Audi Q2 review
The Audi Q2 is a stylish crossover with big car features, but it’s dated and less well-finished than you might expect
Our opinion on the Audi Q2
The Audi Q2 sits in the same class as the BMW X2 and Mercedes GLA, but having launched back in 2017, the Audi is feeling its age compared to its relatively fresh rivals. In some areas, that’s a good thing, such as all the old-school physical buttons on the dashboard. The ride is pretty firm, however, and the technology on entry-level models is a bit low-rent for a premium SUV. There’s lots to like about the Audi, though, because it’s good to drive and decently roomy.
About the Audi Q2
We can’t help but be impressed at the speed with which Audi has filled and/or helped to invent the wide range of SUV niches we’re blessed with today. The company hadn’t built an SUV before the game-changing Q7 first arrived in 2005, and nowadays the company has got a desirable option in almost every segment of the sector you can think of.
The Q2 fits into the line-up beneath the Q3 and Q5 models, although Audi has confirmed that it will axe this small SUV at the end of its current life-cycle. As part of the brand’s move towards electrification, the current car will likely be replaced by the incoming Audi Q2 e-tron.
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The Q2 is pretty close to the Q3 in size, as both share a platform related to that of the previous-generation Audi A3 hatchback. Interestingly, while the success of the Audi SUV line-up has been built to some extent off the back of its reputation for quattro four-wheel drive, it’s a feature that’s only of passing interest to buyers of the Q2. Most of the line-up is front-wheel drive only, and only the most powerful Audi SQ2 variants receive a quattro drivetrain.
We've driven the Q2 numerous times over the years. Our earliest experience was during the Audi Q2 versus MINI Countryman versus Volvo V40 Cross Country triple test, followed by another group test where we pitted the Audi Q2 against the MINI Countryman and Volkswagen T-Roc. We've also put the hotter Audi SQ2 against the BMW X2 M35i and Cupra Ateca. Our web producer, Pete Baiden, has also run a facelift Audi Q2 35 TFSI S Line as part of our long term test fleet.
Audi Q2 prices and latest deals
The Q2’s starting price sits at around £30,000 and climbs all the way to £33,500 for the range-topping Black Edition model. Moving over to the sporty SQ2 pushes up the price significantly to just under £48,000, and moves a little over £51,000 mark for the Vorsprung model.
It’s a premium SUV with a premium price, but you can save some money if you build your Audi Q2 through the Auto Express buy a car service. There are also a number of new Audi Q2s in stock and ready to go, along with a selection of tempting used Audi Q2 deals.
Performance & driving experience
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Under the skin, the Audi Q2 is based on the same platform used on the old Audi A3 and Volkswagen Golf. Despite a lifted ride height, it’s no surprise to find the Q2 drives in a similar way to its hatchback cousins.
Audi uses the phrase ‘go-kart feel’ to describe the Q2, a phrase it borrowed from MINI. Turn into a corner, and you’ll find the Audi is poised and stable, but the steering lacks the weight and feedback of a BMW X1. It is quick, helping boost the feeling of agility, but the Q2 relies heavily on driver aids, and the torque-vectoring system is particularly intrusive. The Audi also has a firm ride. It never becomes crashy, but the car follows bumps that more comfortable rivals, such as the Mercedes GLA, manage to filter out.
Alongside the knobbly ride, there are one or two other factors that mark the Q2 down. For example, the brake pedal feels far too sensitive, which sometimes makes it difficult to bring the car to a smooth stop.
Performance, 0-60mph acceleration and top speed
The 1.0 TFSI petrol engine has been taken from other cars in the VW Group stable and serves up 109bhp, but this unit starts to feel strangled when pushed hard. However, the trade-off is that the turbo delivers decent torque in the middle of the rev range.
The larger 1.5 TFSI is sweet revving and quiet when cruising on the motorway, and it’s also got enough firepower to fulfil the car’s sporty brief. Better still, maximum torque is delivered at just 1,500rpm, so you don’t have to extend the rather gruff and thrashy engine to make decent progress.
This engine is available as standard with a six-speed manual gearbox, which we found to be generally slick, though engaging sixth gear often required some serious muscle. Although you’ll pay a marginal penalty in CO2 emissions and economy if you opt for the auto, we think the seven-speed S tronic gearbox is a nicer accompaniment because it reacts quickly and smoothly, and can be given a sportier bent if you select the optional Audi drive select system. You can take control of gear changes yourself with paddles behind the steering wheel, although they’re small, plasticky and never deliver rapid-fire changes.
