DrV

I read all the posts in this thread, you certainly have a difficult decision to make! I have 4 children, (2 still live at home). Over the years we have owned a few sedan's, minivans, VW Eurovan, Passat TDI wagon and presently a Jetta TDI wagon and a Q5. The Eurovan was by far the roomiest and the most practical for a big family with lot's of stuff to cart around. The Passat wagon was nice, practical, economical and comfortable (just loved it! - ahem, ALMOST as much as my Q5 )
From my experience, I would suggest that you take another look at the Q7 TDI. It has a lot going for it - not saying it's perfect, mind you, but a fantastic vehicle in many respects.

c-dub

i was cross shopping among Q5, X3, X5 and eventually ended up for a CPO X5

CrustyNoodle

We have a 5yr old and a 9yr old, in a child seat and booster respectively. The Q5 has just enough room to fit a slim adult between these two seats - the Q5 is definitely not a large vehicle!

Our Q5 purchase was a down-size from our previous vehicle but we were able to justify it by purchasing a roof box for those holiday road trips. This way we get the best of both worlds: a smaller car for the 99.9% of the time it is used plus the extra space afforded by the roof box for the other times. Also, the Q5 is our only car so no option of using "the other" car for the large loads - still no problem though!

hmn4858

everyone says look at an suv with third row but once you put the row up, there isn't a whole lot of cargo room. When I bought the Q5 I thought we'd only have two kids but last set was twins. Thought I'd have to sell it after only owning it for a year but we were able to get three cars seats across. Not ideal but it'll work for the time being.

sjuhawks19

The A4 Avant has the same rear legroom as the Q5 but less head and shoulder room, so if you are not sure the Q5 will be big enough, the A4 Avant almost certainly will not.

hernan1304

Fires happen unfortunately... Here's a Q5 2.0T fire on this forum:

https://www.audiworld.com/forums/sho....php?t=2802001

However, I understand your reliability concerns even if I think the mentality is outdated (i.e. modern Land Rovers are much better than they used to be).

I'm sure you know all the obvious choices, so here are a couple more non-obvious ones:

If I were shopping with family transportation in mind, other than a minivan, I'd probably look at the Subaru Outback: very functional and great value for money, even if it's a bit of an odd duck. It will go anywhere you want to take it, has the same ground clearance as a stock Wrangler, huge trunk, and spacious seating. It's definitely a step down from the Germans, but of course it's a lot cheaper than an A6 Avant

The new Ford Explorer looks good too for the money, and Ford is on a roll these days, especially with cabin tech.

Reisen

We pretty seriously cross-shopped the Explorer with the Q5. I'll post my thoughts on it tomorrow. Mixed feelings, but it does have great tech. In the end, we went with the "driver's car", but there's no question we would have gotten a lot more for the money with the Ford.

quattrovant

Have to agree with sjhawks. I am 6' wife 5'4" one 3yr old.
The A4 Avant/Q5 are near the same in dimensions. Before the new Explorer came out, we bought an A4 Avant and compared to a Q5 and is enough comfort for us three for years to come.
Q5 was no better in fit. If I was looking again for larger, I think the best family comfort bang would be 3 American made products Chevy Equinox, Traverse or Ford Explorer. Price and DRIVE THEM, you will not believe how far they have come. Pay it off in some years, take the initial savings and then buy yourself an Audi S4. A family win win in my book...Everbody will be happy. Good Luck my friend

The G Man

Not according to all the recent relaibility reports, Land Rovers are alway at or near the bottom of the rating. Land Rover dealers will treat you like a king when you buy the car, once you own it, the service department is no better than a Hynndai dealer.

Houstonmobilian

Had a Range Rover and LR3 before. Driven them each for 3 years since brand new with no issues whatsoever. However, the depreciation of the Land Rover vehicles are deal-breaker to keep them once the leases were over!