the German manufacturers are using,
BMW's iDrive, and then you have Mercedes'
COMAND version of this.
So you get this great dial in it.
You know, it's easy to control everything on the screen.
It's got these sharp detents, so you
know when you're hitting a hotspot or a button.
Then you have the trace pad here.
So if you're looking up an address,
you can just kind of trace as you're driving along.
You don't even have to look down to use it.
It has a pretty good voice control.
Although, since it has Apple CarPlay and Android Auto
built in, I'm more inclined to use those.
They're a little better with speech recognition.
And it works great.
It really truly does.
And the one thing I'm not crazy about when
it comes to Apple CarPlay in this, though, is this screen
here isn't a touch screen.
Apple CarPlay lends itself to being a touch screen.
Instead, you kind of have to roll around with the controller
here to get to where you want.
You've got this armrest here that slides forward.
And you can adjust its height.
And you just kind of drape your wrist
over this, what they call the yacht handle.
And it falls right over this dial.
So it's a natural seating position.
You don't have to feel like you're reaching
for something awkwardly.
Everything just falls to place perfectly.
One thing I really like that Audi
did with the latest rollout of redesigns
is they added these virtual gauges.
Sometimes they can be a little gimmicky.
But in this case, it's really helpful, a ton of information.
It's scalable and somewhat customizable.
You can have things shrink down like the speedometer
and tachometer, so you can get a much bigger navigation screen,
and control almost all the other functions like phone and audio
as well.
On top of that, it's easy to see in almost any lighting
condition.
This is plastic, but it's kind of soft to the touch.
And it has a really good convincing grain to it.
And it matches really well with all the other surfaces.
And the seats are fairly comfortable.
I do wish we had ventilated seats that were
available in the lower trims.
Unfortunately, it's only available in the Prestige.
There's plenty of places to store all your personal effects
as well.
Got a nice little slide bin here that
might store your cell phone.
This actually works really well for cell phones, too.
It's this nice narrow pocket.
And you've got two USB ports here, a sliding bin,
and some cup holders here.
The cup holders, they're not that generous.
But, you know, they'll hold your Starbucks,
but probably not a Big Gulp.
There's this phrase that keeps ringing true with me
when it comes to describing these interiors.
It's simple elegance.
Everything is just laid out right where you want it to be.
It's not too showy.
It's understated.
It's just plain classy.
So as good as the Audi Q5 looks, I
think it actually drives even better.
There's something about this, where
I'm going to get back to my favorite word, balance.
It's got this really good balance
of comfort and performance where you're not sacrificing either.
They just found this nice Goldilocks zone
where it's really fun to drive, but it's not
going to beat you up over bumpy pavement.
And I'm not feeling a lot of jolts or bumps
that I would in other sporty inclined SUVs.
I think it's a suspension tuning.
And this suspension in particular, this
is what they call the steel suspension
where it's not adjustable.
And honestly, it doesn't need to be.
It's now making me question if you really
do need to spring for the top of the line trim to get that.
Now, it is an SUV.
So you're not going to be railing around the curves
and turns like you're in an S4 or something.
But it is surprisingly capable and actually is fun to drive.
But back to steering, it's precise.
It feels good.
I'm not thinking about am I at the right angle.
It just tracks really nicely through there.
As far as the brakes are concerned,
they're easy to modulate.
They're not too grabby.
They just feel appropriate for a car like this.
And I was driving it pretty hard.
And I never noticed any kind of weakening of the brakes, what
we call brake fade.
The pedal stayed appropriately firm throughout.
Right now, it's pretty quiet.
There's not a lot of road noise coming through.
There's no wind noise I can speak of.
So on a long road trip, all that fatigue builds up.
But when it's quiet, has a nice pleasant ride quality
like this does, you can take this thing
cross-country with no problem.
You also have these paddle shifters
mounted to the steering wheel.
But if you wanted manual control,
you can also just move the shifter over and do up
shifts or down shifts.
And the down shifts are really good.
There's no lurch forward, because it matches the revs
in between the shifts.
A down shift should be heard, not felt.
And here's an interesting test that I usually do,
is how tight can I do a U-turn?
Pretty tight if you ask me.
So in everyday use, that means that you probably
won't have to do too many multi-point turns.
You really wouldn't think that this was a four cylinder,
except for when you get on the throttle
and you kind of hear it wind up like that.
That sounds like a four cylinder.
If you wanted real power, yeah, go for the SQ5.
But this is going to be plenty for most drivers.
So let's go back to regular old comfort mode.
And all of a sudden, things get a little quieter.
The revs drop.
The throttle dulls down a little.
It's just a little more approachable, a little easier
to drive around.
Now, in this class of luxury SUVs,
you have the BMW X3, the Mercedes Benz GLC-Class,
the Jaguar F-PACE.
And all of them are really good.
I really, really like the F-PACE for a lot of reasons.
But I feel that this edges it a doubt in a number of ways.
In dynamic mode in the Jag, it's a little too jumpy
on the throttle.
It's a little too abrupt here and there.
And it feels a little bit bigger on the road, too.
This feels much smaller, almost like the BMW X3.
And I really do like the X3 as well.
Again, this just edges it out in other areas.
It's as engaging to drive.
But some of the interior pieces in this
are a little more modern, a little more up to date.
And it's noticeable.
But there's no loser in the bunch.
It's so close that it really could just come down
to personal preference.
But I prefer this.
I prefer the Audi.
Those are the reasons why I think
the 2018 Audi Q5 is at the top of the class in luxury SUVs.
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