Audi Q3 35 TDI Quattro Dynamic review, test drive

What’s it like to drive?

While it’s never been the last word in edge-of-your seat driving pleasure, we’ve always quite liked the way the Q3 2.0 TDI Quattro drove. Its punchy (if slightly buzzy sounding) 174bhp engine, coupled with the seven-speed DSG gearbox, is more than enough to hurl the car’s mass forward briskly, with the Quattro giving it great traction off the line. The steering, as ever with Audis, is light and easy, but feels a bit too numb for proper enthusiastic driving. But what about that new trick suspension?

You can access Drive Select either via the MMI computer or via a button on the dashboard that toggles through the modes. Think of the Comfort mode as the default setting – it feels about the same as the standard car’s suspension setup. It rides flat, it’s able to handle small bumps and potholes pretty well (albeit with a little noise clunking through), and even through corners, you’ll be quite pleased with how little body roll there is.

Switch it over to the stiffer Dynamic mode, and at first, you won’t really notice the difference; it’s very, very subtle. However, drive over a series of small road blemishes or through a pothole, as you’ll often find in monsoon-ravaged Mumbai, and you’ll find that it’s just a little more fidgety at low to medium speeds than Comfort mode. High-speed stability seems to be unchanged across both modes, and the Q3 feels pretty solid. The real benefit of Dynamic mode, however, is meant to be sharper handling, and push the car hard into a corner and it won’t lean as much as it otherwise would have. It’s helpful, but not transformative. Auto mode, for the most part, felt just the same as Dynamic mode. All in all, the system does make a difference, albeit one not as significant as we’ve experienced in bigger Audis equipped with Drive Select.