2019 Audi Q5 vs Jaguar F-Pace

What's the difference?

The Q5 50 TDI is good value, it’s practical and the 3.0-litre turbo-diesel V6 makes it the choice for those that need to tow, or who just want a tough, quick-accelerating, medium-sized luxury SUV. Small families will find the Q5 50 TDI a willing and helpful weapon in the suburban warfare that is daily life.

I've driven a few F-Paces over the years and really like the rear-wheel drive. The diesel V6 all-wheel drive is certainly fast but not as light as the smaller petrol. The diesel four-cylinders are good but can't match the petrol's smoothness. The fuel economy of the petrol is impressive, too. Hilariously, the F-Pace is lighter than the smaller E-Pace, and you can really feel it.

For under eighty grand (options notwithstanding), this is a lot of car with a badge that folks seem to love. Tell them it's a Jaguar and watch their eyes light up. Take them for a ride and watch their jaws drop when you tell them it's a four-cylinder. It's a heady mix of prestige (sorry) and the fact it's a cracking good car.

The Q5 is arguably the best looking of the all Qs – not too big or too small, it appears to be the most perfectly proportioned of Audi’s SUVs. More of a dimensions type? The Q5 measures 4663mm end to end, 1893mm across and 1659mm tall.

Picking a 50 TDI from lower grades is tricky because the 40 TDI and 45 TFSI come with almost identical exterior features, and also the grey and matt aluminium silver grille.

The Q5 50 TDI isn’t as blingy as the Benz GLC or as sporty-styled as the BMW X3, but it has a solid, confident look and I adore the so-called Tornado Line, which twists itself over the wheel arches and traces an edge right around the car, through the tailgate and bonnet.

The cockpit is typically Audi: stylish and modern, but also restrained. While I admire the simplicity and quality of the build, with its outstanding fit and finish, I think Audi needs to make its cabins dazzle more. This isn’t just a Q5 thing, it’s across the board. 

The F-Pace's design is a product of one of two clear streams of design at Jaguar. While the smaller E-Pace picks up on the F-Type sports cars aesthetic, the F-Pace - somehow - gets away with the slim headlights familiar from the XF and XE sedans.

It's an impressive piece of work and with the black pack with black paint looks reasonably menacing. Or it would if the wheels were bigger, they look a bit underdone even though they're 19-inches. Easy fixed with a ticked box at your Jag dealer.

The interior is also very much from the sedan sketchbook. The rotary dial, the (deliberately) slightly off-dead-centre steering wheel and the speedboat line that sweeps from door to door in an elegant line across the car.

It could be an XF if you didn't sit so high and you didn't have so much glass around you. That seems important to me because it feels like Jaguar, which is what you want when you spend the money.

The previous Audi I reviewed was an Audi A3 35 TFSI Sedan and while I loved the look of that little four-door saloon, I deemed the car too small for somebody my size, or anyone with the demands of a young family.

Yep, at CarsGuide we test the cars in the real world with our families, which means one week you’re in a small A3 35 TFSI Sedan and the next it’s a Q5 50 TDI. Moving from one to the other immediately highlights what’s been missing.

Just installing a child seat can tell you a lot about practicality. In the A3 Sedan I had to kneel on the side of the road to install the child seat, but I hardly had to bend at all to put it into the 50 TDI. The tall back door openings, the seating height, the top-tether hook, which is accessed from the kick-open tailgate, all made life easy.

And yes, the kick-open tailgate is brilliant, and it can even be opened without having to unlock the rest of the car. The standard proximity key is also a Godsend. Then then there’s the load-height-lowering function, which comes with the optional air suspension and can make the Q5 50 TDI effectively kneel down for you, to make getting bags into the boot easier.

The cargo capacity of our 50 TDI was 550-610 litres – the reason for that range is because of the optional sliding second row.

There are only two rows of seating in a Q5 – this is a five-seater car only. If you need a third row you’ll have to step up to the Q7 to get seven seats.

