Tal-Yvan
02-16-2009, 11:30 AM
So we (wifey and myself) took the Q5 for a spin.. Sat around 2pm on a partly cloudy day, dry @ about 30 degrees out.
demo car is a Q5 Prem+ black/beige, with Navigation, had the advanced key, not the push to start button.
Looks: As I've stated before, the car looks great, I think it has really good proportions and I can only relate my testing drive impressions against my wife's current 2006 X3 wich looks a bit dated now. Q5 Wins here.
Ease of In/Out: Q5 is a tad lower, we both felt that it'll be easy to hop over our 5y/o daughter to fasten the seat belt in place. The LATCH's are definetly easier to access, though, I can see the plastic cover being broken fast due to the normal movement of the car seat. We took a look at this after seeting both front seats to match our hight (me 5"9' on the driver's, she 5"4' on the passenger.. since I don't ride when she drives.. this seat pretty much stays on place all the time). After setting this, we could easily see a good 10" space between the seat and the back, wich is good in those cases you don't find the seat belt fastener and need to jump in, with the kiddo already there. Current X3, the LATCH is quite hidden, although this is usally a 1 time set-up, but the actual "Butt Space" is tight, so the fastener for the seatbelt is hard to find about 60% of the time. If you need to step in, the curve of the shape of the door, interfeeres, making you to slide your foot under the passanger's seat for balance.... Q5 Wins.
Height and Cargo space: Again, Q5 is a tad lower and that translates also to the cargo area, the extra legroom gained on the 2nd row, comes at a price, so this shorten's a little bit the cargo area of the Q5, now, the car is wider than the X3, and the bay area is more "squared", so it's a trade off. By making the Q5 a tad lower and the cargo area not as deep, you can easily reach out stuff there without the need of leaning over too much (a problem when you're dress decently and it rains or is all nasty with snow on the back). The open/close button is a very much welcome addition Vs. the "jump" grab and slam door on the X3 (for which the compressed air shocks that hold the dorr are starting to fade after 3.5 yrs). My wife's X3 has a some side runners that stick out about 4" and it's literally impossible not to hit with the leg getting in or out of the car. The Q5 is straight edge and you can slide your legs with ease, no running dirty plastic than hit on the leg. Id give it a 0.5 Win Q5, not a full point.
Interior: Easy.. Q5 wins (Now the beige tested is really yelloish but it does look nice, we just figure that with our Midwest winters and the kid on the back, it'll be too dirty all the time, plus the light leather tends to stain with sweat over time)
Amenities: Nav and MMI.. we don't have this on the X3, but my wife got the idea really quick and started to play with the Nav and radio controls fairly quick, the joystick on the top of the MMI wheel took her 0.002 sec to figure out what it was for. Demo had no B&O, and still sounded very decent, the current X3 only has 1Cd and Radio; the Q5 had the iPod cable, Mem Card slot and can play mp3's.. a smile was drawn on my wife's face. Seat controls were nice, I just wish that the driver's seat could be lowered a tad more, on the X3 you can literally hide yourself. One interesting comment from my wife was that she liked the wheel better than the X3 (non-sport pkg), is a bit smaller and the leather felt just.. well, like an Audi.
Panorama roof.. NICE!!.. you feel almost like on a convertible, that thing is huge and it's cool that actually opens not just tilts like on the S5. We did not took the car to a open area to speed and have the roof open, but on the X3, if you open the sunroof and drive about 40mph your ears can pop out due to the aerodynamics of the car, we usually just tilt it on the X3. The Speech recognition is a very cool feature, but it needs a heck of training, the wife says that can't wait to play with this feature. Q5 wins (against our current X3, not really apples to apples)
Rear Camera:.. nice to have, for security reasons, in real life usage (I was dying for my wife to test this) there is nothing like the good old turn your head. By the way, I could not find how to shut the reverse alert beep.. it's really annoying.
Also big miss from the X3.. the heated stering wheel.
Now to the meat...
Handling: The car is super easy to drive, and it gets tighter on the corners, for some reason I feel the X3 more planted on teh back side when pushing on a long curve, the Q5 felt planted on all 4 tires, minimal body roll for sure. It's actually softer over rail-tracks and imperfections (the x3 has 17"s and the demo had 18"s). I'd say is a tie on here.
Braking: The Q5 is a progressive braking, and we really didn;t beat the demo car for this purpose, however the X3 even after 3.5yrs has more bite, it's not a Lexus.. but I think is not as touchy as the X3, it does brake, don't get me wrong.
Acceleration: oh yeah.. the car is very composed while driving around, but, hit the gas and off we go, it reacts very good, the torque is right there, I think is appropriate for the weight and type of car. The Q5's accel pedal Is a bit too small IMO, as we both kinda "lost" where it was a couple of times. The X3 is a bit more agressive in this segment, perhaps not as torquey but definetly more peppy especially if you set it in manual-matic, which is the only major difference, the X3 can be set to "M"anual mode and changes the settings for accelerations and shifting points, and it still does the gear changes for you, the Q5 when is set to this mode you have to take control right away and make the gear changes yourself (so be careful). I was lucky enough to get next to another couple testing a new RX350.. and I think they liked the Q5 better judging by their fingers pointing and smiles. I'd five it a tie with the X3, by balancing the goods and misses.
Other Cues: Side Mirrors look awesome on the car, but the feel really, really big while driving, to the point that you look to tae a corner and the mirror will be on the way.. i'm sure is just a matter to getting used to it. LED lights makes everybody get out of your way, the car drives attention, no questions asked there.
So overall, it's a GREAT car, absolutely nothing to envy to the oldish now X3; the most important part is that the wife in her own words commented that she can't wait to have the car and use it; despite that doesn't have a heated stering wheel.
