Audi Q2 review

You can get the Audi Q2 with three petrol and two diesel engines that drive either the front or all four wheels through a manual or automatic gearbox.

Pick a 1.5-litre 35 petrol model if you spend most of your time pottering around town. This 150hp engine’s significantly more powerful than the rather weedy 116hp 1.0-litre 30, so it doesn’t need to work quite so hard to keep up with traffic. It’s relatively quiet, very smooth and will return around 45mpg if you go easy on the accelerator.

The 1.6-litre 30 TDI diesel will be a better bet if motorway miles are more your thing. Audi claims it’ll return 61.4mpg but expect to see a figure in the low fifties. It grumbles more than the petrol when you accelerate hard but it settles into a quiet, relaxed cruise at motorway speeds.

You can also get the Audi Q2 with a pair of 2.0-litre petrol (40 TFSI) and diesel (35 TDI) engines with 190hp and 150hp respectively. Both come fitted with Audi’s quattro four-wheel-drive system as standard for a little extra grip in slippery conditions but they’ll use a little more fuel in day-to-day driving as a result.

Besides the high-spec 2.0-litre models, all Audi Q2s come with a six-speed manual gearbox as standard. The optional seven-speed twin-clutch automatic will set you back a hefty £1,550, but it’ll make light work of long journeys and heavy traffic. It’s slightly jerky at slow speeds, however, which can make parallel parking a little tricky until you get used to it.

The Audi Q2’s raised ride height and boxy body make it easier to see out of than the A3 on which it’s based. The front door pillars don’t produce any particularly large blind spots and the side windows offer good visibility, too.

You’ll find the small rear windscreen and thick rear window frames produce larger blind spots than those in a Mini Countryman, however, so parking in tight spaces is more difficult as a result. All Audi Q2 models come with much-needed rear parking sensors as standard, and a reversing camera is an option across the range, however.

Light steering helps make the Audi Q2 easy to drive around town and it’s reasonably quiet on country roads and at motorway speeds. There isn’t too much roar from the tyres and wind noise is fairly muted, too. Cruise control comes as standard on all models to help take the stress out of long motorway journeys.

The standard suspension deals with potholes and bumps well, but pick the Sports set up (an optional extra on Sport models and a no-cost option on S line and above) and you may find it a little too firm – especially over poorly maintained roads. The optional adaptive suspension system strikes the best balance between comfort and sporty handling.

The optional Driver Assistance pack boosts safety but is only available on cars fitted with an automatic gearbox. It adds kit such as auto-dipping headlights and lets the car accelerate, brake and steer itself, even in traffic jams, so long as you keep your hands on the steering wheel.