NABS4

Mine's over a year old w/37k km and I haven't had one problem. No nav, though.

The 2010 S4 only had the t-stat replaced under a recall, and the blower motor for the HVAC replaced because it had a slight chirp.

So far my Audi experience had been very good.

MP4.2+6.0

The Lexus was too large and pretty dated; did consider the hybrid there. Lexi and Toyotas will rarely win any driver excitement or involvement laurels though, and I am not interested in the Buick sort of stereotype. Gave the X3 a look too. Most of the extra Lexus space is in the rear cargo area, and we didn't need that. The design is very near end of life with a new one due presumably momentarily. Tranny is a step back too, though MPG's probably a bit better actually.

Having owned a Toyota Sienna from new for about six years with the same basic floorpan underneath, I was actually not terribly impressed either. "AWD" is adequate and no more; not remotely like quattro. Sheet metal noticeably thinner than typical American or Euro makes, yet no lighter but prone to easier dings. Not impressed when the control arms up front gave way at 100K--14 book hours to change, and one failed again w/in a year. Having done it (once) on Audis, the labor is far less. And more serious, you think of an Audi as having worn parts at maybe ¼ " deflection; this actually deflected a couple of inches back before I figured it out. Just plain dangerous.

For a different discussion about the second failure, but I'm also finding counterfeit parts are making it seemingly dicey to own an older Japanese make with parts interchange to higher volume and common floorpans--RX, ES, Sienna, Highlander, etc. vis a vis Camry. Then there was the faulty design rear axle attachment to the body w/ a rubber bushing that routinely failed per the boards (at $300 each); just a bolt in part, but when it then lets a vehicle commonly used as a kid hauler roll back a full foot on an upslope, that's no good. Net, notice the issues were actually more on the mechanical side. Soured me in general on the supposed vaunted Toyota/Lexus quality mantra. I've had better luck w/ Audis (and certainly not worse), though these back-to-back early Q5 issues have me--and my wife, the driver of her first Audi--now wondering some.

Transfer

Serious bummer. I hope you luck is better in the future.

MJCow

I recently purchased a used 2010 Q5 PP with 52000, looks like a 1 month old car. Super clean record at the dealership with no issues whatsoever. Consumer Reports and US & Worls News Report recommend the 2010 Q5 over other model years, don't know why because I assume they're basically the same car.

My wife drives a Toyota Highlander Hybrid Limited, not exiting to drive, but how exiting is a Q5 that never leaves the repair shop? It has 24k miles, fully loaded, rock solid, extreemly reliable.

Audi should offer to take your Q5 back and allow you to get another one, if that is not an option, I'd be looking at the lemon law in your state.

josedebardi

I completely agree with the OP that 3 issues in 4 months is not acceptable quality - for any car - in the prestige market or otherwise.

My view though is that with all the electronics in modern cars, owning one out of warranty is a VERY risky business...

I have various cars on my drive and they all fit into 1 of 2 categories;
1. In warranty
2. Over 14 years old
(they also all happen to be German in 1. and Japanese in 2. but not sure that's really relevant!)

The older cars when something goes wrong you can fix with minimal labour/parts costs, but the modern ones are insane when it comes to first diagnosing an issue, and then fixing it, both in time and cost. As such I have just come to accept that I will not be keeping any of my cars in category 1. beyond their warranty period.

I may end up spending a bit more to keep up to date, but at least I have fixed motoring costs with no HUGE surprises like $4000 for a new sat nag.
The way the industry is pricing spares and repairs it won't be long before cars are worth more in scrap at 4 years old with what used to be a minor fault than they are to fix.

It will be interesting to see if the big German luxury brands are forced to start offering 10 year+ warranties like the Asian car manufacturers are starting to do. Already I know 2 people that have moved over to a cheaper, longer warranty slightly less fun/luxury car (one when from a BMW M3 to a Kia Cee'd GT!!).

I wonder what the youth of tomorrow will be getting as their first cars, as there won't be such a thing as a $300 runabout for much longer - only classics and new...

jperryrocks

Not to get off track, but the hybrid q5 is a weird car. Very limited production and you pretty much have to buy one sight unseen and order it.

It's expensive and they make you buy the top line prestige in a 2.0. The fuel economy isn't that good at 31 mpg on the highway.

You can save $10,000 and buy a very nicely equipped 2.0 premium plus gas q5 for 42k. It gets 28 mpg on the highway. Buy a Garmin or use your iPhone for navigation. You can install an aftermarket back up camera. So you are not a slave to spending the most on tech options.

In my 5 Audis, the navigation has never crashed and the electronic have been near flawless.

We've all been the unlucky one in life and bought things that failed. 99 Sony tv's can be perfect, but the 100th has multiple problems and now that guy hates anything sony.

The 2 things that have annoyed me the most about my Audis had nothing to do with electronics. The seat on my 13 prestige a6 would "rock" back and forth a little and drove me crazy. I just got my q5 in October and I had another seat issue. The seat was moving side to side on cornering and they had to replace the frame mechanism. Frustrating that 2 cars in the 60 grand range would have seat problems. But it's fixed now.

