2025 Audi Q5 & SQ5 Review: Another Audi Smash Hit?

Let's talk about the Audi Q5. It came out in 2008, and Audi had a winner on its hands. It went on to sell 1.6 million units. They followed that up in 2016 with Gen 2, and that went on to sell 1.1 million units. Hotcakes. And in 2025, it's time for a new Q5. And here it is. So does Audi have another smash hit on their hands? Or is this more like that difficult third album that doesn't quite hit right? This all-new Q5 is based on the same platform as the Porsche Macan and Audi A6. It brings with it new looks, new tech, better aerodynamics, new engines, and more of just about everything you'd expect from a Q5, including quite a large price tag. So get this, the entry-level Audi Q5 will set you back just shy of £45,000, but this sporty model, the SQ5, guess how much this costs? £75,000. Ouch. So what do you actually get for your money? Well, one thing you get is a stonking engine, a 3-litre V6. And I think it will be a bit of a shame if we didn't see what it can do, you know, in the name of science. Okay, dynamic mode, send. Yeah, it's quick. Very quick. 367 is done and dusted in 4.5 seconds. And from memory, I think that's about a second quicker than the previous generation SQ5. Some of that power comes from the addition of a mild hybrid system, a tiny 1.7 kilowatt-hour battery that drives the belt, which can contribute a pretty decent 24 horsepower and 230 newton-metres to the engine. And in the SQ5 in particular, it does shift. But like I said before, you have to pay a £25,000 premium to get this version over the standard car. Would I pay that? Yeah. Should I? That's a different story. The SQ5 is obviously the most aspirational version of the new Q5, but it's probably not the version that most people will go for. On paper, if you're being frugal, I think it makes more sense to go for the entry-level model, the one without the S on the front. Oi, oi, who wants to win a brand new car? You? Good. Come here. Let me tell you something. Autotrader are giving away a brand new Hyundai IONIQ 5N, and we're doing it by hiding 1,000 of these toy cars all across Great Britain, across 10 major cities. If you find one, scan the QR code on the bottom, tag Autotrader UK on Instagram with the picture, and we'll put you in. You'll have a 1 in 1,000 chance of winning a brand new 5N. Yeah, happy hunting. Back to you, Rory. And here it is, the Q5 SUV, the proper one. None of this sportback malarkey, although interestingly, in the UK, the preferred body style is actually the sportback, although in America, it's the other way around. It's the SUV. Anyway, I quite like the look of this car. Audi describe it as being very confident. No, I look at this and think this is massively aggressive. You see this coming up behind you in your rearview mirror, you're going to move out the way. I love the way it looks. Lots of detail going on. The grille, absolutely enormous. Look how wide it is and how high up it sits. Plus, you can have it in a variety of finishes. This one's in a kind of dark grey, but you can also have it fully blacked out for a more stealthy look, or you can have it with a lot of chrome around the outside and also on these inserts just here, but I think don't go for the chrome, because if you do that, you end up with this massive chrome air curtain as well, and it just looks a bit overpowering. Too much bling, if you ask me. And it also detracts from this car's coolest feature at the front, and that is the new headlights. Look how slim and delicate they are. Really nice design. Plus, these are the matrix LED type, and that means you can have them on full brightness without dazzling other road users. And one other trick up its sleeve, you can actually customise the DRL pattern. It's a bit useless, because once you do it, you'll never do it again, if you do it at all, but nice touch. The new Q5 is slightly longer than before, by just under five centimetres, with some slight changes to the creasing along the side, inserts along the bottom, plus body-coloured wheel arches and many new wheel designs, ranging from 18 to 21 inches in size. It's difficult to tell apart from its predecessor, but it's still a handsome car. So, at the back, there's a whole lot going on with this car. First and foremost, the exhausts, which are actually real exhaust pipes, and thank you, Audi, so much for doing that. A lot of manufacturers just give us these fake tips, but those are actually the real deal, so well done. Appreciate that. Apart from that, we've got a nice light bar at the back, which gives it really good presence. That's a nice design. And also, these are OLED panels just here, and those are very clever, because if you look closely, they actually shimmer, and the pattern changes delicately every second or so, to give it the look of kind of like a disco ball or molten lava or something. That's a very nice touch, but it does have a more useful purpose. They actually light up to dissuade people from coming too close to your car, either on foot or in another vehicle. Let me demonstrate. I'll back up just a touch right here, right? I'll pretend I'm someone on the M1, right up your backside, and as I approach the car, you'll see the lights will actually light up, and it's kind of like brake-checking someone without using your brakes. They see that and go, oh, maybe I should back off. That's a really cool touch. The other interesting thing these lights can do is actually show symbols, so when you've got your hazards on, for example, it can show a warning triangle to let people know that something might be not quite right, and they should give you a wide berth. That's a really cool touch, and I'm not done with the lights yet, because up here is your high-level brake light, and another set of lights just underneath the spoiler, just here, believe it or not. When you hit the brakes, these illuminate and actually bounce. They project off the glass to give you this really nice kind of upside-down rainbow vibe for other people to see, so brilliant light show at the back of this car. Let's talk about the