What's the difference?
Replacing a popular model is fraught with danger. Existing customers will tell you they love it, while focus groups of non-customers will tell you why they hate it and sometimes carmakers get caught trying to appease both groups.
Sometimes they’ll make it too big or change too much in the search for more sales and ultimately end up removing the elements that made it popular in the first place.
Which is why Audi has been extra careful with some subtle evolution for this new-generation Q3 SUV and Sportback. This isn’t just a popular model for Audi Australia, it has been the best-selling model for the German brand for more than five years, so getting it wrong would be a disaster.
The Volkswagen T-Cross is the smallest SUV in the brand’s entire range, but it’s incredibly practical, great to drive and has an excellent level of safety.
It’s just been updated with some new features and it’s probably more affordable than you think.
So if you are thinking of a Mazda CX-3 or a Toyota Yaris Cross, then put the T-Cross on your list to check out, too.
So is this new Q3 good enough to remain Audi’s number one choice? In a word, yes.
Audi has resisted the temptation that some brands fall into by making too many changes to a proven sales performer. This new Q3 isn’t radically different from the old Q3, but it has improved in almost every way.
It isn’t different enough to widely expand its appeal to a new wave of customers, but there’s no reason it won’t remain Audi’s most popular choice for the foreseeable future.
Note: CarsGuide attended this event as a guest of the manufacturer, with travel, accommodation and meals provided.
There are so many new little SUVs out there and it might be easy to think they’re all the same - a tiny cheap SUV is just a tiny cheap SUV. But I’m convinced the Volkswagen T-Cross isn’t like the others.
Yes, it’s tiny and relatively cheap, but it can do more than most of the others from the storage and space it offers to the value-for-money and its level of refinement. Then there’s the way it drives - which can’t in my books be matched by any of its rivals. Â
The sweet spot in the range is the entry grade Life. At $35K drive-away the value is best and with no difference in engines between the grades there are no huge reasons to step up higher in the range unless you have the money.
Note: CarsGuide attended this event as a guest of the manufacturer, with travel, accommodation and meals provided.