Regalflyer

Potential new owner cross shopping against other SUVs.

We plan on buying a luxury SUV, perhaps the Q5, and would like to get an idea about costs of ownership. We are retired and come from a Toyota experience that has been super. We tend to keep a car going for over 200,000 miles, especially one as expensive as the Audi, and we are on the fence with the purchase of the Q5.

Any and all experience on long term ownership greatly appreciated.
Thanks

manup

We have owned our 2010 Audi Q5, Premium +, purchased new, Sept. of 2009. The car currently has a measly 49K miles on it and I will say this car has been the most trouble free vehicle that I have owned. We are also retired, and I have owned MBZ's, BMW's etc., etc., over many years. We get the car serviced once a year, for time only because of the low mileage. We have had a couple of warranty issues early on which were taken care of. If you go with the Q5, I suggest you purchase Audi Care when you buy or shortly there after. I plan on running our car until at least 100K miles, never have gone as far as 200K miles.

Good Luck...

Speedooooo

The cost of ownership on luxury vehicles is significantly higher than more economical vehicles. If you have Consumer Reports look at the reliability ratings. In general Q5s have average reliability compared to the RX350, which has excellent reliability. Toyotas fall under that excellent reliability category. I think it would be very unlikely that you could get to 200k without some major issues.

In saying that a Q5 is very different from an RX350. We bought the Q5 because I wanted something a bit more fun, and fast to drive. The RX350 is a bit more tame with that added reliability.