[rontheman]

Hi everyone

Just ordered a Q3 SE| Tdi Stronic. Long time Audi owner, so no surprises. I did test drive an Evoque, but found the handling a bitwallowy,sochose the Q3! However one thing I did notice in comparing both cars is that the Q3 is noticeably narrower inside. Anyone elsenotice this?

 

[Del]

Hi
Welcome to the forum.
I don't think the Q3 is narrow, from what I've read the Evoque is very wide, apparently it's as wide as a Cayenne.

 

[Ratbo]

As Del says, Evoque is relatively wide, almost as wide as Q7/Cayenne. Having driven both Q3 & Evoque, would agree that Q3 more akin to a hot hatch to drive than the Evoque, but the latter is a "proper" off roader, so would inevitably wallow more. As indicated in recent Autocar 3-way test, Evoque, Q3 & Kuga all great cars, its horses for courses really. The breadth of ability of the Evoque on & off road is the deciding factor for me, the Q3 brochure carefully avoids mention of entry/departure angles!

 

[gazrobsuk]

Funny enough we tested this week back to back.... 2 versions of the Evoque (Prestige/Dynamic) & a Q3 SE Tdi S-Tronic & our first impressions were the Evoque is pretty wide for a Ford Focus 'size' car & the engine was pretty noisy in the cabin for supposedly a top spec small 4x4 & also even in the Prestige the ride was surprisingly firm, so wifey not impressed for that kinda money.Then in the afternoon we drove the Q3 (2nd test in 2 weeks) & we thought it was more car like/narrower which is better for us/her as we go to small roads/towns in Spain & the engine/cabin noise was much better & it rode very nicely in SE spec. My advice is to drive back to back if possible while it's still fresh in your memory. I'm a Landrover/Rangie fan but was underwhelmed with the Evoque though it wins all shoot outs (new one out in Car Magazine this month)in the mags primarily cos of it's really good offroad ability but we only need snow/bad weather/bad roads in Spain or slightly rocky mountain tracks type ability so the Q3 should fit.We already have a LR Discovery 4 as a big premium 4x4 so needed a small premium 4x4 so we'll order in the next few days. Trouble is I want a lot of options (almost all) so it ends up being £37k but obviously pretty nice with all those goodies.

Bit worried about lead times/delivery but as we'll go away soon & return in July I'm hoping it'll be ready.

L8erGaz
Edited by: gazrobsuk

 

[rontheman]

If its any comfort I also spec'd my Q3 pretty heavily,(TDiSE+STronic) and ended up a bit over £37k, but really took the view that one sort offorgets the extra cost fairly quickly, but has the benefit of all the goodies over many years. Having said that, I did draw the line at several options that were nice but not that important (to me at least).

As above, I also found the Evoque wallowy and noticeably narrower, and also coincidentally just read the Q3 review today, which focussed mainly on the off roadability. They slated the Q3 in that area, but found the Evoque very good (surprise surprise!). What did concern me slightly was that one would expect some 4x4 benefit in snow etc, but they felt the Q3 offered almost no benefit in this area. Also, I read somewhere that the Q3 had a wading depth of 500mm, but in the article it was suggested that one shouldn't go into anything higher than the ground clearance. So who is right here?

 

[gazrobsuk]

I'm fairly sure the wading depth is 170mm on a Q3. The Evoque brochure for sure says 500mm, not sure I'd want to risk going over 7-8 inches anyhow though have been through some biggies in my Disco (only cos I could

) but that has air suspension so you can raise to 700mm Having had a nightmare last year getting home from Europe (Dec 2nd) in a powerful rear drive auto sports car in the snow I'm reasonably confident the Q3 will be ok in snow compared to 'normal' cars anyhow...

 

[rontheman]

If you google "Audi Q3 wading depth" then the first or second entry is a link to the audi.co.uk website. The google summary states

"The Audi Q3 comes ready for anything, with a ground clearance of 185 mm and a wading depth of 500 mm. Find out more at Audi.co.uk"

When you click on the link, it goes to the off road section of the Q3 webpage, but now says the ground clearance is 170mm, and no mention of wading depth, other than "...more than enough to drive through shallow streams"! I wonder when that depth got removed, and what changed! And what depth constitutes a "shallow stream"?

