2025 Audi Q5 First Drive: Better to Drive, Harder to Love

• The Audi Q5 is all-new, and we just got behind the wheel for the first time.
• The Q5 is Audi's best-seller — it has to get this one right. 
• The Q5 is better to drive and more comfortable than ever, but there are a few issues we can't ignore.

What's new with the 2025 Audi Q5?

The Q5 isn't as "all-new" as it might look. The bones of the previous Q5 are still here, but Audi tinkered with the suspension, electronic systems and other minutiae. Just know that it's a little bit bigger than the last Q5, features Audi's latest interior trappings, and gets a new look for 2025. 

Step inside the Q5 and you are absolutely blasted with screen after screen — it's like a Best Buy in here. The digital instrument cluster measures 11.9 inches and features new graphics, but it isn't anywhere near as customizable as before. The main view features a tachometer and side panels for trip meters, media selection and directions, while the only other one is dedicated to driver assistance systems. The view that put a map front and center isn't here anymore, a surprising step backward for Audi, and something I absolutely missed on my drive day.

The Prestige model I drove also came with a head-up display, a 10.9-inch screen for the front passenger, and an absolutely enormous 14.5-inch touchscreen for the infotainment system. All of them are bright, easy to read, quick to react, and feature great color contrast with deep blacks. You can even see the HUD with polarized sunglasses (just not as well as without them). It's great that the screens are nice to look at, but Audi has still sinned.

All of the climate controls have been moved to the center display. There's a dedicated section at the bottom of the screen for them and a nice shelf for your hand to rest on as you change temperature and fan speed, but, as always, these should be physical. Moving controls to a screen isn't a reduction in clutter; it's a reduction in a usable and simple control structure that neglects drivers' needs and increases the likelihood they get distracted. I appreciate that Audi's done a better job than most with its implementation of touchscreen climate controls, but I'd still prefer some good old knobs and buttons. 

What's the Q5 like to drive?

Under the reformed hood is a 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine. It makes 268 horsepower and 295 lb-ft of torque. It's routed to all four wheels via a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission. There are no other engine or transmission options for the Q5; if you want something a little more potent, you're going to have to look toward the SQ5 and its turbo V6. 

After you push through the dead spot at the top of the pedal, the little four-cylinder delivers power smoothly up to redline. That dual-clutch transmission is both snappy and smart, almost always in the right gear. My only complaint about this powerplant is the way it sounds. This old iron block four-banger is gruff at best and a messy cacophony when you're at full throttle. It's effective, but all that rattle and clatter doesn't say "luxury car" to me. 

There are a number of modes for the Q5's various elements. Comfort, Balanced and Dynamic each scale things up in terms of how firm and aggressive the car gets, but the variation is minimal. Dynamic brings slightly crisper shifts and more immediate throttle response, but given this is absolutely not the type of car you're going to hoon day in and day out, I left it in Comfort for most of the drive.

The top-spec Prestige has acoustic laminated glass on the windshield and both front doors. The effect is a cabin that you can whisper in while at highway speeds. No wind noise makes its way through, and the Q5 is bolted together well enough that there are no errant squeaks or rattles over Colorado's lumpy and bumpy roads.

Prestige models also get an air suspension as standard. Those airbags do a very good job of rounding off bumps in Comfort and Normal modes while allowing for just enough roll in the corners to give you a sense of the car's size and mass. Dynamic mode firms things up, but there's still a bit of that roll and about 80% of the standard mode's ride comfort. 

This Q5 is likely the best-handling one to date. The changes Audi made to the front suspension have resulted in far more grip than before, and I'm happy to report that this Audi's primary trait is no longer yards and yards of understeer — where the front end seemingly doesn't want to grip the road. The steering actually delivers road texture to your fingertips, and the Q5 goes exactly where you point it in a way that's intuitive and confidence-inspiring. 

The 2025 Q5's insides need some work

The view out of the Q5 (from all sides) is crystal clear. The front glass is huge, the pillars are nice and thin, and there is so much glass down the side of the car that blind spots are minimal. There's also plenty of headroom, legroom and shoulder room in both the front and second rows — the Q5 manages to have one of the most spacious and open-feeling cabins in its class. Its 27.6 cubic feet of space behind the second row means it's near the top of the pile when it comes time to fill it up with your kid's football gear.

The material choices here are mostly good inside. The softer panels feel nice to touch and are used strategically to reduce glare, and the wood veneers exist only in places where they belong. There is, however, too much plastic in this interior — even if most of it exists below your belt line, the sheer volume of hard-to-the-touch materials doesn't befit the Prestige model's $62,000-plus price tag (or even the base Q5's somewhat hefty $53,495 base price).

Not only that, but the gear shifter in the center console is dinky, too small, and silly to operate. By contrast, the steering wheel feels too big for a car of this type — it's much better suited to a larger model like the Q7 or A8 — plus, its capacitive controls are a step backward from the tactile, clicky buttons that used to occupy Audi steering wheels. Given that the icons on the wheel don't change to add any extra configurability, the use of backlit touch-sensitive buttons is a change I'd happily go without. 

Another addition that I don't find particularly useful is the screen for the front passenger. It controls some of the car's functions like media and maps, and right-seat riders can use it for watching videos on YouTube or other platforms. (Streaming video does block the driver from seeing what's on screen, but it won't stop their curiosity.) Passengers are most often going to bury their heads in their phones, so it's hard to see the point of this addition. Plus, I don't want whoever's riding with me to be able to mess with my music selection so easily. It's just another piece of tech for tech's sake, and it makes the Q5 even more distracting to pilot. 

Verdict

The new Q5's virtues are the impressive quietude, sublime ride quality and spacious interior. It'll be perfect for those who embrace new tech and don't mind using voice commands to flip on the air conditioning in their car. However, for the rest, it might prove a little overwhelming and at times downright annoying due to its reliance on touch controls and screen-bound, well, everything. 

Had Audi gone for a more modest mix of tech and usability, the Q5 would have shot right to the top of its class. For now, it's a crossover that's more capable than ever before, with a clinical side not everyone's going to love.