DaRillist

We have owned a Blue Q5 Prestige for about 3 weeks now. It is primarily for my wife coming from a Mercedes GL450, but I drive it when she lets me. Love the ride quality, low road noise, and the B&O stereo. The technology is amazing and the vehicle itself is truly a thing of beauty. My wife fell in love with it, but we have noticed some design choices that we have a hard time believing on a car that competes with BMW and Mercedes.

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1. Lane assist is not very good. Feels like bumper bowling. It seems to disengage if it doesn't detect you guiding it through the steering wheel. My DD is a 2018 Honda Accord, and the difference is night and day. I feel that the Lane Assist on the Honda actually does help to reduce fatigue on long drives.
2. Audi Connect is mystery to me. Audi wants me to pay $500 for 18 months for stuff that you can get on any cell phone? Oh, and for a Google Maps overlay? This is more than Mercedes charges for Mbrace with far less features. Signing up for Audi Connect was an adventure to say the least. I really don't know what Audi is thinking by pricing this so high for so little value. The only truly functional Audi Connect item for us is the remote unlock (we found out early on that you can lock the key in the car with the second key). Wont be paying $499 for the privilege though.
3. No remote start? Is this a 2018 model or 1998? Everyone has this as at least an option. Even my Honda has it. Super cool on cold or hot days to be able to remotely start the car from the comfort of my office
4. No touchscreen.
5. Manual Steering wheel adjustment. Makes it tough for multiple drivers
6. Quirky MMI software. Wife has trouble with radio randomly shutting down when iphone is connected
7. Just a cell phone on the passenger seat triggers the passenger seatbelt warning.
8. No brake hold?!?
9. I'll stop here as I don't want to seem bitter.

Gizmo607

rausda27

There were a lot of things, some listed here that surprised me when I first starting looking. The remote start being one of them. Its a techy car, seems simple enough to add that feature to the Audi Connect, would probably even have added after trial subscribers. Ill admit there were some features that became more apparent after owning for a few weeks, things I didnt notice on my test drives. However, not all bad. Some good as well.

jlarke

"No touchscreen" is a feature, not a problem. My experience test driving a new Volvo, with its touchscreen everywhere, really helped me appreciate

Badger56

Lane assist should be a safety AID, not a substitute driver, and the last thing in the world it should be is compensation for a drowsy driver. Fatigue? Too tired to nudge the wheel one way or the other on a power-steering vehicle? A drowsy driver should pull over and get off the road, if for no other reason, for the safety of the rest of us.

I'm still an MMI learner and can't tell if its quirky, or I just haven't learned enough yet. I think once I get used to the logic of the different pieces and features, I'll find it less quirky.

Not sure what's so important about remote starting. Sounds like a gimic to me. If its cold outside, wear an extra sweater. Why needlessly add to the CO2?

Have to agree with the OP about Audi Connect. I'd rather have everything go through the cell data provider and then charge me for an APP if Audi has a truly compelling one to offer. I also think that Car Play should allow display of the Maps on the VC, not just the center display, and on top of that, ANY nav app on my iPhone, such as Waze, should be fully functional on the displays.

Agree with Jlarke, Touchscreen is anathema to safe driving. I think Volvo's touchscreen is well-executed, but a touchscreen takes the driver's eyes, fingers and attention away from the road. In my judgment, a lot of this "tech" is turning us into virtual drivers (video gamers) instead of real drivers. Would be better to take your iPad on a bus, or hire a chauffeur

SYMAWD

Try setting your lane assist to early.

WeHoGuy

Thought there was some legal reason Audi didn't do "remote start." Would love to have remote AC. You'd think there'd be some way to remote the AC or the heat for a few minutes just off the battery w/o actually starting the car.

superswiss

1. You can configure that in the MMI to control how early or late it intervenes. In the early setting it keeps the car centered in the lane and steers around minor bends. In the late setting it only intervenes if you are about to cross into the other lane.
2. Plenty of threads on this. Won't go too much into it. The pricing is what it is. I find it useful and as opposed to BMW and Mercedes, the Audi app actually works and has more useful features. For example with the Audi app you can send destinations from other apps directly to the car, at least on iOS, whereas with BMW and Mercedes you have to open their app first and look up the destination.
3. Biggest waste IMO. Remote starters are illegal in Europe, so it seems Audi doesn't bother designing one for markets such as the USA. Audi is also pretty particular about reducing the CO2 impact of their cars. A cold idling engine doesn't warm up the emissions control systems fast enough and spews out a disproportional amount of pollutants.
4. That's a good thing.
5. Agreed, that's a feature I don't understand why it's still not available in this category. On the other hand, BMW is the same. Mercedes is kinda on its own with having electric steering wheel adjustment in this segment.
6. I personally find it quite intuitive, however, I do feel the latest system has taken some steps back.
7. Why is your cellphone on the passenger seat? One emergency stop and it flies off the seat ending up who knows where. Keep your loose items securely stored away.
8. If you are stopped and want to take your foot off the brake, just engage the e-brake. It will automatically release once you step on the throttle. You have Hill Start assist, though, so on an incline it will automatically hold the brakes for a few seconds to give you time to change to the throttle pedal w/o the car rolling downhill.

ifeldman

How can you send destinations from other apps on iOS directly to the car? I always have to open the Audi app on my phone to send a destination to my car. Which by the way, may take a minute or so before I can actually select it on the car because it has to connect to the Audi server.

superswiss

In your app of choice (Apple Maps, Google Maps, Yelp, etc.) tap Share, then select the MMI connect app as the target. If the MMI connect app doesn't show up, tap More and enable it as a share target.