Q5 buying guide? Is there one, what to look for?

[ride92]

So our B6 A4 i believe is in its last legs. I just don't rust the car anymore, things keep breaking. So my wife and have been talking about getting something new to us. The Q5 is on the short list but I don't know much about them. What is the better engine to get as far as reliability. The 1.8 in the A4 has its fair share of known issues, oil sludge, bad coils, j-plugs, rear coolant flange, heater cores going bad (all of which I've had to deal with). Is the 2.0 engine much better then the 1.8? Do most prefer the 3.0 or 3.2 v6 Over the 4cyl turbos? And links or threads you guys could steer me to would be appreciated thanks

[IinsureU]

I am highly enjoying my TDI....

[ride92]

Yeah, the TDI would be nice but I think at this point it's out of our price range. We are looking to stay around $30,000 and under 40-50K miles. We are also looking at the BMW X3. I'm just trying to get some advice on what Q5 model to look at. Was there a particular year that I should avoid or something? What are some know problems? Any help or insight is appreciated.

[Jmsalt1]

So our B6 A4 i believe is in its last legs. I just don't rust the car anymore, things keep breaking. So my wife and have been talking about getting something new to us. The Q5 is on the short list but I don't know much about them. What is the better engine to get as far as reliability. The 1.8 in the A4 has its fair share of known issues, oil sludge, bad coils, j-plugs, rear coolant flange, heater cores going bad (all of which I've had to deal with). Is the 2.0 engine much better then the 1.8? Do most prefer the 3.0 or 3.2 v6 Over the 4cyl turbos? And links or threads you guys could steer me to would be appreciated thanks

I am in a similar situation. 2000 A4 2.8L Manual with only 113k on it but due to age, the list of necessary repairs is growing relative to the value of the car. My wife really likes the looks of the Q5 but when I compare what we have spent to maintain an A4 vs. our MDX, it costs about 2x what we spend on the MDX to maintain the A4 and that doesn't include about $3-4k in deferred repairs that I've decided not to put into the vehicle because there is no way I will get even a fraction of that out of it at this point. It's still on the original clutch too. I would like to hear from some Q5 owners regarding maintenance on this vehicle. Does it eat wheel bearings like candy similar to my A4? I think I've had to replace all of them at least twice since we purchased it back in December of 1999. Annoying things go wrong on the A4 that I don't have to deal with on our MDX.

To the OP, since I've spent a good amount of $ in the service bay and know my service tech. at Audi pretty well (he has been with them for quite awhile), I called him recently to ask about the Q5. He knows I keep my vehicles a long time and here is what he had to say:

Overall, owners really like the Q5 and in his words it has been an "awesome" car. While I expected him to say good things, he does work for Audi, you can tell when someone is just saying it or if they really think it if you are a good listener. You can tell by how they respond, tone in their voice, etc.

If not going the TDI route, he suggested the 2.0 over the 3.2. He said while there have not been any major issues in the Q5 w/ the 3.2, there have been some issues with this engine in other models. Therefore, since we are not trying to make this vehicle anything more than it was intended to be (attractive knock around town crossover - not a true performance sedan) we would probably just go with the 2.0 to get around the burbs.

He suggested that we may want to avoid 2009-2011 due to some oil consumption issues for those model years. Given that 2012 was the model refresh, we would probably look at 2012 and newer 2.0. He thought 2013 was the first year a Bluetooth connection so you can play music off your phone was available but only on the Premium Plus and higher trim packages. I have not verified that yet but have no reason to believe it's incorrect either.

[jollyroger]

We actually went for the 2010, Jmsalt1 is correct that this year doesn't have the A2DP bluetooth to play music, but we use the SDCard with playlists anyway.

The reason we went for the 2010 is because of the 3.2l motor that has been very reliable on the Q5 according to most reports. I was a little nervous about later model 2.0T motors having issues with oil consumption. I used http://usnews.rankingsandreviews.com, cars.com customer reviews, and tracked forum entries The only issue the 3.2L has is the carbon build up issue in humid climates, but that's an issue with any DI car, however the 3.2L may be prone to develop it quicker. It is however known how to deal with it even with Indy shops. The gist was the 2.0T could have oil consumption issues and carbon build up, where the 3.2L just had carbon buildup.

The only bummer is that on that year getting Map updates cost about $375 at our local Audi center (Which in comparison is not bad). We get the traffic over satellite so we now have updated maps and traffic information. That has been helpful.

During the update we got a Q3 loaner that was 2.0T and it had more idle roughness and needed to downshift more on hilly roads around here, and the Q3 is smaller than the Q5. I've been impressed with the smoothness and power of the 3.2L. Plus with out all the turbos there is just that much less to go wrong. Time will tell but that was our criteria while looking for a Q5.

