Audi Q3 vs Citroen C5

What's the difference?

The Audi Q3 Sportback S line 40 TFSI quattro is a quiet achiever.

Not as flashy or performance driven as some of its rivals, it still manages to tick almost every box when it comes to comfort and features. Like most models in the class, space in the back seat is modest but for a top-spec non-performance model, the price is alright and it’s lovely to drive.

The C5 Aircross might seem like a niche European 'alternative' SUV, but I wish it wasn’t. The more mainstream players could learn a lot from how brilliantly this Citroen is packaged.

It is truly class leading in terms of passenger comfort and even luggage space, even shipping with great multimedia and safety in this base Feel grade.

Unless you really need to be towing, performance (or in this case, lack thereof) should be low on your SUV priority list anyway.

The Q3 Sportback blends the practicality of an SUV with a sports-car presence due to its wide 2022mm stance and coupe-styled rear. With the black accents across the body, big 20-inch alloys and sharp Matrix LED headlights, the Q3 Sportback more than holds its own against the sporty prowess of its rivals.

The cabin establishes that it sits within the premium market with its leather mix upholstery and flashy-looking tech that headlines an angular dashboard. However, it's understated compared to its rivals, which all boast a stronger cabin presence.

Overall, it's not a ‘look at me car’ but the longer you look, the better it gets.

It wouldn’t be a French car without a solid dollop of style, and the Aircross has heaps of it.

From the orange paint, to its floating rear light fittings and chevron emblazoned grille, the Citroen is nothing if not unique.

Just like the C4 range before it, the C5 Aircross inherits the plastic 'airbump' fittings under the doors, with the plastic-clad soft-roader look continuing over the wheelarches and across the C5’s front and rear.

There’s a lot going on, on both the front and rear of this SUV, but somehow it’s not really over-complicated, all the flourishes and highlights manage to flow into each other to maintain some semblance of consistency.

The C5’s rear is a little more tame, with body coloured panels contrasted with the plastic strip, gloss black highlights, and dual-square exhaust facades. The floating gloss-clad roof rails are a flashy if silly touch.

I’d personally argue it’s a better-looking car than its Peugeot 3008 sibling, although it looks built entirely for city-slickers rather than the adventurous type.

Inside it’s normal. For a Citroen. Gone are the days of floating steering wheels or overtly wacky instrument clusters, it’s all quite tame and that’s for the betterment of the brand.

That’s not to say it’s not a cool place to be, and I was surprised to find myself surrounded by classy fittings, quality soft-touch materials and an understated blocky design theme. The C5 gets a small, oval steering wheel which feels great in the hands.

Those awesome memory foam seats are finished in a slightly odd grey synthetic denim kind of material. Some hated it, but I thought it contrasted the car’s exterior and interior schemes well. The raised centre console gives front passengers an extra secure premium sort of feel.

The grey materials will be slightly divisive, but the number one annoyance for me was the complete lack of tactile buttons for adjusting the climate control or media functions. Is a volume knob too much to ask?

Other than that, the C5 has one of the most tame, practical interior treatments on any Citroen… possibly ever… without managing to be boring.

The Q3 Sportback offers plenty of head- and legroom up front, with access that is accommodating because of the wider door apertures.

Like its rivals, the back seat offers modest space for my 168cm height, but it might be a squeeze if you taller. The middle seat suffers the most with legroom due to the tall transmission tunnel – keep this seat for kids only.

However, all other seats offer well-rounded comfort with decent-padding, side bolsters and the front get extendable under-thigh and lumbar supports, as well as heat functions.

The rear row also gets directional air vents, reading lights, two USB-C ports and a 12-volt socket. Longer trips will be comfortable for four occupants but five will elicit some grumbles.

Storage is good for the class with a glovebox that can fit a manual, a medium-sized middle console and a large phone tray. There are four cupholders and four drink-bottle holders throughout the car, and the rear row also get two map pockets.

The boot offers class leading space with its 530L capacity and only the BMW X2 beats it (by 30L). Storage options open up again with the 40/20/40 split of the rear row. The top model gets a powered tailgate with gesture control and temporary spare tyre.

Technology looks high-end and the touchscreen multimedia system is easy enough to use once you get your head around the menus. The built-in satellite navigation is top notch and the directions are pulled through to the digital instrument cluster.

The Q3 now gets wired/wireless Apple CarPlay and wired Android Auto. The CarPlay maintained a steady connection this week. Charging options are great with a total of four USB--C ports, two 12-volt sockets and a wireless charging pad to choose from.

