2021 Audi SQ2 review

The Venn diagram of people who like hot hatches and people who like SUVs doesn’t really exist. It’s one or the other in many car peoples’ heads – and by car people, I mean people like you and me – because SUVs are the work of Satan sent to ruin our fun while hot hatches are the best things ever sent from above.

I certainly used to think that way because early SUVs from car companies that hadn’t made their names with them didn’t do a great job in the heady days of a decade ago. Most of them were lifted hatchbacks and if you remember the first Audi Q3, even premium manufacturers didn’t get them right.

When the Q2 landed in the compact SUV space to start eating into the A3’s market share, I remember thinking that the 2.0-litre Quattro was a heck of a lot of fun. But that couldn’t be right, could it? It was a compact SUV I was threading through the Yarra Valley and it was holding up very nicely. I will always want to be in a lower, sharper car, but I didn’t resent this car and, crucially, this car isn't meant for me. But during that day, I wondered what one would be like with S3 power. And here we are.

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Pricing and Features

At $64,400 before on-roads, it seems like a lot of money for a fairly small car. And, it is, but it’s far cheaper than its direct rivals from BMW and Mercedes while cheerfully rumbling with them in the performance figures – and beating them.

For an Audi, there’s little in the way of options, so your money gets you 19-inch alloys, metallic paint, automatic Matrix LED headlights, power everything (except, curiously, the seats), keyless entry and start, a powered tailgate, heated front seats, dual-zone climate control, Audi’s Virtual Cockpit digital dashboard, wireless phone charging, sat-nav, adaptive cruise control, reversing camera and front and rear parking sensors.

The SQ2’s dash is fundamentally identical to the A3’s, so has the same media screen with Audi’s excellent MMI software. Because this is based on the outgoing A3, sadly that screen doesn’t accept touch commands so you have to run the whole thing from the rotary dial and shortcut buttons on the console.

It works really well in the Audi menus, but it’s a bit annoying in Apple CarPlay and I imagine would be equally irritating in Android Auto, though both are present and correct. You do have to connect with the USB ports in the front, though, so the wireless charging in the armrest is nice but moot.

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At $64,400, it seems like a lot of money for a fairly small car. And, it is, but it’s far cheaper than its direct rivals from BMW and Mercedes while cheerfully rumbling with them in the performance figures – and beating them.

The 14 speaker stereo is a lot for this small space, so you’ll be fine if you fancy blowing out your eardrums. The speakers wear Bang and Olufsen badges, which is fancy. On top of your smartphone and usual radio, there’s DAB digital reception as well.

Safety tech isn’t as comprehensive as newer Audis, with six airbags, ABS, stability and traction controls, AEB with pedestrian and cyclist detection, blind-spot monitoring and lane-keep assist. Two lots of ISOFIX mounts and three top-tether points look after the kids.

It’s missing a lot of the good stuff, like reverse AEB, which is kind of a shame. Its five-star ANCAP safety rating reaches back to 2016, which is a while ago and it’s unlikely to hit that number under the current ANCAP regime.

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Comfort and Space

One of the good things about jacking up a hatchback is that while you shouldn’t gain any more space, you do. A more upright stance means easier entry and exit and higher-set seats mean your legs fit better behind front seats.

While hardly luxurious, the rear seats in the Q2 are comfortable for six-foot old me when I sit in the back behind where I set the front seat for driving. You get USB ports back there and bottle holders, but scandalously, no cupholders or armrest. That’s bad in a $43,000 35 TFSI but more than twenty grand north of that, I’d like an armrest, bitte.

The front seats are great to sit in and look at, particularly with the racy red quilted inserts. The driver gets a round steering wheel rather than a tedious flat-bottomed unit (again because there’s plenty of space in the taller car).

It can take a while to get the seating position right – and sharing the car with my wife for a week meant a lot of muttering about that – it would be fine if the seats were electrically operated with a memory function, but they’re not. I mean, we were fine, we’re still married and not blaming Audi for a messy divorce, but the pedals aren’t as far ahead of you as you’d like. Mercifully the steering wheel has a lot of reach adjustment to help get that right.

Two cupholders, a small tray under the climate controls and an armrest with a shallow space underneath for the phone charger are pretty much your lot for storage. You can get a small bottle in the doors, but yeah, places to stash stuff are a bit slim in the SQ2.