 

[Ratbo]

Ronth, I think the first sentance of Car's Feb 12 comparison of Q3/Evoque sums it up! Even Audi admits the Q3 is not an off road vehicle! That said, havin owned 8 new audis & waited 1yr extra in anticipation of the Q3, its an amazing & desirable car which had something else not happened (the Evoque) I would have had one & loved it I'm sure! Both ate brilliant cars & hav limited compromises, but are targetted at slightly different niches; the Q3 probably meets a wider range of needs on road, the Evoque a wider range off. In some ways its the other cars in the family that are the deciding factor for many. I hav gone for the Evo as Mrs R's Cayman excels on road & T2 meets leisure needs. Still lov the Q3 & Q3S sounds fab

 

[gazrobsuk]

Different cars for different needs for sure. One thing I forgot to mention is when we went to test the Evoqueat the dealershipin the showroom they have one next to a Disco 4 & it looked the same width more or less (haven't checked the specs) so whilst we are used to the width of a Disco 4 we felt this was more car like & 'nippier' but certainly smoother & quieter IMHO having driven back to back. It's getting on for 5" narrower too which to some is a factor.Maybe the Evoque looks more premium with it's leather dash & contrast stitiching but I'm going on Monday to ordera Q3costing up to £37.5k with all the toys, but a saving probably of £4k over the Evoque for similar spec/our needs.We preffered the 7 speed gearbox too & I reckon it'll be more economic/nippier on narrower roads/easier to park so as we spend 6 months a year in Spain with some dire & narrow streets we think it's best for us, but have agonised over it as the Q3 is not 'wow' in styling but maybe premium/understated whearas the Evoque is fairly 'wow' when you see one parked up

Interesting thread though

 

[rontheman]

Yes, interesting thread!

For us, 4x4 means coping with snow, and just feeling a little more sure-footed in bad weather. We are not off-roaders, but maybe from time to time the knowlege that we could venture marginally "off road" (whatever that means) is comforting.

In the final analysis, what swung us to the Q3 was a belief that Audi is a better engineered, more reliable, and a more complete product than Range Rover. The Evoque styling is fashionable and appealing, but if you look beyond the styling, what do you have other thana Discovery variant. Deep down I have more confidence in Audi than Range Rover as a brand and as a product. Vorsprung durch Technik works for me!

 

[shabazmo]

Having driven both cars, i thought I would add my bit to the discussion. For me the Evoque has crisper steering and the q3 is typican audi lacking in driver involvement withthe road. The Evoquenow appears a bit "bling" especially in some 2 tone colours with darkened windows. I don't think the designwill last the test of time.The key for me was 2 distinct areas. First the build quality of the Q3 was far superior than the Evoque. The quality of both cars were just as god as each other but the build quality was the Q3's ace. i can see the Evoque deteriorating far quicker. The second was the noice levels. I could not beleive how unrefined and noisythe Evoque was. Now this contradicts the pess reports, but that is how I saw the comparison. For us it will be the Q3 when my wife decides to change her car.

 

[Mindstorms]

I think the evoque its an excellent car, but the Q3 its superior in technology, and specs... the evoque it has a more sporty feeling behind the wheel, and maybe its a fun car to drive, but the Q3 exudates ride quality...

its a silent ride..Edited by: Mindstorms

 

[shabazmo]

Since I posted back in January, my wife wanted to look at the Q5. Having compared the Q5 with the Q3, we found the Q5 ride far better than the Q3 with 18" wheels, and we could get memory seats and electric tailgatewith the Q5. We also found that the revised Q5 in early 2013 improved the quality of the car. I also did not like the manual pop up screen of the Q3. Coupled with more room and what we thought was a reasonable price increase we decided on the Q5. I am now on the forum myaudiQ5.com.We orderredon 8June 2013 and will not get delivery until March 2014, a huge 9 month wait, soI hope itwas worth it.

 

[Heritage]

After my first look at a Q3 I went to Guy Salmonds our local Land Rover dealer. With a showroom almost devoid of potential customers I was totally ignored so after sitting in the two Evoques on show I walked out. Funnily it did nothing for me whilst the Q3 went to the top of my wanted list. Earlier I had been in the Jag dealership, very close to Coventry Audi, to look at the Sport Brake and had been ignored in there as well. Perhaps I didn't fit their image.