Audi Q3 SUV - Reliability & safety

The Audi brand enjoys an enviable image, bolstered by the high-quality finish of its cars and their aspirational, desirable aura. However, material quality clearly isn't everything – not every Audi owner has been entirely delighted by their experience.

Audi Q3 reliability

The Audi Q3 came 27th out of the top 75 cars in our latest Driver Power survey, which is a pretty impressive score and shows that the ownership experience should be a good one.

Unfortunately, Audi itself finished in 30th position out of 32 manufacturers covered in our brand survey – even worse than last year’s 23rd from 29 manufacturers, and behind key rivals such as Mercedes-Benz (25th), BMW (21st), and Lexus (8th).

Safety

The Audi Q3 breezed through the Euro NCAP safety testing and was awarded a five-star rating as a result. The Q3 comes with the brand's pre-sense safety systems. Amongst the features fitted are autonomous emergency braking, lane-departure warning and assistance, light-sensing headlamps and rain-sensing wipers. A semi-autonomous 'adaptive cruise assist' system can be added to cars with the S tronic automatic gearbox – it can look after the accelerator, brake and steering to follow the car in front, with the aim of reducing driver workload on long journeys.