TESTED 11.9.25, GLASGOW DELIVERIES DECEMBER
AUDI Q3
New look, new interior, familiar mechanicals for third generation of popular premium SUV
Q3 prices start at £38k; Sportback (pictured) is £1500 more than the SUV
If Audi were a cricket team, its new Q3 would be first slip – a very safe pair of hands. This is a small, plush SUV with plenty of scope for optional extras with good margins. There’s no potential for fumbling from an electric version. Even the nine colour options are safe: one is black, one is white and there are three shades of grey.
The Q3 has come to exemplify nouveau traditional Audi buyers – people after a German badge on the outside and superabundance of perceived quality inside. Admittedly this third-generation car spices things up a bit with illuminated badging, matrix lighting and no indicator stalks. Prices start at £38k and rise to £52k – just where the Q5 shows up.
The overall design of the Q3 has been brought up to date with a more rounded design ethos, cementing it as a junior Q5. Both regular SUV and Sportback bodystyles return. The Q3 Sportback has a sloped roof and is meant to look more like a coupé. The split of sales is predicted to be 60% SUV and 40% Sportback. S Line models get larger, more aggressive front and rear bumpers. Wheels range from 18in to 20in. Audi’s trick matrix lighting sounds gimmicky but offers some useful features, such as showing a chevron in the lights ahead of you should you venture out of your lane on the motorway. It also lights up the lane that you’re about to move into, assuming you’ve bothered to indicate.