Gripes
 

Hi All,

Proud owner of a S5 Sportback as of a few months ago. Love the car and happy with it and all that, but I like complaining so figured I would set out the issues I have with the car and see whether others have these issues/views as well.

In no particular order:

- The privacy cover on the sportback rattled like crazy. Had to take it off. The entire setup seems insecure and not designed with any concern for noise

- The break pedal clicks. Like a mechanical click on a mouse where plastic gears click against each other. Sometimes it isn't too bad but sometimes there are a whole bunch of little points in the depress range which make it click multiple times on the way down and back up. When moving in slow traffic with the pedal partially depressed it can end up in a sort of reverse a sweet spot where it clicks repeatedly as it trips over the threshold down and up over and over again. Is driving me a bit nuts and hoping it is something wrong rather than some sort of purposeful noise or design flaw.

- The camera placement/shielding is really bad. A tiny bit of rain or snow and it is basically unusable.

- The sensors are way too sensitive. Pulling in and out of the garage it is always telling me my side is right up against something even though I'm clearly not. The solid warning noise is supposed to be for when any movement is going to hit something, not just you are close enough to pay attention. Much more sensitive than my last car (Merc C43)

- Related issue, when raining or snowing the sensors go off constantly. Much more sensitive than the last car, though it had an issue like that too.

- Have only had happen it once so far, but sitting at a red light it apparently thought I was going to be in an accident and "pre-sensed) the seat and seatbelt. Really uncomfortable and annoying but hopefully that was a one-off.

- The gas tank is small. Didn't think it would be such a big deal, but with city commuting in the winter I got like 250km on my last tank. The remaining gas estimator is also pretty terrible, since it went on at 80km left when I was at home but by the time I drove 10km to the office and a few km home it had already dropped to 20. It knew what my mileage was on that tank so I don't know why it can't be more accurate with estimated remaining mileage or it could be so off when the commutes were all exactly the same. Worries me I am going to run out of gas one of these days and for the first time in a long time I have range anxiety in a car. Hate having to fill up more than every other week.

Other smaller things:

- It would be good if smartconnect/Carplay had a dedicated button on the console. When switching between Waze and the radio it is an unnecessary cumbersome process when you don't want to cycle through stations one at a time or use the steering wheel click dial (which isn't very good).

- Still don't understand why they couldn't put in active TPS sensors so I could actually see the tire pressure. Virtually every other car maker does this.

- They should have put in an automatic steering wheel adjuster so it could be set with driver memory. Annoying to have to move it when my wife drives and not a lot to ask for on a car in this product space.

- Less of an issue now that I'm used to it, but the blind spot monitor is also overly sensitive and when combined with mirrors that do not have the best range of vision, is unfortunate. My last car if the light was on I couldn't go and if it wasn't on I could, and I had confidence in it. This one goes on really early and cars going the same speed several car lengths back can still set it off. Luckily it doesn't beep (although I would have preferred it was accurate and beeped instead of how it works now). That said, you learn its quirks pretty quickly and the adjustment hasn't been terrible.

- I don't like that you need to set the sound for every input. Would have been good to have some sort of master set if they are going to add functionality for variation between inputs. Was more annoying than anything but not the biggest of deals.


Anyways, still very glad I got the car. Drive is solid, great interior, exterior looks amazing and love having the trunk space. But what's the point of living if you can't complain about everything...

I am not a great fan of actual TPMS in that I have to switch wheel sets for winter and summer. No re-programming required for most Audis. Since my greatest concern is knowing whether I have a flat or not (as opposed to race-ready warm/cold actual temperatures), I am fine with the wheel-rotation monitoring system.

While I have the same sentiment, I found out my wife's Grand Cherokee TPMS system automatically determines the wheel location within the 1st 10 miles of driving (after rotating tires, exchanging winter / summer tires). I would think that if Jeep is doing it, most other high end makers are doing it as well. Granted, I think it was another $150-$200 when I bought the winter wheels/tires to get the TPMS sensors.

I agree the gas estimator is really bad. I also drive an X5 and the estimator is spot on since it will fluctuate up and down as you drive. The S5 is just dead set on a number and once you drive slightly aggressive it will just jump down immediately. However when you drive soft on the pedal the number won't go back up instead it will just stay the same.

It can be really noisy if everything isn't clicked in and seated. Make sure that the metal studs are fully seated into the plastic clips on the cover, and that the plastic clips are clicked shut. When I loaded up my trunk with stuff to donate and knocked those parts loose it rattled like hell until I went back there are locked everything down. There have also been some complaints about the removable shelf making noise and it sounds like the dealer can do something to tighten it up.

If a car was coming up fast behind you at the light, the presense rear would do exactly as you experienced.

Agree. The mirrors are just not good enough for full blind spot visibility and the blind spot monitor cannot be fully trusted on this car. I always have to shoulder check which slows down my lanes changes. Not that big of a deal but worth noting.

You definitely need to have this looked at. Mine are smooth and quiet. My only gripe with the brakes is that they tend to grab a bit as I slow to a stop. I need to let off of them a bit..