Audi Q3 2019 review – just another compact SUV, but one with potential - Design
The Audi Q3 is not a bad car, but it's lacking in key areas compared to strong rivals, while short of the quality you’d expect
Design
The new Q3 is typical of Audi in 2019, with a combination of highly complex surfacing emphasising each of the four wheelarches through both creases and expanding volumes. The idea is to channel the Audi Quattro, and to a certain extent it’s successful, but is instead at the mercy of that complex design going too far on the lower sections, looking fussy and unresolved.
S line models go even further with larger, even more complex lower bumper designs, and body-coloured lower bumper and wheelarch trims that make even the largest wheel sizes look dowdy. Out of context, the Q3 actually looks more like a large hatchback than a chunky SUV, albeit one that will easily swallow 20-inch wheels. Once again, in the context of premium rivals, the Audi looks a little cheap and underwhelming and no longer competes on desirability – a key deliverable in the class.