2020 Audi Q3 vs 2019 BMW X2

What's the difference?

I’ve said it before: I don’t get coupe SUVs.

What’s the point? The concept is to take an already debatably practical car shape, and then file down its roofline so that it’s… even less practical?

I can’t think of a more vain concept. Have we really fallen so far into SUV obsession that cars like this need to exist?

Audi says yes with the Q3, and I hate to admit it, but this particular coupe SUV has me questioning my thoughts on the topic. I can’t help but admit this is one of the best-looking small SUV’s I’ve ever seen.

But is it skin-deep? Does the Q3 formula still work with a cropped roofline? Is it still nice to drive and packed with tech? Read on to find out.

As is often the case, BMW has come late to a really good party. One imagines there was some chatter about making a quick X1 but that would have been an answer to a question few people thought to ask. It's not a racy-looking machine and perhaps its more prosaic aims as a compact SUV ruled it out. Or the hangover from the weird first generation.

The X2's Paris Motor Show debut a couple of years ago signalled BMW's second entrant in the compact SUV segment, but this one looked fast standing still. Most of it made it to production - including the C-pillar BMW badges, sadly - but there was no promise of a fast one.

Weirdly, the Australian market hasn't really taken to the X2 as enthusiastically as I thought it might and I wondered if it was because there was no headline act - Mercedes has the guilty pleasure of mine, the AMG GLA45, and Audi the completely bonkers RS Q3. But the headline act has arrived in the form the of the X2 M35i - perhaps this will suddenly get us a bit more interested.