Audi Q5 review
A premium mid-size SUV that excels with its stunning interior, comfortable ride, and class-leading technology.
Author: Charlie Harvey
17th Dec 2025 – 9 mins read
The Audi Q5 is a hugely popular choice for families looking for a premium SUV, and it’s easy to see why. It perfectly blends a high-quality, spacious interior with a comfortable, refined driving experience and the latest technology. The second-generation model, which arrived in 2017, took everything that was great about the original and made it even better, with a sharper design and a truly stunning cabin. As a mid-size SUV, the Q5 is the ideal middle ground in Audi's range, offering more space than the smaller Q3 without being as large as the Q7. It’s a car that majors on comfort and quality, making every journey feel relaxed and luxurious. While some rivals might be a bit more fun to drive, the Q5 is an incredibly accomplished all-rounder that’s hard to beat if you’re looking for a sophisticated and practical family car.
Pros
- Superb interior quality and design
- Incredibly refined and comfortable ride
- Spacious and practical for families
Cons
- Rivals like the BMW X3 are more fun to drive
- The exterior styling is quite subtle and understated
- There's no seven-seat option available
Interior
Dashboard & tech
Stepping inside the Audi Q5 is a real treat. The cabin is a masterclass in design and quality, and it’s arguably the best in its class. The materials are all top-notch, from the soft-touch plastics to the beautiful metal and wood trims. Everything you touch feels solid, expensive, and beautifully put together.
The technology is equally impressive. Most recent models come with Audi's 'Virtual Cockpit' as standard – a stunning 12.3-inch digital screen that replaces traditional dials. It sits alongside a large, 10.1-inch central touchscreen for the infotainment system. This combination of high-tech screens and high-quality materials makes the Q5's cabin a fantastic place to be.
Comfort
The Q5 is all about providing a comfortable and relaxing driving experience. The ride is wonderfully smooth, especially on models with smaller wheels or the optional adaptive suspension, which does a brilliant job of soaking up bumps and potholes. It’s an incredibly quiet and refined car on the motorway, making it a superb choice for long family road trips.
The seats are comfortable and supportive, and it's easy for anyone to find their perfect driving position. The whole experience is designed to be as stress-free as possible, making the Q5 a calm and serene oasis in the world of busy family motoring.
Quality
This is where the Audi Q5 really stands out from the crowd. The sense of quality throughout the cabin is exceptional. Every switch, button, and dial moves with a satisfying, precision-engineered click. The fit and finish are flawless, and you get the feeling that this is a car that has been built to last.
From the quality of the leather seats to the way the doors close with a reassuring thud, every detail reinforces the car’s premium credentials. It’s this feeling of high quality that helps to justify the Q5’s premium price tag and makes it feel a cut above many of its rivals.
Practicality & boot space
Interior space
The Audi Q5 is a very practical car for a family of five. It's a strict five-seater, so if you need seven seats, you'll have to look at the larger Audi Q7 or rivals like the Land Rover Discovery Sport. However, for those five occupants, there's plenty of space.
The rear seats are particularly roomy, with lots of legroom and headroom for even tall adults to get comfortable. Some models also come with sliding rear seats, which is a brilliant feature. It allows you to choose between maximising rear legroom or increasing the size of the boot, adding an extra layer of flexibility.
Boot space
With the rear seats in their normal position, the Q5 offers a very generous boot that measures between 550 and 610 litres, depending on the position of the sliding rear bench. This is a huge, practical space that will easily swallow pushchairs, holiday luggage, or a couple of sets of golf clubs.
If you need to carry larger items, the rear seats fold down to open up an impressive 1,550 litres of space. It's worth noting that on plug-in hybrid models, the boot is slightly smaller because of the space taken up by the batteries, but it’s still a very usable size.
Driving
Driving experience
The Q5 is more focused on comfort and refinement than sporty handling. It's not a car that will thrill you on a twisty B-road in the same way a BMW X3 might. Instead, it’s designed to be an incredibly easy and reassuring car to drive every day. The steering is light and accurate, and the standard quattro all-wheel-drive system provides fantastic grip and security in all weather conditions.