I'm just under 3k miles on my q5 and it might be my favorite Audi so far.

abcabc

I had the same seat problem in my 13 Q5 3.0T. Never had that issue in my previous Audis.

Steppenaudi

MP 4.2+6.0, I'm sorry you've had those problems with your Q5 Hybrid. I'm one of the very few other Hybrid owners (Audi is selling about 35 - 45 a month nationwide!), and I've had essentially no problems with the vehicle. We've got about 9K miles on it so far.

The dealer over-filled the oil at the 5K service, and I went back and had that taken care of (I've got a dipstick). I also changed the oil at 1500 miles myself, and since I've done a lot of vehicle maintenance myself in the past, I plan to do the same on this beast.

I'm hoping for a bit better mileage after some more engine break-in time and getting back to Summer gas. I'm also hopeful that the regenerative braking feature will postpone the first brake pad/rotor job for significantly longer than needed for the Q5 gas/diesel vehicles. My 2010 Prius is approaching 70K miles on the original pads/rotors, and I anticipate going > 100K miles before a brake job. That's something that doesn't get mentioned as a Hybrid cost savings.

MP4.2+6.0

Thanks.

I changed the brakes over to RS5 calipers and rotors up front already. When I pulled them and took some measurements, an extrapolation of the wear suggested I might got 35-40K on the stock ones max. That is basically the same as my 2000A6 4.2 and my 2006 W12.

But as I've noticed from the Audiworld MPG posts that have more data here and there, my average speeds over a tank seem a lot lower than many other posts I see where I can interpret that data. Even though I would say I live in the "suburbs" as many others do, I'm realizing definitions about that vary a lot. Where I live (SF Bay Area) is now rated as the second worst traffic in the country for a metro area (behind only LA). What that translates too are low average speeds--low 20 MPH average is my typical reading on the local fill ups)--but also a bunch of stop and go. Add that to the Euro driving in the first 2200 miles with three on board and a bunch of luggage, plus some Autobahn sustained spirited jaunts, and I figure my early brake use was probably on the heavy relative side. I do try to brake it to stay just in the regen. area, which is pretty do-able once the speed comes down some.

Besides maybe brakes, another "hidden" hybrid plus in my state (CA) is unlike straight gas but also diesel, it is exempt from smog checks apparently. NE states typically follow CA rules for emissions now, so it might be similar in other places too. Not just the roller test is waived like any quattro/permanent AWD, but the whole requirement itself. A pleasant surprise since I own most cars out past 4-6 years when the smog checks become every other year here.

On MPG's, I hear you. I can see as low as about 21MPG when the ave. MPH is in the low 20's and as high as 26 or 27 when it is in the low to mid 40's average MPH. For reference, true MPG's based on gallons pumped; my trip computer is averaging about 2-3% optimistic beyond those numbers over a dozen+ tanks where I have data. I have yet to do any full tank open road run at moderate speeds where I expect it would be better. Half tank readings over about 225 miles of open road driving corrected for the assumed trip error seem to extrapolate to the EPA highway rating.

But also having had several loaners now, I have both seen the cumulative MPG's on both a Q5 2.0T and on a Q5 TDI in the world in which I drive and gather my own comparables--no one ever seems to clear the trip computers, so each loaner so far has had the data since it was new. The 2.0T (presumably driven in the same geo area as me and with 2000 miles on the clock) was several MPG's less (3-4MPG) than my lower end MPG experience--both what it read when they gave it to me, and my own MPG experience with it. The Hybrid also has the "right now" torque delivery compared to a 2.0T when you get on it that almost is like a blown and turbo'ed motor combo, but I could still see the MPG delta pretty easily as I drove it.

The TDI (only 400 miles when I got it) was toward the high end of my Hybrid range from the display when I got it, but also showed a lot higher average speeds than my daily experience. The TDI seemed most in its MPG element on moderate highway cruise, contrasted w/ the Hybrid that seems to make up ground quietly in town and on suburban w/ some traffic. The TDI easily broke into the mid 30's as I cruised at freeway speeds on flat ground, while the Hybrid stays in the mid to upper 20's. Over my weekend with the TDI, I saw in the mid 23 ave. MPG range as the average computed speeds my wife and I can drive in town came down a lot. That data is uncorrected for any trip computer error, and the few datas point I have seen on the board suggest 5-10% with TDI's. Even at mid 23, corrected for the higher diesel price than premium in my area, the fuel cost per mile is similar from my quick test where I was using a Q5 Hybrid in my local driving environment (low 20's for ave. MPH). I would need more like a week with it, and more broken in, to get a better direct comparable data set and net out any computer error.

Hopefully no more free loaners will be needed soon though! Both the Q5 TDI and the 2.0T were good loaner experiences to gather a better perspective specific to the model toward the MPG side of the equation, each had interesting motor specific power and torque feel to contrast with mine.

spijun

I'm sorry to hear for your problems but electronics is such.

Navigation and many other electronic parts not produced Audi, I know they are responsible for the quality, but believe it or not they are in general do not repair navigation, but is returned to the manufacturer (Harman/Becker)

And other manufacturers (BMW, MB...) have similar problems if not greater

I hope you will not have more problems