Category: Small 4x4s 
Price Range: No data available
Great on-road drive; smart looks; powerful engines; excellent refinement; lots of luxuries.
Not much of an off-roader; very expensive.
Still want that Freelander? Think again, unless you really need all-terrain ability.
Many manufacturers claim that their SUVs have sports car-like handling, but few high-riding 4x4s actually manage to deliver on this score. Audi's compact Q5 can. It's not a hardcore off-roader, but on-road the only other SUV that can touch it is BMW's bigger and more expensive X6.
Audi offers a selection of high-performance engines: the new 208bhp turbocharged, direct-injection 2.0 TFSI petrol, 168bhp 2.0 TDI and 237bhp 3.0 V6 TDI and, coming later, 266bhp 3.2 FSI and 'entry-level' 178bhp 2.0 TFSI and 138bhp 2.0 TDI units. The 2.0 TFSI and 2.0 TDI initially come with the seven-speed S-tronic dual-clutch sequential-shift gearbox only.
Don't make the mistake of thinking that the Q5's simply a posher-badged version of the rather disappointing Volkswagen Tiguan. Besides the more powerful engine options, its underpinnings are substantially different; it is longer and wider, its engines are installed differently (lengthways in the engine bay, compared to the Tiguan's transverse layout), and it has the Quattro four-wheel-drive system instead of 4Motion, giving very different driving dynamics.
And perhaps more importantly, the Q5 has all the snob value and luxuries of the gargantuan Q7, scaled down into a much more manageable and less environmentally-offensive package. It's impressive.
UK order books open in September 2008, with deliveries towards the end of the year; prices start from £30,600 for the 2.0 TFSI S-tronic.
