daberlin

Lucky for you Ned. My wife barely let me touch the SQ5 :-) I did get some drive time two weeks ago to really try out the DAP features, and absolutely loved them. I mean they are AWESOME. The wife was at first very skeptical when I took her for a training drive, but after a week or two of experimenting on her own, she too really thinks DAP is great.

Interestingly, Audi is reporting that the average SQ5 Buyer is Mid Thirties, and Male. I find this stat quite interesting, and it certainly supports the basis for a more luxury/performance driven platform, but I'm not sure how much I agree with that demo - it certainly isn't the case for the Q5 and i'm not sure how accurate it is for the SQ5. Like you, if WE were the primary drivers, then we'd be leaning more on the very high performance end, ala Porsche Macan GTS/Turbo, Stelvio Quadrifoglio, AMG63 etc. But, the whole reason why I didn't go for a Macan Turbo was because I knew I wasn't going to be the primary driver, and frankly, my wife wouldn't give two sh$ts about the performance differences between the Macan and SQ5. $20K cheaper and she's happy with the Audi. And on the off times I'm not driving my 911 and we take the SQ5 out together and I'm driving, I'm more than content with the performance in the 2018 SQ5.

Transfer

I will be very interested to see APR stage 1 results although I'm on a lease so not sure how that would work. It will also probably cost about $1500. The stock exhaust is plenty loud for me so no way I would touch that, and I've never been into intakes. Do we know the hardware differences between the SQ5 engine and the RS5? As far as factory power goes, Audi has said they have something like a 8 RS cars coming out by end of 2018 and both BMW and MB have RS equivalent SUVs so an RSQ5 is not a pipe dream.

Ngerstman

A correction, really surprised by this. There are only 290 Audi dealerships in the US and maybe 170 Porsche dealerships. At least in my areas, NJ and Florida, seems the ratio would be much higher. As they often say, never ASSUME! That certainly might change the equation. Regards. Ned.

daberlin

Wonder how many of those RS cars will see our shores? I don't think the RSQ5 is a pipe dream, far from it. I just question the timing of an RSQ5 given the brand new SQ5 and upcoming Macan facelift next year.

daberlin

In local LA including in the Valley, it's equal 4 Audi and 4 Porsche.

markcincinnati

The following was told to me by my Audi dealer. This fact probably devalues its accuracy since Audi dealers are, sadly, often the last to know.

The dealer believes there will be US available RSQ5's -- not in calendar 2017, maybe in calendar 2018 (as either an '18 or '19 model). Sources "on the net" that may or may not have a little or a lot of credibility are betting their "journalistic" reputations on several (US bound) RS vehicles in the 12-18 month time-frame.The RSQ5 is one of them.

The market -- and the stock market for that matter -- is doing well and wants "more" S and RS cars from Audi. The SQ5 came out -- perhaps as a "toe in the water" test of demand. What has happened since the earliest parts of this decade is the decline, decline, decline of the "popularity" of sedans as the popularity of CUV's seems to be something like the popularity of craft beers. Will this popularity end? Probably -- everything runs in cycles. The SUV did give way to the more car-like CUV and that market segment has been on a tear for, probably, most of the decade so far. The Macan and the SQ5 exist today. They're both popular. The Macan can pretty much go the distance to $100K. The SQ5 can't -- unless you do something really expensive and unique via the Audi Exclusive program (and that would be the exception rather than the rule).

We test drove a Macan -- after we had purchased our first (2014) SQ5 Prestige -- we loved it until we tried to configure it like the Audi. The Macan costs more if equipped like the Audi. Moreover, the SQ5 -- today -- has one powertrain flavor. Macan's "base" is the analog to the Audi overall. Then you can start stepping up the option list and engine list. While you can add options to the SQ5 you can't add [OEM] power.

There are Audi buyers who would buy an RSQ5 -- I have no way of knowing if an RSQ5 would somehow grab bucks from Porsche. I'm sure the answer to that implied question is "It might". Overall though there are Audi people and Porsche people who are generally going to remain loyal to their favorite brand. Maybe "first timers" will go for a Mercedes, an Alfa, BMW, Jaguar or Maserati. Perhaps another way to look at this is by getting the drone to fly a bit a higher and look at the parent company (I believe that would be VW AG). If Audi introduces an RSQ5 and continues with the SQ5 and Q5 and so on while Porsche has the Macan and all of its variants and the Cayenne, etc., the "parent" has just added another way to pull customers from Mercedes, Alfa, BMW, Jaguar, and Maserati (and Volvo, for all I know). IF and that is a big "IF" someone who might have decided -- just for fun -- to test drive the RSQ5 on the way to buying a Macan is "flipped" and ends up with the Audi, well that's a damn site better than Porsche losing to Alfa or, or.

Beats me if folks -- in the majority -- cross shop the Macan with the SQ5. But if they do and Audi adds the RSQ5 it seems to me the money will be kept "all in the family."

Audi, in some respects keeps Porsche on its toes (and vice versa) a little bit. I find it interesting that Audi's new RS5 is "not allowed" to have the new Porsche transmission, and was, therefore, forced to put the 8-speed Tip in the RS5. Porsche must, sometimes at least, look over its shoulder and not only see competitors who are "not friendlys" but also see Audi nipping at its heels. Perhaps, more than a little bit, Audi keeps Porsche on its toes. If Audi pushes and pushes hard enough, well who knows?

Apparently, the R8 -- which one might argue could be taking sales away from Porsche -- was allowed to be brought to the market at over $165,000 (squarely in the middle of some of Porsche's offerings) and Porsche still soldiers on producing awesome cars, many of them able to leave Audi in the dust.

I can't believe Porsche would actually have any trepidation about an RSQ5. Hell, such an Audi might just be the motivation Porsche needs to create an even more potent, more capable Macan.

My dealer, like me, is often wrong, but never uncertain, seems to think the RSQ5 is just waiting for an announcement date. Did the RS7 kill or even wound the Panamera? Not so's you'd notice.

I'd love to see a backwards counting clock on the Audi website -- counting down to the arrival of the new line of RS cars, including the RSQ5.

BTW - an RSQ5 would come with the full OEM warranty. No worries about a scrapped warranty for a modded SQ5, that is.

benjaminnicholas

You can throw around business theory all you want: Hell, I went to Kellogg, so I understand, but at the end of the day, many of these theories don't work universally.

The auto business. The airline industry. They, like others, function independent of what they're teaching in classrooms.

benjaminnicholas

*mic drop*

daberlin

Darden here. Go Hoos.

Ngerstman

. NYU I think, it was such a long time ago, NYC was bankrupt at the time, the Albert hotel on the block I lived was a transvestite hotel when that really meant something! The good old daze. Regards. Ned.