more important aspect of storage, though. I'll open it up. The button for the boot is actually really easy to press. Kids will love that, easy to access, so you've got a decent amount of space. I don't think it's any bigger than the previous generation, but lots of room in here. We've got some netting for keeping your stuff from flying around. We've got hooks for putting your shopping bags on. We've got buttons for lowering or raising the car if you go for the air suspension version. We've got storage underneath, and that storage actually doubles up as a special cubby for holding the rear parcel shelf. I should now attempt to demonstrate without making an idiot of myself. So what you do is you get rid of this netting, first of all. You don't need that. You lift that up, you remove that, you put that there, fold that down, put that in there, shut it, and Bob's your uncle. That's not the only thing that's clever. You can fold these seats down with ease by pulling these little tabs, and then you've got yourself a lot of space to play with. Good boot. The back of the Audi Q5 is generally quite spacious. I would say there's okay knee room, decent headroom. A couple of issues for me, though. No sunroof, at least as standard. For 50 grand, I want a sunroof. Also, quite a lot of scratchy plastic in the doors and also on the seat backs, but again, some good stuff. For example, this seat can move forward and backward to maximise your boot space or your leg room, and they also recline a little bit anyway, so that's about as far back as they can go, but every little helps. Also, you have some cup holders in here, again, with more scratchy plastic, and if you pull that down, you can actually access the boot with ease without getting out the car. That's quite handy. A couple of other things that I'm in two minds about. For example, down here, this mesh. Now, what parents tend to do, and I've got my prop here, is they put their valuables, their kids' valuables, like phones and laptops and tablets, in this little meshy area, but because it's mesh, you can see that, so that's not really a good hiding place for your gadgets. What you want is a proper leather pocket that doesn't reveal what's inside there, although I have just revealed the secret to criminals now, so I suppose what you really want now is this see-through mesh to show criminals you haven't got a laptop stashed away. Anyway, on the subject of laptops, check out the USB ports, right? Two up here, mounted in a high accessible position, and these are actually 100-watt USB ports, which means you can charge a laptop in no time whatsoever. You haven't got to stop off at a coffee shop to keep your gadgets all topped up. That is a really nice touch. You've also got some temperature adjustment down here. You've got heated rear seats for the left and right-hand side, and you've also got ISOFIX ports, which are really easily accessible as well. Yeah, a bit of a mixed bag, but on the whole, yeah, a decent rear space. The front is nice, clean and modern, with a choice of materials. In this case, white seats with black accenting, but it's not all perfect. For example, there is yet more substandard plastic, shall we say, here on the glovebox, just below the dashboard, and also in large degree on the doors as well. It doesn't look that great to me. Also, when you start to poke around a bit, can you hear that? I mean, you wouldn't do that every day, but the dash is flexing slightly, and this car is brand new, and it makes me wonder if after 20, 30, 40, 50,000 miles, whether that degree of movement is going to end up with a car that's slightly rattly after a while. Only time will tell. I'm just kind of showing you what's happening, and you can use your imagination. Apart from that, though, it's a nice interior. The other slightly annoying thing is how slightly claustrophobic it feels. This centre console is massive, and it's especially wide towards the top end, and that means that your leg is constantly touching this centre console, and it's quite hard, actually. It makes me want to use a sort of cushion just to soften the contact point between my knee and the centre console, and it just makes me wonder why you need a centre console that big. It feels a bit unnecessary, especially in today's day and age where a lot of cars don't even have one of these. Yeah, it's a bit too tight and cramped for my liking, especially because the dashboard feels quite overwhelming. There's a lot going on up here, but a lot of good stuff as well. I'll get to that in just a second. The steering wheel, first of all, looks fantastic. I love that. It does have capacitive buttons, and they're not the best, but at least they don't go off accidentally. You do need to at least press them for them to cause some sort of action. Now, back to these screens. They call this the digital stage, and you've got a driver display, you've got an infotainment centre here, and you've got a third screen for your passenger, which they can use to access the maps to help you on your journey or to control the infotainment system, like the radio playback, etc., or to actually watch apps like YouTube on the move without distracting the driver. It's generally quite an impressive system, very quick, very nippy, allows you to kind of scan around without too much lag. It's one of the better, quicker, more responsive systems that I've seen. So ultimately, then, a mixed bag, lots of positive, some not so positive, but on the whole, Q5, pretty decent. So, that's the standard Q5, which obviously features several notable changes over its predecessor. We should talk about how the car drives now, and for that, I'm going to turn my attention back to the one that should drive the best from behind the wheel, the more powerful and sporty SQ5. First things first, it does feel slightly nicer being in the more expensive SQ5. It's got nicer trim. You've got some Alcantara down here on the door cards, this really nice technical trim, and the seats are better as well. These are diamond quilted Nappa leather, same great tech, although I have just noticed