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"Whitby, England: For Dracula fans this fishing port on England&amp;#039;s north-east coast is best known as the setting in Bram Stoker&amp;#039;s original novel where this vampire landed by ship after fleeing his native Transylvania. But there was nothing so blood-curdling about Audi&amp;#039;s latest niche product, the 2011 Audi Q3.   Remarkably this is Audi&amp;#039;s 36th model in its product line-up and we&amp;#039;re assured this onslaught of new cars isn&amp;#039;t about to let up as Audi plays its role in pushing the Volkswagen-Audi group towards global domination.   Unlike its bigger siblings, the Q5 and Q7, the Q3 has an east-west engine as it shares common underpinnings with the VW Tiguan. What&amp;#039;s more, it&amp;#039;s assembled in Seat&amp;#039;s Martorell, Spain, plant which is severely under utilized. As well as absorbing capacity, production costs are lower in Spain making the Q3 an even better money earner for the accountants back in Audi&amp;#039;s home town of Ingolstadt, Germany.           So, a Spanish-built VW-based Audi doesn&amp;#039;t sound very authentic, does it? But it&amp;#039;s all about brand perception. Does anyone really care that Apple products are made in China and not Silicone Valley? No, because what you touch, feel and hear is true to Apple&amp;#039;s core values and it&amp;#039;s the same with this Audi.   It looks like a three-quarter size version of the Q5 and is considerably better looking than the brutish Q7. Inside, the Q3 has the same high-quality touch and feel its siblings have, which shouldn&amp;#039;t be too much of a surprise as Audi has already proved it can do `quality&amp;#039; and `small&amp;#039; simultaneously with the A1.   If you&amp;#039;re happy to pay extra then it can come well-equipped with a built-in mobile Wi-Fi hotspot and a quintet of parking sensors, auto headlamps, blind-spot detection and lane-keeping assist as well as a driver select option that allows you to choose among Comfort, Auto, Dynamic and Efficiency.           The Efficiency mode claims a class first as, under certain conditions, it decouples the engine from the rest of the drivetrain so the car freewheels to conserve fuel. The engine sparks back to life as the brake or throttle is applied. My short drive couldn&amp;#039;t assess the effectiveness of its fuel conservation, but it is a seamless operation.   The front seats are comfortable and there&amp;#039;s a reasonable amount of space, but don&amp;#039;t expect the Q3 to be a big family holdall. Whilst the kids will be well accommodated in the rear seats, if you&amp;#039;ve got Fido on board as well then a roof box will be needed for the luggage.   Soft roaders such as the Q3 aren&amp;#039;t destined to spend their working lives going where the hand of civilized man has never set foot (and enjoy this mixed metaphor for what it is). However, a pre-drive promo film showed the Q3 tackling muddy trails and streams, so it was something of a letdown that our North Yorkshire driving route didn&amp;#039;t even include a short off-road section to demonstrate the car&amp;#039;s Quattro ability.           On road it&amp;#039;s a calm, fluent ride although still in evidence was the usual jiggling undertone caused by our UK&amp;#039;s poor road surfaces. But the steering is well weighted and there&amp;#039;s good body control given the relatively high center of gravity that all cars of this nature have. Also, the driving position affords a good view through traffic.   The 140- and 177-bhp diesels will be UK&amp;#039;s favorites and they are equally smooth to sit behind with sufficient torque to harry other cars along at a brisk pace.   If you desire more urgency, then the TFSI petrol engine cars \u2013 170- and 211-bhp \u2013 will be more your cup of tea, the latter engine capable of whisking the Q3 up to 62 mph in 6.9 seconds. Currently there are no signs that the Q3 will make it across the Atlantic, but never say never in the motor industry as future variants or the second generation could.   The range will expand in the UK and Europe to include a base front-wheel drive model whilst a hot, near 300Bhp variant, is strongly rumored. It won&amp;#039;t, I was told, carry the RS badge, but a new moniker that will also appear on the Q5 and models in the future. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/first-drives/reviews/a17700/2011-audi-q3/>