Matthew Havens

Hello,

My Oct. 2019 purchased SQ5 now has 4,000m. Most of which are highway, cruise at 75mph in comfort mode. At those settings I can get at best 21mpg.

About 2,000m ago I started tracking my mpg independent of the car and have brought the car in to two different dealerships. The car says everything is fine and they tell me that mpg is normal. From reading this forum and various articles, I know this is really low. The car seems to be performing like it should, but I hate filling up the car every five minutes and feel like i can’t drive it in automatic or sport because the numbers are ridiculous.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to address this issue with Audi?

ronsc1985

Save yourself some time and cancel the appointment. Your mpg is average for the speed you are running. If you want better mpg slow down. Remember aero drag goes up as the square of velocity so 75 vs 65 is a 33% aero drag increase.

EPA estimates are 24/19. The EPA highway is done at max 60 mph with and average of 48 or so mph for the highway test cycle. BTW running in other modes at a constant speed has no appreciable effect on mpg with the exception of Dynamic which keeps you out of the top overdrive gear on the highway at lower speeds.

superswiss

^ What he said, plus I would add make sure you regularly check your tire pressure and make sure it's set correctly. Too low of a tire pressure will drag down your mpg. But just generally speaking, I'm not sure what you are expecting. An SUV/crossover is effectively a square shaped box on wheels. The 2019 is rated 19 city/24 hwy, but the 2020 got adjusted to 18 city/23 hwy. Still the same engine/transmission as the 2019, so you decide which one is more realistic. If you get average 21 mpg at 75 mph, I would say that's bang on. You drive an aerodynamically inefficient car. Let me prove my point here. My 2019 C63S coupe is rated at 26 mpg highway. Mind you that's a 503 hp V8 and not much lighter than the SQ5 I might add, so much for smaller engines being more fuel efficient, LOL!. The other day I was curious what I can get driving conservatively on the highway at 65-75 depending on traffic and I averaged 25 mpg with adaptive cruise engaged. Most of the time traffic was going between 65-70 mph. One way the C63 does this is by having a 9-speed transmission, so the tallest gear is very fuel efficient, but mainly it's hell of a lot more aerodynamic than an SUV. Also, no losses from a permanent AWD system. Quattro is great, but at highway speeds it's detrimental to fuel economy and doesn't add any value, hence Audi's use of the new Quattro Ultra in the regular Q5 that switches to FWD if AWD traction isn't required.

gk1

Just as a point of order the EPA does include a 'high speed" test cycle now which maxes out at 80mph but does still average just 48mph.
https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/fe_test_schedules.shtml

Still, everything else pointed out is still fair and an EPA rated 24mpg highway(50-60mph) can easily be a real world 21 at 65-75mph.

Mister Bally

And that's why my wife wanted an Q5, not an SQ5. She was sick of our old GMC Envoy getting 9-14 MPG and wanted a 25 MPG vehicle. Acceleration is fine for her. She's never taken it above 95. Getting 27 in the city and up to 31 on the highway.

rhe

On the other hand....

In our SQ5 we get 27/28 on freeway travel at 75 mph. Last summer driving out west where we had 80 mph speed limits we still got 27/28 going 85 mph. On a trip from central PA to Buffalo, many two-lane roads and up and down hills and thru small towns, we got 27. That was on auto.
around town I get around 20 because I'm usually in sport or dynamic.

pesto126

So far, my 2018 SQ5 is getting about 21mpg - that's some minor highway driving but mostly 30-55 town roads... would I love the RAV4's hybrid 35mpg? Sure... but I bought an SQ5 for a reason... so I am learning to be fine with it!

NABS4

I drove 600 km yesterday and averaged 8.2 L/100 km = 28.7 mpg on the computer. It is usually a little optimistic, but even 10% off is still > 26 mpg. I'm fine with that.

audi198

The weather temperature is big factor for gas mileage as well.
The same route 25Km to work, in summer I got 8.5L/100K but winter at -15C I got 11L/100k for Q5.

Cabal_san

I get 18.1 combined EPA after 33K miles on the SQ5.
I had 18.9 on my 3.0t Q5 after 50K miles.
I use an Fuel app to track, not the onboard computer.

ymmv