Audi Q3 review

Prices for the Q3 start from just over £30,000: that gets you the weediest petrol engine with a six-speed manual gearbox and front-wheel drive in base-spec Technik trim. Trims then run through Sport and S line (mostly cosmetic, plus bigger wheels and a lowered chassis) up to the top-of-the-range Black Edition (more cosmetic stuff, adding trim coloured in, you guessed it, black), but unless you’ve enjoyed a recent windfall there’s no real need to go overboard here.

Why? All versions present lots of standard kit. You get the Virtual Cockpit driver's display, if in a slightly smaller size than the optional upgrade. But the 10-inch high-res centre touchscreen is standard, including three-year net connection to give hi-res traffic on the built-in navigation, and a wi-fi hotspot.

Driver assist includes blind-spot warning and lane keeping, and park sensors. The headlamps are LED. The rear seat slides and reclines, and the tailgate is powered, a feature that can be annoying (you can open and shut a door yourself, so why wait for a grindingly slow electric motor to do the tailgate?) but has its uses.

Then there’s the plug-in hybrid. This sits on a separate part of the Audi configurator, such is the company’s desire to set it apart from the combustion-only offering. Prices start from £38,320 and rise all the way up to almost £50k. This gets you a trim called Vorsprung – ha ha – which is now the preserve of the PHEV in the Q3 line-up, with bigger wheels again, the excellent matrix auto-masking LED headlamps, adaptive dampers, electric seats, nicer trim, more cameras for parking, and B&O sound. Some of that can be had on lower-spec cars as options or packs.

Does the hybrid justify the extra cost? Depends on your driving. On paper the 13kWh battery gives you 28-32 miles of electric range (a little optimistic in our experience, even on a mild day), which should allow for a short commute or school runs without dipping into the fuel tank. Do that often enough and the savings should stack up, even in these uncertain times of household electricity bills.

A more immediate win comes in the form of VED (road tax to the layman): CO2 emissions of 36-44g/km (depending on trim) mean there’s nothing to pay in the first year, but you’ll be staring down the barrel of £545 for even the greenest petrol-only Q3. Ouch.
Servicing is two years/20,000 miles, the warranty three years/60,000 miles.