Black Audi Q3 Rental in Los Angeles

Black on a small SUV does something worth having: it pulls the visual mass down and hides the height, so the car reads lower and wider than it measures. With the dark honeycomb grille and dark wheels on this one, the Q3 looks like a scaled-down version of Audi's expensive cars rather than like an entry model.

It is the Q3 for evenings and for arriving somewhere — a black Audi at a restaurant valet is completely at home, and the paint holds low warm light in a way the lighter cars do not. The trade is the usual one: a hotter cabin after an afternoon in the sun, and dust that shows within a day. It goes out pre-cooled and hand-detailed for that reason.

The Q3 is Audi's compact SUV and it is unusually well-judged for the job most people actually give it. It parks anywhere, sits high enough to see over traffic, and has quattro all-wheel drive as standard — which in Los Angeles matters less for snow than for the first wet morning of the season on a canyon road, when every rear-driven car on the hill is suddenly taking it carefully.

Inside it is the part Audi does best. The cabin is quiet, the switchgear feels expensive, and the driving position is high without being perched. The turbocharged four is smooth rather than urgent, and the seven-speed twin-clutch gearbox is unobtrusive in traffic.

Honest hook: it is comfortable and competent rather than exciting. Book it when you want a premium car that never asks anything of you.