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On the road

Audi Sport doesn’t usually muck about when turning its attention to SUVs. The SQ5 and SQ7/SQ8 pair are thumping great bruisers, with big turbocharged diesel engines hurling them down the road with great flipping gobs of torque and some real technical tour de force stuff like 48-volt mild-hybrid systems spinning an electric turbo to eliminate lag.

The SQ2 is a little more subtle. In fact, given its very close relationship with the soon-to-be-replaced S3 there was only one thing for it – the tried and true EA888 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo found in various Audis and Golfs, in this case, the S3 and Golf R.

With a whopping 221kW and 400Nm managed by a seven-speed dual-clutch auto and all-wheel drive, the SQ2 is super quick to 100km/h, knocking the dash over in just 4.9 seconds.

That’s pretty quick and defeats both of its main rivals, the AMG A35 and BMW X2 M35i, although both are bigger cars.

Both the power and torque curves are quite flat for an engine you could reasonably expect to be a bit peaky, with maximum power available between 5300 and 6500rpm while torque goes all the way from 2000rpm to 5200rpm.

I’m somewhat fond of this engine. Turbo lag is present but minimal and the way the transmission manages the power delivery makes it very easy to conduct in a manner that might scare your passengers. It does have the classic VW Group “where’s the pow– oh, there it is” off the line, but in the gears it’s immense with all that torque shrugging off overtaking manoeuvres and powering out of corners like a demon but without all the unseemly scrabbling of some front-wheel-drive offerings.

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Unlike the bigger Audi Sport cars, you’re also rolling on a static suspension setup, the Drive Select button only turning up the engine and transmission.

We’ve seen on more recent German cars like the BMW 128ti that if you spend some quality time honing a non-active setup that you can get a good balance and that’s where the SQ2 landed in 2019 at its launch, its arrival delayed not by COVID but by bureaucracy. The ride is taut without being too firm and even though it rolls on 19-inch wheels, you’ve got to be looking for trouble to get a nasty jolt in the cabin.

Chucking an SQ2 down a twisty road is a genuine slab of fun. The electric steering has just the right amount of weight as you thread the car through the turns. I don’t mind a performance car with a little bit of roll, it means things are less likely to suddenly go south because you’re not across what’s going on underneath you. The Turanzas bite into the road nicely, too (and aren’t too loud) and my goodness this thing goes like a stabbed rat.

What it isn’t is light. At 1600kg, it’s a proper chonk as the kids say (or probably did about three years ago). That should count against it far more than it does, because the engine easily overcomes the weight and doesn’t seem to blow out the fuel consumption (which was about 9.0L/100km on test, 1.3 off the sticker).

It’s very stable under brakes, you can get away with slight dumbness and once you’re at the apex, you can just punch the throttle and the torque will carry you away at almost indecent speed. You get a little pop and burp from the engine, too,

Most folks won’t be chasing that ultimate dynamic feedback or performance of a lower, nimbler hot hatch, so the SQ2 nails the brief.

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Ownership

Every time I get to the warranty section on an Audi (or, yes, a BMW) I draw a long breath and sigh the way Kate Winslet does in period dramas. By all accounts, owning an Audi is quite nice but the three-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty is just too short. Mercedes bit the bullet in 2020 and went to five years on the entire range, including AMG, and so should its compatriots. It’s just too short when a $16,000 econobox has a seven-year warranty.

Happily, the servicing plan is reasonably priced, with a five-year term costing $2580. While that’s not especially cheap, the inclusions seem generous (and are listed on the website), so your five-service average is just over $500. You have to return to the dealer every 12 months/15,000km.

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VERDICT

It’s not often that you find that the cheapest car in its niche is possibly the best. While I’m quite fond of the GLA35, it doesn’t quite have the zap of the SQ2 and nor does the X2 M35i – a car that polarises the Wheels office in a way that has me quite lonely at one end and everyone else at the other – provide quite as much fun.

The SQ2’s simplified options list also makes it an easy proposition to just walk in and buy, with your biggest issue being which wheels and paint to choose and remind yourself you’re not paying for it.

Although the SQ2 isn’t as bonkers or charismatic as the RSQ3 (hands up who wants to see that five-cylinder in an RSQ2?) but nor is it as expensive or as hard to live with. The SQ2 really works as a hot hatch alternative – it’s easy to get in and out of, you’re not losing much and you’re not far down on power.

On top of that, you have a bigger boot and a better resale prospect because nobody buys hatchbacks anymore.

2021 Audi SQ2 specifications