Audi Q3 S Edition

SUVs are the flavour of the week. Everyone wants one: in developed countries, they work well in snow or low-grip conditions. In countries like India, they don’t bottom out or scrape their bellies on speed bumps or in giant potholes. The urban SUV is a result of this demand, and the first of the premium manufacturers to get into the segment in India has been Audi. Happily, the Q3 is also the most inexpensive Audi you can get so far, and Audi has raised the bar – and lowered the price – with the Q3 S Edition , which claims sportiness as well with its manual gearbox and ‘S’ badging.

Premium cars in India suffer from an overdose of seriousness, and that is driven by the target buying group. When was the last time you saw a brightly-coloured premium car? Imagine the surprise when I first laid eyes on our test car, a scarlet Q3 S Edition with gloss black wheels.

The Q3 S is the very same car as the regular Q3, only it looks better. The bulb and reflector headlamps are cheaper units than the bi-xenon projectors in the standard car, but their design makes the car seem more aggressive. It’s the same story with the tail-lamps. They may not look as overtly modern as the light guide-equipped standard car, but I do believe it is a better-looking car for it.

Then there are the wheels: the optional 17-inch gloss black alloy wheels with five split spokes on the test car go a long way in keeping the red/black two-tone theme of the Q3S intact, and they also make the SUV seem less like an SUV and more like a sporty hatchback, which is a very good thing.

There’s a lot of equipment you don’t get: climate control, keyless start, reversing camera, tyre pressure monitoring system, headlamp washers, and a panoramic sunroof are all absent. In fact, there is no sunroof at all, and the front passenger seat has only manual adjustment. You get six airbags instead of eight. The multi-function display isn’t as up-to-date as the regular car’s.

Despite this lack of features, the only thing I missed was the reversing camera because of the tiny rear window and the plane mirror on the right that Audi still persists with.

The air-conditioner is effective, the keyless start isn’t really missed, the sunroof will find use on all of two days a year, and passengers will get a little annoyed at the lack of motors, but they won’t miss them so much that it will be a deal-breaker.

The Q3 S makes do with a two-litre four-cylinder diesel engine that puts out 140bhp and 320Nm. These don’t compare favourably with the Q3’s 170bhp, but remember that the latter has an automatic gearbox and all-wheel drive, so the transmission losses are less, and with so many features and electric motors missing, the Q3 S weighs a scant (for an SUV) 1445kg.

Not only does this mean it won’t be far behind the Quattro Q3 in a drag race, it will also be more fuel efficient. Audi claims it will return as much as 19.3km to the litre of diesel. You’d never know that when you stomped on the throttle, however; once you’re past the initial 700rpm or so, the turbo lag makes way for a shove in the back that you won’t get tired of soon. Keeping the engine above 1800rpm, where it is at its best, isn’t too hard because of the positive, short-throw gearshift lever.

The only place it will fall behind an AWD Q3 is while punching out of corners – the Quattro system will certainly ensure better drive there. The Q3 S Edition is also a handful in stop-go traffic. Turbo lag aside, the clutch pedal is heavy and engages quite suddenly, so keeping it moving slowly from rest without stalling even once is a challenge that few are up to – there isn’t a single driver in our team who didn’t stall the Q3S at some point, when taking off from a stop.

Out on the open road, however, the engine is a joy. It revs quickly to the 5000rpm redline without complaint, and if you choose to drive sedately, it will murmur along at 100kph in sixth at less than 1800rpm, boosting fuel efficiency significantly.

Audi claims the Q3 S can do 202kph. As such, it will need to have a stiff suspension setup. However, every car that comes to India needs to have a softer setup than usual because of the rough roads here, so the Q3 S becomes a bit of a muddle. It is a little too stiff to be comfortable at speed on Mumbai’s bumpy roads, and the steering is too light to offer enough feel at triple-digit speeds out on the highway. That said, I also have to admit that a high-speed urban SUV can’t be set up much better than this. Just make sure you don’t treat it as an off-roader, else all the occupants will get thrown around the cabin over big bumps!

On the limit, the Q3 S is very progressive, and the limits are quite high for a tall car, but we suspect that the larger wheels and Pirelli Scorpion tyres that are 235 mm wide instead of the usual 16-inch rim and 215mm wide tyres, had a part to play in the better handling and worse ride.

The Audi Q3 S Edition is a puzzle. I’d have it in a flash just because of the way it looks, but the equipment list is a little disappointing when you view the price, which is Rs 26 lakh. Then again, it is Rs 26 lakh for a premium German SUV that has no peer in the market except for the BMW X1, so this one is for those who like the open road, SUVs and the brand value that the four interlocking rings provide.