Second-row room is excellent. Even at 191cm tall I can sit behind my driving position with about 50mm between my knees and the seatback, while headroom is great, too. Back passengers have air vents and climate control, two cupholders and big door pockets, while up front there’s a decent sized bin under the centre armrest and a deep storage area by the driver’s right leg – I could fit my shoe in it. Don’t ask.

Along with Qi wireless phone charger, you’ll find two USB ports and a 12V outlet up front, and two charging USB ports and 12V outlet in the second row.

It's a big car and it's big inside. The F-Pace feels like it should be able to take seven seats, but the floorpan won't allow for it, so it's a fiver.

That seems to disappoint a lot of people, and I can understand why. I imagine it has been a disappointment for Jaguar too - they probably know hardly anyone ever uses third row seats, but something in people's heads convinces them they need the extra two.

Despite the racy angle on the rear glass, you start with 508 litres of boot space, rising to 1740 litres when you fold the 40/20/40 split rear seats.

Front seat passengers have a ton of headroom even if there's a sunroof and you've got a pair of cupholders that you can hide away under a folding lid. Under the centre stack is a spot for your phone and the central armrest covers a good-sized bin.

Out back you've got a central armrest with a pair of cupholders (taking the total to four) and like the front doors, there are bottle holders on each side, again for a total of four. Two will be happy back there and a third won't be massively unhappy, so it's a true five-seater.

Rear seat passengers score 12-volt power outlets and air-conditioning vents.

The Prestige is available with diesel and petrol power as well as rear-wheel or all-wheel drive. My cat for the week was a the Prestige 25t which is the 184kW version of the petrol engine and came in rear-wheel drive. So certainly not the entry level, but the Prestige is the first of four grades.

The 25t comes standard with 19-inch alloys, 11-speaker Meridian system with a 10.0-inch touchscreen, auto xenon headlights and auto wipers, heated and folding rear vision mirrors, leather seats, electric driver's seat, dual-zone climate control, sat nav, power tailgate, cruise control and a space-saver spare.

The 'InControl' software and hardware continues to improve, with its new-ish tiled interface proving very easy to use on the huge screen. The sat nav is still a bit dense, but is a marked improvement on earlier cars and you can skip it altogether because you get Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

Added to the standard spec on this car was keyless entry ($1890!), a 'Drive Pack' which includes adaptive cruise, blind spot monitoring and high-speed AEB for $1740, heated front seats ($840) black wheels for $840, black pack for $760, larger 350mm front brakes for $560, and a few bits and bobs taking the total to $84,831.

To my dying day I will never work out how some really useful safety features cost less than a thing that unlocks the car when you touch the handle.

The 50 TDI may look just like the lower grades in the Q5 range, but its 3.0-litre V6 turbo-diesel is what really sets it apart. Its 210kW of power from 3750rpm and 620Nm of torque from 1500rpm not only make it the Q5 with the most grunt, but also the quickest accelerating, with a 0-100km/h time of 5.8s.

That low-end torque makes the 50 TDI the natural choice for those who tow, too. The braked towing capacity is 2000kg.

Shifting gears almost seamlessly is an eight-speed automatic, rather than the seven-speed dual clutch that does the honours in the lower grades.   

As with all Q5s, the 50 TDI is all-wheel drive.

The Prestige and Portfolio F-Paces are available with four engine specs. The 25t translates to the 2.0-litre turbo-petrol with 184kW/365Nm. That's a lot, even with a substantial - if light for the segment - 1710kg to push along.

You can choose AWD but this RWD Prestige shares the same ZF eight-speed automatic with the rest of the range.

The 0-100km/h sprint is covered in a swift 7.0 seconds flat and you can tow up to 2400kg with a braked trailer.

Audi says that if you’re driving a combination of urban and open roads the 50 TDI will use 6.3L/100km. Our test car wasn’t too far off that claim, with an average of 7.6L/100km, measured from the trip computer.

