Pros

Fit and finish as expected from Audi.
Very comfortable ride, even over potholes that would eat my i3 for lunch.
Excellent forward and rear visibility. Excellent range of mirror adjustment.
Very comfortable and widely adjustable seat and steering wheel.
Sun visors can telescope allowing them to be positioned very flexibly and look like they will cover all possible sun angles.
MMI interface is very responsive and I like the haptic feedback. Great sight lines on all displays.
Seamless transition from regenerative to friction brakes (but no one pedal mode).
Drivers side storage area (below light switches) is ridiculously deep. I could not reach the bottom without moving the steering wheel.
More storage area under rear cargo deck than I was expecting, even with collapsed spare tire.
Adjustable suspension range was impressive. Ground clearance in the up position looks to be very good for all but serious off-road use.
Due to rain and fear of damaging a brand new demo car, I made no attempt to assess high speed handling or electric quarto at work.
Inductive phone charger worked through my phone case. Lots of space and provisions to store electronics that require charging.


Cons

Clearly improper noise from the front end when steering hard left or hard right. Zero chance this is a latent defect. Way too obvious. Most likely a shipping widget that was not removed during prep.
Regardless of paddle shifter setting, not enough regenerative braking for one pedal driving. I really hope we see a software change to address this. I have grown to absolutely love one pedal driving on my i3. As it stands this is not possible on the e-tron and my. Biggest disappointment.
Would have preferred the drive selector to work the opposite of how it does now. I think it is more intuitive to push forward to drive forward and to pull back to go in reverse. I am sure I will adapt to this with time.
I distinctly dislike the external car noise generator that comes on at low speeds. First of all, I can hear it in the cabin. Second it sounds like an anemic ICE. I understand the logic here but would have preferred almost any other sound or an option for none. Haven’t hit anyone with my i3 because I snuck up on them.
The cabin is certainly quiet but not as much as I was expecting from early reviews. Perhaps the acoustic glass of the Prestige is a factor here. I am coming from an i3 so am already accustomed to the lack of engine noise. I recently test drove a Model X and could not say that the Audi was that much quieter. Quieter yes, but not night and day.
The e-tron is certainly quick. That said, I feel like the acceleration is feathered in to feel less abrupt or perhaps to prevent spin-out. My i3 is not anywhere near as fast but I enjoy the first half second more. Perhaps it is the weight of the e-tron. This is a nit.


Other

Antigua Blue is very interesting. I swear it changes hue every time I turn around. Seems very sensitive to the ambient light falling on it or perhaps the angle. It is not a metallic effect like Galaxy Blue. It has more of a matte surface. Very unusual and distinctive. Folks will either love it or hate it. I felt both emotions over the course of 30 minutes.
I decided I have spent entirely too much time watching video reviews and reading articles in anticipation of this car. It is great for sure but at the end of the day it is just a car with electric propulsion. I probably set my emotional expectations a tad too high. Still leaning towards the e-tron over the Model X but the decision is not an easy one. The Audi feels like a proper and luxurious SUV in every way. The Tesla feels more like a really fun gadget on wheels with ill-conceived rear doors but a range of 325 compared to 204.

 

Thank you for sharing this. I am looking to find the 5 worst things about this car, and decide if any one of them is enough to say no to the vehicle.

The single petal driving is one of my biggest concerns. I love using only one foot on my i3. Hopefully the TJA (traffic jam assist) + ACC makes this less significant as you don't press any petals in ACC. From a technical standpoint this is possible to improve without a HW change, but Audi made a conscious decision to ease gas vehicle buyers into an EV. Could be a user preference if this were added.

i3 acceleration is exhilarating 0 to 35mph. Not a Tesla but quite fun non-the-less. Was hoping for something similar for the eTron.

 

My concern from the beginning regarding the shift button has been that no matter how emphatic you may be in your instructions to a parking lot attendant regarding the direction in which the slider needs to be pushed, he or she will push it in the direction opposite to his or her intended travel and wind up running into something.

 

How often are you using valet parking 1st Audi Owner?

Automatic drive vehicles require moving a stalk often backwards to get into "Drive" mode, which makes this consistent with existing vehicles -- possibly Audi's choice given their priority to focus on converting conventional car owners to EV's. Hence it may be more intuitive to an valet to pull back to go forward than to push forward.

This choice is arbitrary with arguments on both sides, like inverted or non-inverted mouse.

 

It's true, the weird shift lever takes getting used to.

 

BMW has the same push forward to go back and pull back to go forward. Yes it took some time to get used to it as it was counter-intuitive for me.

 

I don't believe that you or I will have trouble getting used to it; it is the parking lot kid who yells to his buddy, "hey, would you bring up that gray SUV in the corner for me," who gives me minor pause. Or in Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia high-rises where there are a bunch of frenetic kids moving cars around all day. Fortunately, I live in the California desert where there are more parking spaces than there are people.

 

i heard that storage area is for your umbrella

 

btw, could you try the difference between the two modes in VEHICLE > Charging & Efficiency > Efficiency assist > Recuperation? Perhaps we can get sorta 1 pedal with that?

Also the manual states a ton of features, like air cleaning, vs just air fragrance, would be awesome if we could get a list of all the options available in our market. If it's just fragrance w/o cleaning it's kinda pointless, would much rather have cleaning than fragrance to remove the occasional stench from big polluters on the road.

 

I bet you can easily find the external speaker they're using and just disconnect it