Audi Q5.

When I think about luxury European vehicle manufacturers like Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi, I tend to picture their sleek sport model cars or their lavish high-class cars with excellent acceleration and fuel-efficiency. I imagine sleek lines and creative rims that, combined with impressive horse-power and torque, create a vehicle that is a sight to behold. According to Saskatchewan car dealerships, I should also be thinking about their luxury crossover vehicles.

Our province has a reputation of fluctuating temperatures and a variable overall climate (not that I need to tell you this) so it's something that every person who is purchasing a vehicle in Saskatchewan takes into consideration. Generally, we want something a little larger than the typical car that has all-wheel or four-wheel drive and will get us out of any sticky situation. For most parents, the sport utility vehicle or the crossover is the present-day minivan and for the cabin enthusiast, if we can get away with towing the boat with something other than a truck, we will.

One thing that can be said for the Audi Q5 is that compared to most of its competitors, it doesn't use gawdy or overdone exterior designs to catch a person's attention. The clean exterior of the Q5 is a breath of fresh air as the design allows your eyes to flow through the vehicle and not get caught up staring at an overbearing grill or gimmick.

The interior of the Q5 follows the lead of the exterior, with stylish lines and a functional, attractive layout that makes driving comfortable and interesting, but that is also customized to the driver. Through the navigation systems, the driver is able to set up park assist, individual climate controls and even can program the side mirrors to fold in every time the vehicle is parked. Using the toggle located just in front of the armrest, the driver can easily scroll through the various screens such as destination mapping, satellite radio stations and browse through contacts on an attached mobile device. The Q5 gives you the option of connecting a device via Bluetooth or connecting an iPod or iPhone directly in the glove box.

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After driving the Q5 and getting a feel for its zippy, responsive handling and acceleration, it was a shock to learn that under the hood of this particular model was a 4-cylinder engine. Albeit, it is turbo-charged, but the combination of the smaller engine with the turbo and 8-speed automatic transmission with tiptronic creates a fuel-efficient masterpiece that still has comparable get-up-and-go to the larger 6-cylinder version of the vehicle. The Q5 also has two different driving modes, the basic drive setting, which is programmed to ensure the best fuel economy and the sport mode, which maxes out performance and really makes driving fun.

One of my favorite aesthetic features of the Q5 and the rest of the Audi lineup is the LED headlights. They are a feature that sets Audi apart from other luxury vehicles. One of the benefits of the LED headlights is that they only use 40 watts of electricity each, which reduces overall energy consumption. High-beam assistant is a feature that automatically varies the range and width of the headlights between dimmed and full beam according the road situation.

Something to look forward to is the Audi Q5 Hybrid, which should be arriving in Saskatchewan this fall. An increase in the already outstanding fuel consumption rates is expected, along with all the capabilities of the 4-cylinder engine.

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1-4 DOHC 1 6V Direct Injection

211 horsepower @ 4,300 RPM

258 lb-ft torque @ 1,500 RPM

8-speed Tiptronic [R] transmission

Quattro all-wheel Drive

Length: 4,629 mm Width: 2,089 mm

Height: 1,653 mm

Wheel Base: 2,807 mm

Nathan Hursh SaskBusiness Staff Writer