that, for some reason, the driver screen has decided to turn itself off. I was in two minds about telling you guys about that because, quite often, we drive pre-production cars that aren't quite ready for the road, but I am seeing this kind of thing happening more and more frequently. It happened with the Ferrari Dodeci Cilindri I tested last week, so it's becoming a bit of a trend, I think. Is it time to go back to physical dials? Let me know in the comments. The powertrain does stand out in this version. Where the standard Q5 uses either a 2-litre petrol or 2-litre diesel, both with 204 horsepower, this is notably more spicy and more fun. That ability to surge forward at a decent pace gives this car a pretty big advantage over its predecessor. Yeah, it's a lot of fun. It's very quick in a straight line, it really is. The noise as well, yeah, it's pretty good actually. It's not massively loud, but if you put it in dynamic mode and lift off the throttle, you get a few pops and bangs, some crackles. There's just enough sound there to keep you entertained and engaged. It's half-decent background music. To be clear, the sound you're hearing now is from a microphone placed next to the exhaust. In normal driving, from the driver's seat, it isn't anywhere near as vocal. One of the key changes with the new generation Q5 is the mild hybrid system. As I said earlier, it uses a tiny battery and a small motor that adds 24 horsepower and 230 newtonmetres to the mix. You can actually feel that extra support in a few different situations, particularly at low speed when you're pulling out of junctions or away from the traffic lights. It's just a little bit smoother because it doesn't have to wait for the engine to spool up. It also fills in some of the torque that disappears between your gear changes, which is actually quite handy. Speaking of gear changes, we've got a seven-speed gearbox, really smooth when you want it to be, but also in the manual mode, you get a nice little thump whenever you shift up, which just makes it feel a little bit more entertaining, shall we say. The brakes are a little unusual because it has a battery, pushing lightly on the pedal causes regeneration and not physical activation of the pads. It's only when you push a bit harder that the real friction brakes kick in. In some cars, this switchover point can feel really jarring, but here it's surprisingly seamless. As for the steering, let's actually play with a few of the different settings here. So in comfort mode, yeah, extremely light. You're going to find that very useful during low-speed manoeuvring situations. I'll bang it back into dynamic, still very light, but actually lots of feel coming through the wheel. You can feel as you run out of grip on the front axle. That surprises me. That's good. I can also really feel the torque vectoring by braking, which basically involves the inside wheel slowing down a fraction just to get the car rotated. It's good. If you were worried that the SQ5 was going to be a bit of an under-steering mess, don't worry at all. It's actually quite nice in the bends. Not as nice as the S5. That's a lot lower, a lot lighter, but it's still a decent amount of fun. Where the steering is less impressive is when going at normal speeds on twisty B roads. It can steer itself. The lane keeping assist is slightly too enthusiastic for my liking. Straight anywhere near the centre line on a B road and the car will suddenly panic, trying desperately to keep you in the centre of the lane, even when that isn't actually necessary. It can feel like it has a mind of its own. The flip side is that on the motorway, it will happily drive itself, foremost staying in lane and keeping at a set speed to take the heavy lifting out of driving long distances. That's where the Q5 excels. It's quiet, thanks to acoustic glass in the front and in the first row. It's comfortable, thanks to fabulous seats, and it rides well. A few suspension options are available, steel or sport, both with passive dampers or air suspension, which was fitted to our test cars. I can only tell you about the latter, which worked well, and on a standard Q5, it ironed out the bumps nicely, and in harmony with the quattro all-wheel drive system, it meant the Q5 won't shy away from even some light off-roading. On the road, it's a treat. We do need to talk about the value proposition with the Q5 and SQ5. Let's start with the standard car, the Q5, first of all. I don't think it's bad, actually. I always get told off by people for saying that £50,000 cars are affordable or good value, but in the world we live in, it's actually pretty decent, especially when you consider the fact that there are Honda CRVs out there going for £40,000, £50,000. The SQ5 is a lot more difficult to justify because, I mean, £75,000. It's a lot of cash. The extra cash does buy you a slightly nicer interior with better materials, those OLED lights as standard, a Bang & Olufsen speaker system, which is okay, if not amazing, ventilated and massaging front seats, a head-up display, and some other extras, but whether all of this adds up is for you to decide. We asked ourselves at the start of this video whether the new Q5 is going to be a smash hit. Has Audi knocked it out of the park? Does it live up to the two previous generations? I think the answer is mostly yes. The technology is way superior when it works, which it usually does. To be fair, the performance, much improved, especially in a straight line, and it's also a surprising amount of fun, but there are a couple of gripes that I don't think we can totally ignore. On balance, I would say get the Q5, the standard car, lots of tech, good to drive, you can't really go wrong. As for the SQ5, I think this car would be fantastic if only it was a tiny, tiny bit cheaper. £60,000, £65,000, for me, that would be the sweet spot. As ever, though, don't just take my word for it. Let me know what you guys think in the comments down below. Thank you for watching. Please do like, subscribe, and hit the bell icon for more action, and I'll see you guys very soon.