Even though it’s not the sportiest SUV, it’s still very composed and easy to drive quickly, with powerful engines and sure-footed handling giving you lots of confidence. It’s a car that simply gets on with the job of getting you to your destination in a calm, relaxed, and supremely competent manner.
Performance
There’s a great range of powerful and smooth engines available, so there’s a Q5 to suit most needs. All models come with a slick S tronic automatic gearbox and quattro all-wheel drive.
The most popular choice is the excellent 2.0-litre diesel engine, badged 40 TDI. It produces 201bhp and offers a great blend of strong performance and good fuel economy. There's also a powerful 2.0-litre petrol (45 TFSI) with 262bhp for those who want a bit more pace. For company car drivers or those looking to reduce their emissions, there are also a couple of brilliant plug-in hybrid (TFSI e) models, which offer very strong performance and the ability to drive on pure electric power.
Running costs
Fuel economy & charging
If you’re looking for the lowest running costs, the plug-in hybrid models are the ones to go for. They have an official electric-only range of up to 26 miles, which is perfect for doing the school run or short commutes without using any petrol. To get the best economy, you'll need to be able to charge the battery regularly.
For those who do a lot of long journeys, the 40 TDI diesel engine is the best bet. It can officially return around 44mpg, which is very respectable for a large, all-wheel-drive SUV. The petrol engine is quite a bit thirstier, but offers great performance in return.
Value for money
The Q5 is a premium car with a premium price tag, but it does come with a very generous amount of standard equipment. It also suffers from quite heavy depreciation in its first year, which is bad news for new buyers but makes it a fantastic used car buy. You can find one-year-old models with huge savings on the list price, giving you a lot of luxurious, high-tech SUV for your money.
Reliability & Warranty
Modern Audis have a good reputation for reliability, and the Q5 is considered one of the most dependable cars in its class. It feels incredibly well-built and solid. From new, Audi provides a three-year, 60,000-mile warranty. This means many used examples will still have some of this manufacturer cover left, giving you extra peace of mind.
Safety
Safety features
The Audi Q5 is an incredibly safe car. It was awarded the maximum five-star rating when it was crash-tested by the safety experts at Euro NCAP, with very high scores for protecting both adult and child occupants.
All models are packed with standard safety equipment. This includes autonomous emergency braking, front and rear parking sensors, cruise control, and a reversing camera. Top-spec Vorsprung models are loaded with even more advanced driver assistance systems, such as adaptive cruise control and a 360-degree camera system.
Trims & Engines
Trim levels
The Q5 is available in a range of trim levels, all of which are very well-equipped.
Sport: The entry-level model is far from basic. It comes with 18-inch alloy wheels, LED headlights, heated front seats, three-zone climate control, the 10.1-inch touchscreen, and the 12.3-inch Virtual Cockpit.
S line: This hugely popular trim adds a sporty look with larger 19-inch wheels, a more aggressive body kit, and sports suspension. You also get part-leather and Alcantara sports seats.
Edition 1: Building on the S line, this trim adds a black styling pack, 20-inch alloy wheels, and luxurious Nappa leather upholstery.
Vorsprung: The ultimate Q5. This top-of-the-range model is packed with every conceivable feature, including 21-inch wheels, adaptive air suspension, a panoramic sunroof, massaging front seats, and a premium Bang & Olufsen sound system.
Engines
The core range consists of smooth and powerful 2.0-litre engines, all with automatic gearboxes and quattro all-wheel drive.
40 TDI Diesel: A 201bhp diesel engine that provides an excellent balance of strong performance and good fuel economy. The default choice for many.
45 TFSI Petrol: A punchy 262bhp petrol engine for those who prioritise performance over fuel economy.
50 TFSI e / 55 TFSI e Plug-in Hybrid: These models combine a 2.0-litre petrol engine with an electric motor. They offer great performance (295bhp or 362bhp) and the ability to cover short distances on electric power alone.