[ride92]

Thanks guys, that is exactly the type of information that I'm looking for. I know my wife would very much like Bluetooth or some at least an apple connect cable to play music off her iPhone. What year did the Bluetooth start? And if no Bluetooth does it have a USB port that will charge and connect the phone with the right cable?

So it seems that the both 2.0t and 3.2 are better engines then the 1.8t. I like the fuel mileage advantage of the 2.0 but jollyrodger makes a good point about there being less "stuff" to go wrong in a naturally aspirated engine.

Do the towing capacities change between the engines? Down the road we'd like to get a 16-18' bowrider boat and would want to tow with our next vehicle. At least have the option to tow if ever needed.

[jollyroger]

Ours came with the towing package, and it allows a max of 4400 lbs of towing. I'm not sure about the other engines though.

[LINDW4LL]

So it seems that the both 2.0t and 3.2 are better engines then the 1.8t. I like the fuel mileage advantage of the 2.0 but jollyrodger makes a good point about there being less "stuff" to go wrong in a naturally aspirated engine.

Do the towing capacities change between the engines? Down the road we'd like to get a 16-18' bowrider boat and would want to tow with our next vehicle. At least have the option to tow if ever needed.

Towing capacity is the same; the 2.0T can handle it but I'd personally step up to a 3.0T if you plan on towing a boat on more than the rare occasion. It's a much nicer experience. Also, the 3.0T has shown to be essentially problem-free, but the 2.0T is good as well aside from the oil consumption issues and will return better fuel economy numbers.

My final thoughts; obviously the price difference between the two is significant on the used market. You can always buy the 2.0T now and upgrade when you get a boat, but if you can afford the supercharged V6, I'd do that.

[dewey527]

Good topic. I've had an A4 with some mods since 2004 and have really started to research and compare which vehicle to get next. I need to spend a lot (BT, seats, wheels, maintenance stuff) to keep my interest up and I can't seem to justify the cost on such an old car. I am leaning towards a used Q5 3.0t PP or Prestige. I have read that the sport seats are a better option than the regular seats. Is that a package option? Any years to stay away from? I would like to get a tune (undecided), springs (H&R) and exhaust down the road. What other options should I look for? Thanks and yes I have spent way too much time on the forums drooling over some of the awesome rides.

[VroomVroom]

OP....perhaps an approach to consider - check the market against your budget, and narrow down the model year(s) and trim level(s) that are compatible.

In comparing 2011+ 2.0T and 3.2 models, one important difference is the transmission. The 8-speed unit behind the 2.0T is a significant improvement over the 6-speed in the 3.2L models. Having owned a 2012 with the 3.2, I can say that it occasionally felt sluggish and heavy. Starting on hills was a particular experience, and it never seemed to be happy in any of the 1-2-3 gears. Sport and manual mode helped, but there's no discounting the value of those two extra ratios. You can argue the value of those gears in the boosted engine vs. the extra torque of the six-cylinder, but things get really subjective at that point. If it comes down to such a choice, I'd recommend extended test drives over a common route to see which one suits you best.

Obviously the 2.0T and 3.0T models in 2013+ years both enjoy the 8-speed, so it becomes a budget/wish-list match at that point. 2013 was a mild makeover year, so along with the 3.2 > 3.0T swap, there are new head & tail lights, 3G MMI, Audi Connect, Drive Select, and most likely a few things I'm forgetting.

It's hard to pinpoint an exact search or particular threads that speak to differences between years and drivetrains, but if you can pour a cup of coffee and scroll a bit, I think you'll gain some insight. Good luck.

[jollyroger]

Another thing to consider is if you are looking for any performance modifications like chipping, you want to look at the forced induction models since you can get gains out of that. With the 3.2 naturally aspired engines it doesn't make sense since the ECU programing doesn't get you much, if you can find one at all. Not something we are interested in as we kinda like to keep things stock. Also from various sources the 3.2L motor seems to be a motor that is known to last long where the others

I would say that our 3.2L 2010 doesn't seem to have any issues on hills or problems accelerating. At least not as far as I notice and we live in a hilly area. To refine my comments above, we had to get a loaner Q3 with a 2.0T one day an I noticed that it would down shift a lot. I'm not sure if the Q3 has different tuning than a Q5 2.0T but I wasn't as impressed with it, and thought I would be even less impressed if it were in a Q5 but to be clear, I haven't driven a Q5 2.0T and for all I know the loaner was filled with regular gas instead of premium. I think the loaner was a 2015 Q3 but I'm sure it was no older than 2014. I have no experience with a 3.0T but I would imagine it would be a nice ride I also haven't heard about oil consumption issues with it. but it wasn't available in our price range.

If you are going to an Audi Dealer you can probably test drive a couple of different ones and see what you like. We went to a non Audi Dealer so we weren't able to compare different versions of the same model.