The range-topping, all-wheel drive Audi SQ2 offers predictable, usable performance in all conditions; 0-62mph takes just 4.9 seconds, and it has buckets of in-gear shove. The car can shuffle power around its four wheels (up to 100 per cent to the rear wheels if needed), but it's not as playful as some of the best hot hatchbacks on sale. However, if outright pace is more of a concern than overall fun, the SQ2 is a great choice.
| Model | Power | 0-62mph | Top speed |
| Q2 30 TFSI Sport | 116bhp | 10.5 seconds | 122mph |
| Q2 35 TFSI S Line | 150bhp | 8.6 seconds | 135mph |
| SQ2 Quattro Vorsprung | 300bhp | 4.9 seconds | 155mph |
Town driving, visibility and parking
The Audi Q2 comes with a choice of alloy wheel sizes, ranging from 17 inches up to 19 inches. These, along with the option of sports suspension, have an effect on the Q2’s ride, especially around town.
On smaller wheels the Q2 soaks up bumps and imperfections at slow speeds pretty well. Fit the largest 19-inch rims (which came as standard on SQ2 and Black Edition cars) and you’ll notice the Q2’s ride becoming a bit more fussy.
A rather upright driving position (caused by the close pedals) helps with all-around visibility, which is very good in the Q2. It’s easy to place on the road and the light steering makes it a breeze on urban streets. Tight manoeuvres require a bit more thought than expected, though, because although the wheelbase is 35mm shorter than an Audi A3 or Volkswagen Golf, the Q2’s 11.1-metre turning circle is actually larger.
Country road driving and handling
Despite being positioned as Audi’s smallest SUV, the Q2’s raised ride height doesn’t mean it’ll flounder in bends. The steering doesn’t offer much communication - it’s more of a case of relying on the Q2’s grip, which in fairness it has plenty of.
The hot SQ2 offers the most fun on a back road. It delivers a similar driving experience to many other VW Group products that use the same all-wheel drive and turbocharged four-cylinder layout. There’s a bit more slack in the steering than we’d like, though, and it can be easy to overwork the front tyres.
Motorway driving and long-distance comfort
While the Audi Q2 can get agitated by low speed bumps on its larger wheels, the ride quality at higher speeds is fairly even across the line up. We certainly heard more tyre roar and wind noise in the SQ2 on the motorway compared with the Cupra Formentor (which shares the same platform). The 1.5-litre four-cylinder engine can be a little vocal under hard acceleration, but it quietens down nicely on a cruise, and if you go for the S tronic automatic, you’ll enjoy some smooth shifts.
“The SQ2’s straight-line performance is engaging and the automatic gearbox provides shifts at the correct moment – provided you’re in the sportiest driving mode. That’s just as well because the manual gear paddles feel tacky.” - Alastair Crooks, senior news reporter.
MPG & running costs
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While the engine selection has been whittled down during the Q2’s lengthy lifetime, the surviving petrol units still offer reasonable efficiency. The entry-level 1.0 TFSI turbo three-cylinder has claimed economy of up to 47.7mpg and emissions as low as 135g/km, while the 1.5-litre TFSI petrol features cylinder-on-demand technology, shutting down two of its four cylinders when cruising to save fuel. As a result, the 1.5 is actually slightly less thirsty than the smaller 1.0-litre, returning up to 48.8mpg and emitting 132g/km of CO2. However, opting for the automatic gearbox impacts these figures, bringing them down to 48.1mpg and 134g/km. None of these makes for particularly horrifying reading, though.
But if you’re eyeing up the SQ2, the typical rule of excitement coming at the cost of efficiency is in play here. At best, the turbocharged 2.0-litre engine will return 34.5mpg on paper. Emissions are much higher, too, at 186g/km.
Unlike many of its younger rivals, the Audi Q2 and SQ2 don’t offer a plug-in or fully electric option, unlike the BMW X1, BMW iX1 EV, Mercedes GLA, or Mercedes EQA.
| Model | MPG | CO2 | Insurance group |
| Q2 30 TFSI Sport | 47.1mpg | 136g/km | 17 |
| Q2 35 TFSI S Line | 47.1mpg | 137g/km | 20 |
| SQ2 Quattro Vorsprung | 34mpg | 188g/km | 34 |
Insurance groups
Insurance groups for the current Audi Q2 line-up start from group 17 for an entry-level Q2 30 TFSI Sport, rising to group 21 for the range-topping Q2 Vorsprung 35 TFSI Black Edition. The fiery SQ2, meanwhile, resides in groups 33 to 34. In comparison, the BMW X1 ranges between groups 25 and 35.
