Volvo XC90 VS Audi RS Q3

Thanks to semi-autonomous technology, this XC90 can pretty much drive itself, although taking your hands off the steering wheel for more than 20 seconds will very quickly remind you of the law.

So, provided you touch the steering at those regular intervals and the road is clearly marked, this car can stay within its lane in city confines, follow confidently behind the car in front, braking, accelerating and stopping when necessary.

It is less confident on narrower poorly marked or inconsistently edged roads, but that doesn’t detract from the wow factor, and in all honesty has more to do with our infrastructure problems than Volvo’s technical wizardry.

The thing is that even though this car can carry out most of the mundane functions of driving, it has such a sense of ease about it that you will want to drive yourself.

In slow, stop-start city commuting the electric engine comes into its own, allowing you to shuffle along without troubling its petrol wing man. You have to remember to recharge when you get to the office or back from the school run, however, or it sort of defeats the purpose.

The petrol unit, with a more than competent eight-speed transmission to facilitate performance, sticks fastidiously to the task, although it can sometimes feel a tad lethargic.

It is hard to find fault with the petrol and electric engines working in unison, a combined peak torque of 640Nm giving you all the oomph you need.

The twin engine XC90 is nicely balanced, easy to manoeuvre and an excellent cruiser. You can occasionally feel its weight around tight corners but that is to be expected.

The brakes took a bit of getting used to as the car initially uses regenerative braking to capture energy, but then stops quickly as speed drops. It's a bit of a surprise, but easy enough to accommodate.

In the intro I likened the RS model range to a knife block full of all well-crafted sharp things, each with different purposes.

At the launch of the RS Q3, Audi also introduced its other new and updated RS models to us, from the RS 7 and RS 6 Avant to the TT RS and even the R8 supercar.

The meat cleaver is definitely the RS 6 Avant which feels like a luxury locomotive with seemingly never-ending sledgehammer acceleration.

I’m beginning to regret the knife analogy because I don’t know knives very well. But I do know cars and the RS Q3 is probably the opposite to an RS6 Avant in that it’s small and agile, with an energetic engine that pauses only to catch its breath in the form of building its boost before sling-shotting you towards the next corner. And it’s loud inside - even with the windows up.

I was impressed by the ride comfort which never became harsh even in 'Dynamic' mode. The suspension is soft enough for acceleration and braking to make the nose pitch and dip, but handling, body control and composure is excellent.

While you can shift gears yourself using the paddles in manual mode, that transmission is best left in auto and in the 'S' setting. You’ll get the full noise under hard acceleration and lightning quick shifts to go with it.

Regular Q3s take eight to nine seconds to accelerate from 0-100km/h. The RS Q3 can do it in 4.5 seconds, which is getting into properly quick territory where steering wheels also becomes a handrails for something to hold onto as you’re yanked down the road with superb all-wheel drive traction.

The same 2.5-litre five cylinder is in the RS 3 Avant but that weighs about 200kg less and can hit 100km/h in 4.1 seconds. But the only way I can sit in the back of an RS 3 is if I put my knees under my chin – not so with the RS Q3.