alatsacto

Love the look. I was going with the full S-Line package with whichever engine I was picking from 3.0T, TDI, or SQ5. I know this is an Audi forum, but I loved that torquey feel on that 335d. We were lucky to get that car as a loaner earlier this year. It just happened to be the day before we were going to place the order on our Q5. Plus we just happened to have a day trip planned to Half Moon Bay with the loaner. I loved the way it accelerated. I never had a chance to test drive the Q5 TDI since it wasn't out yet. I came very close to picking the TDI engine after my 335d experience, but in the end I couldn't pick it because I didn't get a chance to drive it. The closest thing I could test drive at the time was an A8 TDI and while it's not the perfect comparison, it didn't feel anything close to the 335d. While it was an amazingly nice car, it didn't have that same sporty drive to it.

Coolieman1220, since you have driven the Q5 TDI and 335d, how do they compare? I guess in a perfect world or in Europe, we would have the SQ5 TDI as an option in the US, but I'm definitely not complaining about how my SQ5 drives. It's great how we do have so many engine types to pick from.

Coolieman1220

My BMW nav calculates it really well, especially with traffic. It's almost garmin good. I'm used to beating the nav by a few minutes, not 10 minutes or so like the MMI's unit.

I like how i-drive splits the screen and gives me two views. I can see my entertainment & nav at the same time. or use the telephone functions while still looking at the nav. The larger screen is nicer too. The BMW controller feels better in your hand, feels better placed for ergonomics and the buttons are closer together making them easier to select your functions. Also the wheel can move to make selections/move about the menus while Audi has the weird joystick on top. I guess at the end of the day its a personal preference but I have always liked idrive and it has only gotten better. At the end of the day it boils down to personal preference.

Haha i was just trying to use them as arrows lol. the hyphen is not a bad idea.

Too bad i'l lose google maps when I lose the data connection. If it had 4g, i'd consider and if i was able to do MORE.

I've read the miles per post. Audi miles per tank has always been a bit funky. BMW does a better job with it. I'm still tracking fillups to track trends better and see what I get. Only time & miles will tell!

To truly enjoy and figure out if you can live with a diesel, you have to drive it for more than a day. Keep in mind the A8 is a bit heavier but the 335d is a sport sedan. It just wants to go go go! It's a very fun car to drive and one of my favorites.

The Q5 has lots of torques as well and moves. The transmission is geared perfectly to it. The engine RPM's work really well for everyday driving situation. I did notice a bit of turbo lag when you really push it, especially from say less than 1500rpm. Of course the car wants to downshift which is really quick and saves a lot of trouble but if you force it to accelerate it lags a bit before getting up and moving. This could be because it only has a single turbo where as the 335d has a sequential setup so it has no problems.

Why did you get the SQ5 over the 3.0t? What would have made you consider a tdi?

ELEVENS

I too was lured in and mislead by the greater than (>) signs in the thread title. I suppose that's what I get for being a Big Bang Theory scientist-type. The use of the word "rim" is interesting as well. Technically, a "rim" is the outer edge of the wheel. I know what you mean but it's a misnomer to me.

Good looking car though. I like the color combo and S-Line is a must! Couldn't agree more on the engine observations. Sound, power, vibrations, fuel mileage - all spot-on. In this case, indeed 3.2 > 2.0T and TDI > both.

alatsacto

There were a few factors in our decision. As mentioned, I was getting some form of the S-Line package for whichever car I decided on. When deciding between the SQ5 and 3.0T, the wife wanted the Estoril Blue color, but couldn't justify possibly paying $3k+ for exclusive color options. I liked the more HP and higher torque in the SQ5. In the end, the price actually became the deciding factor. When comparing other models, typically the jump to an S model is $10-15k. While not an apples to apples comparison, I assumed I wouldn't be able to justify the price difference. While on the face of it, the SQ5 is $7500 more than the base 3.0T, however with the full S-Line package, it is only a $4000 MSRP difference. With our ED discount, in the end, I was able to justify to the wife the more unique and faster SQ5 for less than $4k difference, plus she could have the color she wanted.

Yup I definitely understand that the A8 versus 335d isn't a fair comparison, since the 335d is a sports sedan, but I wanted to at least have a feel for the Audi TDI engine. As far as choosing the Audi TDI engine, that would have been difficult. All of the numbers looked great. I loved the potential gas mileage on the TDI. However since we were locked in for European Delivery with the trip already planned, we had a timeframe on our decisions. Without being able to test drive the Q5 TDI, there was no way I could make that jump. Plus the SQ5 is only $1400 more when compared to the TDI w/ S-Line. Now if the decision was made today and the Q5 TDI drove comparable to the 335d, I might have given it serious consideration. Just yesterday we had a loaner A6 3.0T, it's a great car. It drove very smoothly. Both my wife and I liked it, but preferred driving our own SQ5. I guess in the end, it's all about driving preferences. Both of us enjoy the more sportier drive.

AudiFreak666

Man, for a second there I was about to say that sucks, you rated the TDI last and I just bought one lol. I realize the ">" is not what it seems. Mine should be in around mid March but reading all these posts about all the fun people are having with their Q5 TDI's is making this wait very painful!!!!

AudiFreak666

For me it was between the TDI and 3.0 gas and I did consider te SQ5; however, it was definitely not a $1400 difference...it was close to $6k and that's an SQ5 with just MMI that came to about $58k (if I remember correctly). I ended up getting a 2014 Q5 TDI Daytona Gray, MMI, S-line, Sport Interior and no other options...got it for 52k. which was a $1000 over what a regular 3.0T similarly equipped but with B&O would have cost me...I like the TDI more and with a $1000 difference only and much better fuel mileage as well as premium gas is not much cheaper than diesel here, it was a no brainer for me to go TDI. I did drive the SQ5 and loved it though, so congrats to all with that beautiful beast!