The C5 Aircross is one of the most practical SUVs you can buy in this segment in terms of interior space. There’s just loads of it, and plenty of smart features to back it up.

In the front you get some small trenches in the doors, lovely big cupholders in the centre console, along with a top-box which was a little shallow, but still handy, as well as a small cavity (seemingly designed to hold the key) and a big bin for stowing your wallet or phone.

Back seat occupants get decent leg and headroom, but what’s really special here is each passenger gets their own memory foam seat with enough width to travel in decent comfort. The centre passenger’s legroom isn’t even impeded by a big transmission tunnel.

Rear passengers also get pockets on the back of the front seats, dual air vents, small cupholders in the doors, and a 12-volt power outlet. With no drop-down armrest, it would be nice to see more practical cupholders in the door cards.

The boot is truly gigantic. Like, biggest in the segment gigantic. At a minimum it weighs in at 580L (VDA), but as an added boost, the rear passenger seats can be slid forward on a rail to grant a whopping 140 extra litres of space to 720L. With the rear seats down you’ll be able to make use of 1630L.

A power tailgate, able to be operated by waving a foot under the car is also standard, revealing a totally unimpeded aperture. So, not only does it have a class leading luggage area, but it’s also easy to use.

The C5 Aircross enters Australia in just two spec levels, and the one reviewed here is the base Feel. Priced at $39,990, before on-road costs, it’s not exactly cheap, but is thankfully well specified.

And at the time of publication a Citroen drive-away pricing campaign pitched the Feel at $44,175 with all registration, dealer and other pre-delivery charges included.

In the box is a 7.0-inch multimedia touchscreen with Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, DAB+ digital radio and built-in sat nav, a 12.3-inch digital dash display, auto-dimming rear-vision mirror, auto headlights and windscreen wipers, keyless entry and push-start ignition, dual-zone climate control, LED DRLs, and an electric tailgate.

That’s the good. Not-so-good are the halogen headlights (kind of detracting from the slick front styling) and the lack of radar cruise control.

The Aircross does get a decent set of active safety features explored in the safety section of this review.

Competitors? Well there’s a good chance you’ll be cross-shopping the C5 Aircross against other alternate options in the mid-size space, including the Peugeot 3008 Allure (with which the Aircross shares an engine and chassis - $40,990), the Renault Koleos Intens FWD ($43,990), and perhaps the Skoda Karoq (just one spec-level in Australia - $35,290).

The Aircross’ secret weapon, which you can’t get on any other mid-size SUV, is its seats. Citroen calls them 'Advanced Comfort' seats, and they’re stuffed with memory foam “inspired by mattress technology.”

And it sounds like pamphlet hype, but it’s not. Once you’re seated, it’s like you're floating on air. A little bit of genius!

Citroen pairs this with reasonably-sized 18-inch alloy wheels and a unique suspension system which uses “progressive hydraulic cushions” (a nod to Citroens past) to soften the ride.

It’s a double down of comfort features, and really adds up to a lovely place to be behind the wheel. All for a similar price to its Peugeot sibling. Worth considering.

Our test vehicle keeps it's tried and tested 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol engine, which produces 132kW of power and 320Nm of torque. Those outputs are slightly less than most of its nearest rivals and it sports a slower sprint time of 7.8 seconds.

The Q3 Sportback is a quattro, which means it has an all-wheel drive and it boasts a silky-smooth seven-speed auto transmission.

While it doesn't induce strong sports-car vibes on road, it’s not a car you'd ever have the audacity to call slow.

The C5 Aircross is powered by just one powerplant no matter which grade you pick. It’s a 1.6-litre turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engine, producing 121kW/240Nm.

It shares this engine with the Peugeot 3008 and the outputs compare well with the Renault Koleos’ Nissan-sourced 2.4-litre four-cylinder engine (126kW/226Nm) considering it’s much smaller and (theoretically) less thirsty.

The ever-smart Skoda Karoq is tough to beat in this segment with its 1.5-litre engine (110kW/250Nm) putting strong torque figures on the board.

The C5 Aircross sends power to the front wheels only via a six-speed automatic transmission, for a comparison the Koleos has a lackluster CVT auto, while the Karoq benefits from a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic.

The official combined fuel cycle figure is 8.2L/100km, but the real-world usage is at 8.6L after doing a mix of open-road and urban driving. Considering the lack of restraint shown for really giving this model a real 'go' on the open-road, the fuel usage is respectable.

