Current Gen Audi Q5 - School Me

Considering a change. Found a low mileage CPO 2023 Prestige 45 that seems to be priced pretty good.
I was originally looking for an SQ5, but I'm not racing it and I'd rather throw the extra money at creature comforts vs an extra 70hp. I don't think I'll be worried about losing that 1 sec in 0-60 time and the fuel economy will be better.
I had an A6 years back and loved it, but also loved having a warranty because every time I took it in for an oil change, they found something else that it needed.
I don't think there's a car out there that doesn't have anecdotal instances of catastrophic failure, but other than that, anyone have experience living with one of these? If so, what's the good/bad/ugly?

 

I have a 2019 Q5 45 premium plus (whatever the mid level with digital dash and that shit is) and I don’t hate it. It’s a little on the small side and a pain to get in and out of.
Really other than trying to get a service appointment and the $150 oil changes it’s fine.

I think of it like a high end household appliance. It’s there, it does the job well and doesn’t bust.

Sam loves it, I tolerate it.

Engine is plenty powerful, the interior is comfortable enough even if it is very utilitarian and it fits enough shit in it to do the deed.
It is dead on handling wise even if the steering feels weirdly “digital.”

I might have gone Q7 in retrospect but that’s just for the few times I want to haul more shit.

 

One thing I’d recommend. Wheel size. 19” wheels seem to be the sweet zone on mine with the extra sidewall that the 19” tires give you. You lose on the handling but the ride is much better.
Mine was stock with 19” and I bought a set of 20” from the kid with an S4. Handled better but the ride totally changed to uncomfortable. Drove with the 20s for a few months and changed back to the original wheels and happier with those overall.
But that’s us, your results may vary.

 

Thanks, Dave.

We have the GLE for when we need more room. I looked at the Q7, but it didn't make sense to us to have 2 cars about the same size.

We had a GLC which is about the same size so I know what you mean about it being a little difficult to get in and out of. This is to replace my Wrangler so it will definitely be easier to get in and out of.

After 12 years of having 4 different Wranglers (talk about utilitarian), I'm kinda over it and my wife hates it. She won't drive in it and unless there's a foot of snow on the ground, she doesn't want to even ride in it. Having this will ease the burden on the GLE.

The one I'm looking at has 7500 miles on it and they just did the 10,000 mile service on it. I'm only driving about 7-8000 miles a year, so the pricey oil changes shouldn't be that big of a deal. And after paying the prices on MB service, I'm sure this will feel like a bargain. It also has the 19" 5-Double-Arm Design Bi-Color wheels.

 

I’ve been racking my brain on issues we’ve had with it and I can’t come up with much. Eats front tires but no worse than most other awd cars. Reverse lights pop but Audi has replaced the two that went out. Nav system is German af and kinda sucks to program but it’s awesome once you get through the chore of putting in the address.
Did get a notice that some of the 2.0t use a lot of oil but I haven’t experienced that.

I switched it over liquimoly a few oil changes back and I feel (probably just in my head) that this was one of the best upgrades I could have made.

 

Gf just picked up a 2018. The 2022+ are a facelift.

did a lot of research on what car to get her and just couldn’t find any major issue with the q5. Some gen 3 ea888 engines do consume oil (my golf r does) but apparently hers doesn’t as it’s a single owner meticulously maintained car and they never had to top up. It is a 7sp DSG not a slush box, some like it, some don’t.
I plan on doing all the maintenance, tranny flushes are cheap, oil just has to be 503 euro spec or some shit, filters are cheap. Doesn’t seem to be a “German” level of maintenance intensity.

 

Run flats used on either?

 

Nope. The 19s had conti all weathers and the 20s had some kind of Michelin summers performance that were on the rims.

I have been kicking around the idea of run flats. Your opinion on them as a whole?

 

I had run flats on the wife’s GLC. Pirelli Scorpions. Hated them. I don’t think we ever got much over 15k out of a set. Had a loaner that didn’t have them and it had a much nicer ride.

 

Good to know!

My wife has a '17 GLC300 with a whopping 19,000 miles on it and when the oem tires are done it sounds like run-flats won't be in the mix.

 

If the vehicle is oe with run flats then buy run flats

 

Weird, my 16 X5 was at 42k something on the oe run flats with the TD at 3/32", but the brakes needed to be serviced?

 

If you can get non run flats in the exact same size, why is that?

 

Sure, but buy a spare wheel/tire with a tpm and a jack.

 

When I had a spare minute I would hang in the Rome factory r&d dept. What I learned especially with BMW SUVs was the OEM suspension settings are different for run flats. Sure many won't notice the difference but many will. Think of a X5 M at a buck thirty in Germany on the autobahn.
And when OEMs are looking everywhere for gas mileage deleting the weight of the spare tire/wheel helps even a tiny bit.

 

The run fat tires in lieu of a spare in the Q7 really annoys me. Does the 5 also lack a spare of any kind?

The only bad thing about 19” wheels is it seems like there’s a lot less to choose from than 20” tires. And Pirelli Scorpion Verde tires, while nice, don’t last at all.

The Audi cockpit isn’t the best interface, as Mr. K pointed out, and the all-glass panel for operating pretty much anything is a bit off-putting. Menus are less-than-intuitive. If you’re coming from a BMW, you’re gonna get angry at it. Maybe I’m picky, but it did take a while to get everything set up the way I like having to wade through selectors that weren’t laid out logically.

Other than that, the Audi is a nice, nice car.

 

One nice thing about Audi, no tpms inside wheel.

 

No spare but of course there was plenty of room for one. The first set on my 2wd F150 on American Racing wheels were OE spec Audi 275/50R20 Scorpion All Season regulars and they went 45-47k-ish if I remember correctly. I chose those because they were recommended by the guys in R&D.

The worst tire mileage ever for me was a set of take off (used at a press launch) P Zero Corsa DOT 17" race tires on a set of Konig wheels on my 2000 Accord. They only went 25k or there about.

 

The 18 q5 has a spare and subwoofer inside of it.
I’m shocked the center console is not touch screen. Gotta use that knob. So weird since 18+ is a new design and they’ve had touch screen in vw for years

 

We just got a letter asking us if we want to be part of another class action against Audi for excessive oil usage in the 2.0 turbo engines. They did a recall for 2006-2011 2.0s, except for the 2012 A5 which was also included. Weird since all the 2012 year stuff had the same 2.0 engine. This latest one covers damn near every car from 2012 to 2017. 5e are paying if you had to come out of pocket for oil consumption, cracked pistons, etc. Our 2012 A4 Avant was always an oil hog. Around 85000 miles we were adding a quart every 800 miles. Had to redo the whole top end. Dealer worked with me and gave me their warranty cost on parts and labor and it was still $5000. Hopefully this settlement will recover some of that for us.