Tax
Having no hybrid, plug-in hybrid or fully electric options means there’s no Benefit-in-Kind company-car tax savings to be had with the Audi Q2. Even though the starting price is £30,000, it isn’t too difficult to find yourself north of the £40,000 luxury-car tax threshold if you start rummaging through the trim level and options lists, as we found out with our long term Q2, which had over £10,000 worth of options on it.
Depreciation
The Audi Q2 is expected to retain 42 to 47 per cent of its original list price over three years or 36,000 miles. The SQ2 fares slightly worse, at 43 per cent.
This means the Audi beats the Mercedes GLA, which retains only 35 to 38 per cent over the same time period. The BMW X1 performs better, retaining between 47 and 54 per cent.
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Interior, design & technology
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The Q2 is available with a number of customisation options. Not only is there a wide range of alloy wheel designs, you can also choose contrasting colours for the C-pillar inserts. It's a real stand-out feature of the Q2 that’s not unlike the side panels found on the Audi R8 supercar, coming in differing shades of grey, silver and black depending on your chosen trim level. It’s not just for design, because the floating blade has aerodynamic properties, too.
Alloy wheel sizes range from 17 inches on Sport trim, 18 inches on S line models, to 19-inch rims with Black Edition models. But beware: the bigger the wheel, the bigger the bumps you’ll feel, especially in the back.
Interior and dashboard design
Every Q2 now gets an 8.8-inch touchscreen infotainment screen with sat-nav, replacing the original non-touchscreen unit controlled via a rotary dial and shortcut buttons behind the gear lever.
Audi’s impressive 12.3-inch Virtual Cockpit is also standard. It features a TFT dash display that replaces conventional dials and gives you more options to personalise what you can see, including a map with route navigation.
Materials and build quality
The Q2’s interior quality is solid enough, especially against many rival small SUVs at this price. There are soft plastics where you see and touch most, although Audi will admit to saving money where you won’t notice it. The swathes of plastic on the door cards and some flimsy material in the centre console let it down a bit.
Infotainment, sat-nav and stereo
Audi’s MMI Navigation system is lifted straight from the manufacturer’s other models, giving the Q2’s cabin plenty of premium appeal, despite some questions over the quality of materials used. It's one of the better systems out there, although it can't quite match the Google-based infotainment system in the much cheaper Renault Captur, or BMW's iDrive set-up.
It replaces the older, non-touchscreen version we had a soft spot for. The older screen was controlled by an easy-to-use rotary wheel mounted in the transmission tunnel, and we found the set-up intuitive, and you would rarely input incorrect commands, even when writing on the touchpad within the rotary dial, because it was pretty clever at picking up the intended character - even if your finger writing isn’t the tidiest.
Alongside this, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity is standard, further improving the integration with your mobile phone. A smartphone charging pad is reserved for the £1,300 technology pack on Sport, S Line, and Black Edition versions (only the SQ2 gets this as standard). Annoyingly, the wireless charging pad is located underneath the armrest.
As part of the aforementioned technology pack, you get a 705-watt, 14 Speaker audio system to replace the already quite good 6-speaker standard audio system.
“Inside the Q2 you’ll find some lovely, tactile switchgear – which is better than a lot of newer Audi models. Some parts date it, such as the big gear lever and tiny infotainment screen, so we’d go for cars with the ‘virtual cockpit’ to freshen things up.” - Alastair Crooks, senior news reporter.
Boot space & practicality
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The Audi Q2's interior is relatively spacious considering its small footprint; Audi claims similar interior space to an A3 and we wouldn’t argue. Of course, the higher roofline and more upright seating positions help, but you actually sit slightly lower in the Q2 than you do in other small SUVs, helping to give the car its claimed ‘go kart feel’.
Dimensions and size
At 4,208mm long, the Q2 is shorter than an A3 hatchback. Among SUVs, it’s a smidge shorter than a Nissan Juke and the best part of a school ruler shorter than its big brother, the Audi Q3. So we can safely say it qualifies as a small SUV.