Thanks for reading all the way to here.
demo car is a Q5 Prem+ black/beige, with Navigation, had the advanced key, not the push to start button.
Looks: As I've stated before, the car looks great, I think it has really good proportions and I can only relate my testing drive impressions against my wife's current 2006 X3 wich looks a bit dated now. Q5 Wins here.
Ease of In/Out: Q5 is a tad lower, we both felt that it'll be easy to hop over our 5y/o daughter to fasten the seat belt in place. The LATCH's are definetly easier to access, though, I can see the plastic cover being broken fast due to the normal movement of the car seat. We took a look at this after seeting both front seats to match our hight (me 5"9' on the driver's, she 5"4' on the passenger.. since I don't ride when she drives.. this seat pretty much stays on place all the time). After setting this, we could easily see a good 10" space between the seat and the back, wich is good in those cases you don't find the seat belt fastener and need to jump in, with the kiddo already there. Current X3, the LATCH is quite hidden, although this is usally a 1 time set-up, but the actual "Butt Space" is tight, so the fastener for the seatbelt is hard to find about 60% of the time. If you need to step in, the curve of the shape of the door, interfeeres, making you to slide your foot under the passanger's seat for balance.... Q5 Wins.
Height and Cargo space: Again, Q5 is a tad lower and that translates also to the cargo area, the extra legroom gained on the 2nd row, comes at a price, so this shorten's a little bit the cargo area of the Q5, now, the car is wider than the X3, and the bay area is more "squared", so it's a trade off. By making the Q5 a tad lower and the cargo area not as deep, you can easily reach out stuff there without the need of leaning over too much (a problem when you're dress decently and it rains or is all nasty with snow on the back). The open/close button is a very much welcome addition Vs. the "jump" grab and slam door on the X3 (for which the compressed air shocks that hold the dorr are starting to fade after 3.5 yrs). My wife's X3 has a some side runners that stick out about 4" and it's literally impossible not to hit with the leg getting in or out of the car. The Q5 is straight edge and you can slide your legs with ease, no running dirty plastic than hit on the leg. Id give it a 0.5 Win Q5, not a full point.
Interior: Easy.. Q5 wins (Now the beige tested is really yelloish but it does look nice, we just figure that with our Midwest winters and the kid on the back, it'll be too dirty all the time, plus the light leather tends to stain with sweat over time)
Amenities: Nav and MMI.. we don't have this on the X3, but my wife got the idea really quick and started to play with the Nav and radio controls fairly quick, the joystick on the top of the MMI wheel took her 0.002 sec to figure out what it was for. Demo had no B&O, and still sounded very decent, the current X3 only has 1Cd and Radio; the Q5 had the iPod cable, Mem Card slot and can play mp3's.. a smile was drawn on my wife's face. Seat controls were nice, I just wish that the driver's seat could be lowered a tad more, on the X3 you can literally hide yourself. One interesting comment from my wife was that she liked the wheel better than the X3 (non-sport pkg), is a bit smaller and the leather felt just.. well, like an Audi.
Panorama roof.. NICE!!.. you feel almost like on a convertible, that thing is huge and it's cool that actually opens not just tilts like on the S5. We did not took the car to a open area to speed and have the roof open, but on the X3, if you open the sunroof and drive about 40mph your ears can pop out due to the aerodynamics of the car, we usually just tilt it on the X3. The Speech recognition is a very cool feature, but it needs a heck of training, the wife says that can't wait to play with this feature. Q5 wins (against our current X3, not really apples to apples)
Rear Camera:.. nice to have, for security reasons, in real life usage (I was dying for my wife to test this) there is nothing like the good old turn your head. By the way, I could not find how to shut the reverse alert beep.. it's really annoying.
Also big miss from the X3.. the heated stering wheel.
Now to the meat...
Handling: The car is super easy to drive, and it gets tighter on the corners, for some reason I feel the X3 more planted on teh back side when pushing on a long curve, the Q5 felt planted on all 4 tires, minimal body roll for sure. It's actually softer over rail-tracks and imperfections (the x3 has 17"s and the demo had 18"s). I'd say is a tie on here.
Braking: The Q5 is a progressive braking, and we really didn;t beat the demo car for this purpose, however the X3 even after 3.5yrs has more bite, it's not a Lexus.. but I think is not as touchy as the X3, it does brake, don't get me wrong.
Acceleration: oh yeah.. the car is very composed while driving around, but, hit the gas and off we go, it reacts very good, the torque is right there, I think is appropriate for the weight and type of car. The Q5's accel pedal Is a bit too small IMO, as we both kinda "lost" where it was a couple of times. The X3 is a bit more agressive in this segment, perhaps not as torquey but definetly more peppy especially if you set it in manual-matic, which is the only major difference, the X3 can be set to "M"anual mode and changes the settings for accelerations and shifting points, and it still does the gear changes for you, the Q5 when is set to this mode you have to take control right away and make the gear changes yourself (so be careful). I was lucky enough to get next to another couple testing a new RX350.. and I think they liked the Q5 better judging by their fingers pointing and smiles. I'd five it a tie with the X3, by balancing the goods and misses.
Other Cues: Side Mirrors look awesome on the car, but the feel really, really big while driving, to the point that you look to tae a corner and the mirror will be on the way.. i'm sure is just a matter to getting used to it. LED lights makes everybody get out of your way, the car drives attention, no questions asked there.
So overall, it's a GREAT car, absolutely nothing to envy to the oldish now X3; the most important part is that the wife in her own words commented that she can't wait to have the car and use it; despite that doesn't have a heated stering wheel.
Thanks for reading all the way to here.