The day that we shot the video above saw me driving continuously around the same hilly suburb for a couple of hours, and the mileage, according to the trip computer, afterwards was 14.2L/100km.

Jaguar's official claim suggest you can consume Premium unleaded at the rate of 7.4L/100km on a combined (urban, extra-urban) cycle. And, as it turns out, it's not too far off.

In the week I spent punting around the burbs with a bit of freeway running, I got 9.2L/100km, which is commendable for such a big unit.

The 50 TDI is one of those SUVs that feels like an Iron Man suit, in that it goes, turns and stops like you’re wearing it rather than driving it. Truly, it responds that well to whatever you ask of it.

Our test car had the optional adaptive air suspension and I recommend it if the roads you’ll be driving it on are as bad as the potholed streets of Sydney.

While the 50 TDI isn’t an SQ5, the handling is still excellent, with minimal body roll, and the steering is precise and well-weighted.

That 3.0-litre diesel V6 is a gem, providing great acceleration, and is well suited to towing, but if you’re not in the Dynamic drive mode, you’ll find that turbo lag rears its head occasionally. That issue can be solved almost instantly by shifting down a gear, using the steering-wheel paddles.

The V6 diesel is also quite loud from the outside, but you’ll be happy to know the excellent cabin insulation keeps most of the clatter out.

A big, luxury SUV without all the toys has no business being as much fun as the F-Pace.

This mid-spec four-cylinder engine (there's a supercharged V6 and supercharged V8 as well) produces plenty of grunt to push the big cat around.

At the same time, it's an unbelievably smooth unit, with an unusual mix of sounds producing a unique engine note.

The torque curve is basically flat and the eight-speed transmission is well-tuned to handle it. It moves around town very smartly and the only criticism I have is that it would be nicer if the traction control could be a little looser. Even in Dynamic mode, it can be a bit of a killjoy. 

I really prefer this rear-wheel drive version of the F-Pace. It's a bit lighter and the steering is a little more clear-eyed (not that the AWD isn't).

It feels a more pointy even on these relatively balloony 255/55 tyres. On the flipside, the ride is pretty good to go with the handling.

While it isn't pillowy-smooth it's never upsetting and I genuinely find it difficult to justify the air suspension on the lower-end cars.

I couldn't really pick the bigger brakes but I'm sure they're welcome if you're carrying a lot of weight or towing, so they're probably worth the extra few bucks.

The keyless entry isn't and I'd definitely go with the 'Drive Pack' and its extra safety equipment.

The cabin itself is super quiet and the Meridian-branded sound system pretty good once you learn to navigate the big screen. The hardware for the InControl is almost there, too, with residual jitters persisting when you swipe to another screen and achingly slow sat nav response to inputs.

Unlike some of its Range Rover brethren, you get Android Auto/Apple CarPlay into the bargain.

The F-Pace packs six airbags, ABS, stability and traction controls, reversing camera, lane keep assist, front and rear parking sensors and low-speed AEB.

Extra safety features are available in the 'Driver Pack' my car had, but it would be nice if a couple of these - especially blind spot monitoring - were standard at this level.

If you're taking the kiddies with you, there are three top-tether anchors and two ISOFIX points.

The F-Pace scored a maximum five ANCAP stars in December 2017.

The Q5 50 TDI is covered by Audi’s three-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty. Servicing is recommended every 12 months/15,000km.

Audi has two servicing plans for the 50 TDI: three-year coverage for $2040 and five-years for $3070.

Jaguar might be offering the same sort of warranty as the rest of the premium makers, but the mainstream makers are making everyone look a bit stingy.

What used to be par for the course, Jag offers a three-year/100,000km warranty with roadside assist to match.

Jaguar offers up-front servicing plans for up to five years/130,000km which helps you control the cost at around $350/year, which isn't bad at all. Service intervals are an impressive 12 months/26,000km.