2020 Audi Q5 vs Mazda CX-5

What's the difference?

In 2019, from a range boasting more than a dozen different models, the mid-size luxury Q5 SUV was Audi Australia’s best seller.

Right-sized for the city, yet large enough for the highway, its appeal is partially underpinned by a premium, but not over-the-top price list stretching from around $65,000 to just over $90K.

We spent a week behind the wheel of the second-from-the-top 45 TFSI Sport to see if this Q5’s Vorsprung and Durch match its Technik.

I think it's fair to say the Mazda CX-5 has done about as much a single model line could have done for the population explosion of SUVs. The car is still selling like crazy when the economy isn't crippled by a global pandemic and that's despite the second-generation shuffling itself into more upmarket territory.

The CX-5 Akera is not the car people tend to go into Mazda dealers to buy without first doing their homework. Despite hardly anyone (relatively speaking) buying the Akera, you have a choice of three engines, the naturally aspirated petrol, the turbo-petrol and the turbo-diesel (in ascending price order).

The latter two both start at over $50,000. You can't spend that much on a Tucson or a Sportage, or even a RAV4. So you're going to want to know what you're getting yourself into, right?