Audi Q5 review

In the UK, prices for the Q5 SUV start at £52,360 for the entry-level Sport trim and a petrol engine. The same trim with a diesel is £54,010. Standard kit includes 19-inch wheels, LED lights and a ‘comfort’ suspension setup that we’re yet to try.

You’ll also get heated front seats trimmed in leather, three-zone climate control, adaptive cruise control and a 360-degree parking display with Park Assist Plus tech. If you want the Sportback in the same spec, that’ll be £54,860 for the petrol and £56,510 for the diesel.

The next step up the ladder is S Line, which adds a sharper suspension setup, 20-inch wheels and a sporty bodykit with black trim. You get S Line badges on the front wings too in order to try and fool just one person into thinking you’ve bought the V6 SQ5. All of that will cost an additional £2,600 no matter which body style or engine you’ve decided on.

Then you've got Black Edition, which adds 21s, a heated steering wheel, and black everything into the mix from £58,160. Top of the tree is Vorsprung trim – yours for a cool £63,560 and up, depending on engine – equipeed with fancy Matrix LED headlights, that 10.9-inch passenger display and the Bang & Olufsen stereo.

Options include the aforementioned adaptive air suspension (£1,725), a panoramic glass roof (£1,600) and a folding towbar (£1,555). Oh, and that Sound & Vision Pack (£2,195) which adds the head-up display, Bang & Olufsen sound system and higher capacity USB ports to rapid charge your devices.

Standard colour is white, with anything else costing from £750 (for black, blue, green, grey and red) up to £1,495, which gets you Sakhir Gold. Ouch.

Where does the plug-in hybrid slot into the picture?

The SUV costs from £59,145 and the Sportback version from £61,645. We tested the Q5 SUV e-hybrid quattro 299PS S Line S tronic. Lolz. No, that’s not part of the model name, although why not add a few more letters? As tested, with panoramic roof, pearl effect paint and a Sound and Vision package it came in at £63,885. A whole heap of money but, on paper at least, a great deal of capability, too.

And which would you recommend?

For us, it makes more sense to stick to the lower end models, probably the most basic Sport. It’s still extremely well-equipped but fitted with the smallest 19-inch wheels the electric range is longer than higher-spec models, plus it should help sort out that slightly jagged ride quality. The S Line gets 20s, the Black edition and Vorsprung 21s. The latter knocks nearly 10 per cent from the electric range on the e-hybrid.

If you’re mostly going to be tootling around town get the petrol; if you’re likely to be regularly schlepping up the motorway get the diesel.