And the problem with small SUVs is they can look a bit dumpy, while a short wheelbase and high centre of gravity combination can play havoc with ride and handling. Thankfully, Audi seems to have come to terms with both.
| Dimensions comparison | |||
| Model | Audi Q2 | BMW X1 | Mercedes GLA |
| Length | 4,208mm | 4,505mm | 4,410mm |
| Width | 1,794mm | 1,845mm | 1,834mm |
| Height | 1,508mm | 1,642mm | 1,616mm |
| Wheelbase | 2,600mm | 2,690mm | 2,730mm |
| Boot space | 405 to 1,050 litres | 476 to 1,600 litres | 445 to 1,430 litres |
Seats & passenger space
Front seats have loads of adjustment, so the very smallest and tallest drivers will be able to get comfortable, especially with a steering wheel that adjusts up and down, as well as in and out. Headroom is good, too, even in the rear, where Audi’s designers have worked hard to keep the roofline low for a sportier look. There’s a distinct hollowing out of the roofline at the back, but a six-foot passenger can sit behind a six-foot driver in reasonable comfort. Your knees will just about be brushing the back of the front seats, but you won’t have to splay your legs out.
Passengers of a more average height will have no complaints in the back, either, unless they’re asked to sit in the middle of the back row. As usual, that’s a raw deal: narrow, hard and with less space for feet.
The larger side windows and light headlining help create an airier atmosphere, but the Audi suffers from small door openings, making access to the rear bench a little tricky.
Boot space
Visibility is good all round in spite of a fairly shallow rear screen at the back, and the electrically operated tailgate opens wide to reveal plenty of space. At 405 litres (rising to 1,050 litres with the rear seats folded), it’s bigger than an A3 Sportback's, but some way shy of the Hyundai Kona’s 466 litres. The boot floor can be raised slightly so the floor is flat when the seats are folded. Sadly, the more flexible 40/20/40 split for easy through-loading of longer items is no longer an option; all Q2s get a simpler 60/40 split folding rear bench.
Storage is reasonable inside, too, with decent-sized door bins and glove box, plus handy places for cups or phones in between the seats. If you plump for the £3,000 technology pack plus, you get a slot to rest the key in, because a keyless system, where you don’t have to physically turn the key to start the engine, is included in the pack.
Towing
With diesel no longer being part of the equation, no Audi Q2 can be described as the ultimate towing machine. However, both the TFSI 30 and 35 offer a reasonable amount of pulling power. The 1.0-litre models can lug up to 1,300kg braked, while the 1.5-litre ups this to 1,500kg. Those with a large caravan or trailer may wish to look towards the Volvo XC40, though, because the B4 variant can take on 2,000kg.
“There’s nothing particularly special about the Q2 when it comes to practicality. The boot and rear passenger space feels about right for a small SUV though overall it’s more spacious than the Audi A3 hatchback - which is a larger car.” - Alastair Crooks, senior news reporter.
Reliability & safety
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The Audi Q2 comes with an impressive roster of safety kit as standard, plus some super-advanced stuff that’s on the options list. When tested in 2016, Euro NCAP awarded the Q2 a five-star rating, but this has since expired due to NCAP’s testing criteria has become more stringent since this test took place.
Audi’s pre-sense safety kit is standard and includes Autonomous Emergency Braking, which will put the anchors on if it spots a pedestrian stepping out in front of the car. Lane departure warnings and lane-keeping assist, plus traffic sign recognition, are provided as standard, but if you want adaptive cruise control and blind spot monitoring, you'll have to spend big and go for the Vorsprung trim Audi SQ2, because neither is an option on the rest of the Q2 range.
Audi once held a reputation as one of the finest mainstream brands, but it would seem its popularity has waned a bit over recent years. In the latest Driver Power best manufacturer rankings, the company only managed 19th place finish out of 31 brands. This places it well below key rivals BMW (eighth place) and Mercedes (second place).
Buying and owning
Buying and owning
Best buy: Audi Q2 Sport TFSI 35 S tronic
We think the base Sport model fitted with the more powerful 1.5-litre engine and smooth automatic transmission is the best combination for the Audi Q2. While it’s not an outright speed machine, the additional shove does come in useful on motorway runs, while the S Tronic gearbox takes a lot of effort out of driving. You won’t get the full selection of standard goodies with the Sport trim, but you can fork out a bit more on the bits that you really want from the options list. Just be wary of that £40,000 luxury-car tax threshold, though.
Audi Q2 alternatives
Rivals for the Q2 come from the higher end of the premium small SUV class. Chief among these rivals are the BMW X1 and BMW X2 twins, the Mercedes GLA and Range Rover Evoque. All of these models have either been replaced or revamped during the Q2’s existence, though, so prices tend to be much higher than the ageing Audi. Elsewhere, the MINI Countryman is worth considering, while high-end versions of the Hyundai Kona and Jeep Avenger offer a lot of kit for similar money to basic versions of the Q2.
Frequently Asked Questions
The standard Audi warranty lasts for three years or 60,000 miles, although the mileage cap is removed in years one and two.
Deals on the Audi Q2 and alternatives
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