Based on the official combined fuel cycle and 60L fuel tank, you should see a theoretical driving range of up to 732km, which is good for any longer road trips you might want to tackle.

The 1430kg C5 is rated to consume 7.9 litres of mid-grade 95RON unleaded per 100km.

That’s about on-par for the segment, and in practice I managed a figure of 8.6L/100km. A litre over isn’t too bad for truly mixed driving.

The mid-grade fuel requirement is a bit of an annoyance, but it’s also to be expected from a small capacity turbocharged European engine. It’s primary competitors (with the exception of the Koleos) drink the same.

The power delivery for the Q3 Sportback S line model is effortless. It doesn’t have the thrum or burbling of a turbo, but the power is well and truly there whenever you need it. So, while not as ‘powerful’ as some of its rivals, you don’t feel like you’re missing out.

The low and wide stance of the Q3 Sportback translates to nimble and direct handling – you can take corners at speed with almost no roll and the steering sits within the goldilocks zone for firmness.

A downside is the cabin noise, which is fairly loud with road and wind no matter the speed – but you don't have to raise your voice. You'd expect a bit of noise with the big wheels, but you always hope for more refinement at this grade level.

The Q3 isn’t difficult to park, but it does take a moment to get your bearings on how it fits a space, as it’s bigger than you might expect. The 360-degree camera is super clear, which takes out a lot of the guesswork.

The car feels like an extension of you as a driver which elevates the overall on-road experience despite not being a performance model. This would be well-suited for a driver who wants great on-road performance without feeling like someone who is in a mid-life crisis.

Straight up, the C5 Aircross is not the most exciting car you can drive. It’s not even exciting for the segment, with the focus being refreshingly distant from sporty.

You’ll be getting sluggish acceleration comprised of an occasionally lazy six-speed auto transmission and a dollop of turbo lag every time you depress the accelerator pedal.

But the C5 Aircross is, refreshingly, not about being sporty at all. I’d argue Citroen is one of the few carmakers that really ‘gets’ what driving an SUV should be about. Comfort.

See, this SUV more than makes up for its lackluster performance by being possibly the nicest place to be behind the wheel in the segment.

We’ve covered how unreal the seats are in terms of their quality memory foam padding, but it doesn’t end there. The C5 has the same excellent well balanced steering from the rest of the Citroen and Peugeot passenger car ranges, as well as sensibly-sized tyres on small alloy wheels and the hydraulic cushion suspension.

It all adds up to a ride that’s quiet and makes most road corrugations, imperfections and potholes a complete non-issue.

The suspension does have its limits, hitting a particularly sharp bump or pothole will have the car bouncing off its shocks, but it’s simply awesome on 90 per cent of Australian urban roads. I wish more SUV mid-sizers rode like it.

It’s also super quiet thanks to “extra insulation” in the engine bay and the small alloy wheels.

The Aircross has the same set of active safety features no matter which grade you pick. This means auto emergency braking (AEB – works up to 85km/h) with forward collision warning (FCW), lane departure warning (LDW) with lane keep assist (LKAS), blind spot monitoring (BSM), driver attention alert (DAA), and traffic sign recognition (TSR) are all standard.

You’ll get the added benefit of front and rear parking sensors and a 360-degree parking view, which is excellent in its functionality.

Expected refinements include six airbags and the regular suite of electronic stability and brake controls.

It’s an impressive suite and has everything you’d expect in a new car – apart from the strange omission of active cruise control.

The C5 Aircross has not yet been rated by ANCAP (although its European full-safety spec equivalents have a maximum five-star EuroNCAP score).

The Q3 comes with a five-year/unlimited-km warranty, which is a normal term for the class.

You can pre-purchase a five-year servicing plan, which costs $3330 overall, or $666 per service which is competitive for the premium segment.

Servicing intervals are reasonable at every 12 months or 15,000km whichever occurs first.

All current Citroens are covered by a five-year/unlimited kilometer warranty, matching the widely accepted industry standard.

That’s all well and good, but it’s the very erm… European service pricing which is the killer here.

The C5 Aircross is covered by a capped price servicing program which costs between $458 and $812 per yearly visit, for an average of $602 per year for the life of the five year warranty.

It’s a bit of a let down given the Citroen’s cheapest fixed-price service is the equivalent to an expensive service at more mainstream brands.