AIMED at the middle classes with the same unerring accuracy as a Marks and Spencer meal deal and the Boden catalogue, Audi's dinky Q3 has been a big hit for the swish German brand.
Essentially a high-rise version of the excellent A3 hatchback - as you may know, a 'Q' in an Audi's name means it belongs to its family of SUVs - the Q3 arrived in 2011.
Since then, the A3 has been replaced by an all-new and even more excellent model but a similar upgrade for the Q3 is still some way off.
Audi has seen fit to give it a facelift, however, with a range of cosmetic and mechanical improvements to help keep it on a par with opponents like the Range Rover Evoque.
It should be noted that as far as mid-life facelifts go, the Q3 has been given a blink-and-you'll-miss-it nip-and-tuck. Audi aficionados might clock the new grille, with its stainless steel surround, and the LED taillight with their animated indicators, but most people in the Sprucefield car park won't be able to tell that your Q3 is a 2015 model.
That's not an enormous criticism, to be honest. There was little wrong with the Q3 to begin with. Similarly, while it benefits from the latest versions of Audi's petrol and diesel engines, there are no stop-you-in-your-tracks mechanical changes. The Audi way is gentle, incremental evolution, and the latest Q3 epitomises this approach.
The only part of the 2015 flavour Q3 that fails to taste fresh is the interior, though this criticism, I'll admit, is nitpicking.
It all works beautifully, is engineered like a high-end stereo and looks wonderful. But, Audi itself has moved the game on significantly since 2011, meaning the Q3 feels a little old if you've spent time with the latest A3 or the new TT, with its über-minimalist interior and brilliant digital dashboard.
The back seat is probably best suited to two adults rather than three - a grown-up won't thank you if they have to sit in the middle perch - but three children will be fine, and the boot remains decent and usefully shaped.
The driving experience is same-again, too. Once more, this is no bad thing. The Q3 is a supremely easy car to drive, thanks not only to a raised driving position which gives a great view of the road ahead - as useful on country roads as in town - but also the essential rightness of all its controls.
Handling is grippy and secure - the test car was equipped with quattro four-wheel-drive - and the 182bhp 2.0-litre diesel engine brawny enough to give it plenty of poke. My car had Audi's remarkable seven-speed double-clutch automatic gearbox, which remains the best of all these sorts of transmissions.
Only an extremely enthusiastic stop-start system which was occasionally more stop than start marred the overall experience, making leaving a couple of junctions a little more, erm, exciting than it ought to have been.
There's nothing radical about the facelift Audi has wrought on the Q3. Instead, it benefits from a range of well chosen and considered upgrades. Which is just fine; it's not a radical car to begin with, and Audi has likely got it right by doing enough to ensure the Q3's competitiveness until the inevitable all-new model arrives in a few years.
