Young Love

Audi's Sporty SQ5 Aims for The Well-Heeled Millennial

- Christian Seabaugh

We millennials have it so easy. Our parents—those (you!) know-it-all baby boomers— grew up making “hard” choices such as which two cars to buy for a young family’s commute and weekend escapes. We, the allegedly entitled Gen Y, typically have the attention span (and budget) to buy just the one car. And whether we have Tesla or Toyota money, we expect our ride to do everything—it must be an economical commuter, a comfortable grand tourer, a light off roader, and fun to drive.

For the well-heeled among us, the European luxury automakers have gotten quite good at filling this particular niche. And with the 2018 Audi SQ5, the folks from Ingolstadt prove they know what those wealthier millennial (and younger Gen X) buyers want. Audi says the typical SQ5 owner skews male and is typically around 35 years old. That makes it the youngest demographic in the Audi line despite being more expensive than several other four-rings models. Audi seems to have found the formula that sets millennial hearts ablaze.

Based on the second-gen Q5, Audi’s redesigned SQ5 picks up where the mainstream Q5 leaves off. The old SQ5’s 3.0-liter supercharged V-6 gets replaced with a new 3.0-liter turbocharged V-6, with its single twin-scroll turbo nestled inside the engine’s vee to mitigate lag. Power is unchanged at 354 hp, but torque increases from 346 to 369 lb-ft. Audi says the new turbo engine is 31 pounds lighter than the old V-6 and is tuned to be more responsive. It’s a big leap over the 252 hp and 273 lb-ft you get from the capable enough 2.0-liter turbo in the standard Q5—which no longer offers a V-6 option.