Yahoo Autos Tested: 2021 Audi Q5 45 Refines a Proven Formula
The Q5 compact luxury SUV is Audi's star in the United States market. Yes, the company also makes exciting 500-hp people movers, sultry R8 supercars, and impressive high-end electric vehicles. But the Q5's 50,435 sales last year make it the clear breadwinner of the bunch, selling at nearly double the rate of the brand's second most popular model, the Q3 subcompact crossover. Audi knows not to toy with a proven formula, which is why the Q5's mid-cycle evolution for the 2021 model year is an unsurprisingly conservative one.
We've already driven the updated Q5 55 plug-in hybrid (PHEV) model, and a sporty SQ5 variant continues to serve as the range's performance-oriented option. The standard version is the Q5 45, which in our test car's mid-level Premium Plus trim is essentially a modern equivalent of the 2018 Q5 2.0T we last tested. As with that vehicle, the Q5 45 comes standard with all-wheel drive and one of the better turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-fours on the market. Minor tweaks allow the engine to produce nine horsepower more than before—for outputs of 261 horses and 273 pound-feet of torque—and a 12-volt mild-hybrid system has been added, although it doesn't contribute any additional motive power. The four-bangers in the 45 and 55 models continue to mate to a quick- and smooth-shifting seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission. Only the SQ5 with its turbo V-6 gets a conventional eight-speed torque-converter automatic.
Weighing a scant five pounds more than the previous example, our 4185-pound Q5 45 ran to 60 mph in 5.5 seconds and covered the quarter-mile in 14.2 seconds at 97 mph—plenty fleet in regular use and 0.2 second quicker than the 2018 model in both measures. If you find yourself drag-racing a four-cylinder BMW X3 or Mercedes GLC-class out of the Starbucks lot, know that the Q5 has enough scoot to beat the Bimmer by a few tenths of a second and will run neck and neck with the Benz. Audi's turbo four makes strong low-end torque, delivering its full amount of twist at just 1600 rpm, yet it happily revs to its 6750-rpm redline with a subdued, 72-decibel thrum at full throttle. Settled into a 70-mph cruise, we recorded a fairly hushed 67 decibels of noise.
We did notice some lag as the 2.0-liter's turbo spools up, a situation that isn't helped by the occasional low-speed hesitancy of the dual-clutch transmission, particularly in stop-and-go situations. Notice that without the aid of the dual-clutch's launch-control function (which we employed for maximum-thrust starts), the Q5's rolling 5-to-60-mph sprint stretches to 6.3 seconds. That's still quicker than the aforementioned BMW and Mercedes but nearly a second longer than from a dead dig. We doubt most owners will notice those balks. This gearbox is smartly tuned to mimic a regular automatic, and activating the transmission's Sport mode via the shift lever sharpens its responses, virtually eliminating the issue.
