kbrkr

Hi All, I'm a newbie to this forum. I'm in the market to potentially purchase a 2015 Q5. I currently own a Porsche Boxster 2013 and a 2012 Chevy Equinox. I'm planning on replacing both of these with the Audi

Here are my questions:

Reliability: Is the Q5 a reliable vehicle and in particular, how does the 2015 MY stack up to other years? Can I do my own work? I do most of my own work on the Porsche Brakes, Oil changes, filters, and some deeper repairs.
Performance: Will I notice better handling and acceleration from "standard" cross overs like the Equinox with the 2.0T Engine or do I need to go to a 3.0?
Affordability: My Porsche dealer is notorious for squeezing and bleeding their repair bills. Will I continue to experience this with the Audi?

Recommendations? Is there a particular Model Year / Model which stands out as a "good buy"?

Thank you all for your assistance and sorry for the many questions.

Al

uberwgn

Al, wecome aboard! We've got a 2015 cylinder Q5, it's been a great vehicle and free of any issue apart from many recalls.

If you do your own basic maintenance, it'll make the Audi ownership experience practical. IMO, if you are farming everything out to the dealer, it's going to get expensive. Yes, probably as expensive as the Porsche experience.

The 2.0T engine has been great in our car. They've geared it well, performance is very decent, good fuel economy.

Are you going to try to find a CPO vehicle? That would be my focus.

kbrkr

Hi Uber,

Thank you for your thoughtful reply. Yes, I'm always looking for CPO vehicles, but also keenly aware of the premium they incur. Another question for you; do the rear seats lay flat for storage? I'm a musician and need to move keyboards, stands, and sound systems. Would you know how deep the rear is? My keyboard is 56" long. Think it will fit?

EARL99208

Don;t quote me on this but I think I read somewhere that the depth is 37in with the seats all the back.
You gain 4.5in with the seats slid forward.
The narrowest in the width is 41in.
For the life of me I can not remember I read it.....it just stuck in my head as I too am researching an A5.

scrmorling

If you're used to the zip of the Boxster and need an SUV, look at the SQ5. My experience with the local Audi dealer has been fair. They are expensive but have not pushed for extras. You would need to flip the rear seat (1/3 of it anyway) to fit your keyboard.

Steve

Redd

Al- I'd suggest getting your local reference librarian to hand over the Consumer Reports annual auto issue, see how 2015 compares, but in general I think the engine issues were fixed in 2013 and models after that may be all very similar.

Doing you own repairs: You'll probably need to spend $300 on the Ross-Tech VAGCOM software in order to interrogate the car, and do various resets. Carista or ODB Eleven may be good enough if you just want to reset the service reminder and do light work. Some work needs odd 8-pointed (double square) keys instead of allen or torx, but you may already have those for the Porsche, not expensive. And you may want to buy a dipstick, Audi usually says they don't exist but they actually do, and they work better, faster, and cheaper than the built in electronics.

Performance: It is still a 4500# dancing hippopotamus in a pink tutu (Fantasia) but any hippo that can dance is still impressive. No real turbo lag or other complaints on my 2.0 but if you have a heavy foot you may actually get better city mileage on the diesel, because kicking in the turbo makes the 2.0 peppy, but eats gas. Its not a sports car, it is still a crossover. Or light truck, depending on which Audi literature you read.

Affordability: Haha. Beware of the bigger and long-term expenses. Many of the dealers are, well, dealers, and the motto seems to be "There there dear, don't you worry your sweet head about it". And they'll charge dearly for the free coffee but then again, that's what pays for the free service loaners. If you have a choice of dealers, look for one with the "Magna Society" award, that means many customers praised them and few, if any, tried to lynch the service advisors.

The SQ5 will be sportier. More expensive, better seats.

Bob Petruska

That's Triple Square sockets/bits!!!!

Redd

Must be the new math. I'd have thought that "square" had 4 corners, so 8 corners was double square, and triple square would be a normal 12-point socket.

I guess not, huh?

Bob Petruska

Close...……..

The triple-square, also known as XZN, is a type of screw drive with 12 equally spaced protrusions, each ending in a 90° internal angle. The name derives from overlaying three equal squares to form such a pattern with 12 right-angled protrusions (a 12-pointed star). In other words, three Robertson squares are superimposed at a successive 30° rotation. The design is similar to that of the double-square—in both cases, the idea being that it resembles a square (Robertson) but can be engaged at more frequent angles by the driver bit. These screws can be driven with standard Robertson bits.

MurrayA4

Yeah the triple square is a wonderful invention.Many don't have the tools and they strip easily - too shallow.Think bearing housing bolts !
Robertson (Canjun) are far superior.But they don't forget we put a serious hurt on them 65 years ago!, so they invented their own.Still beats a slot-head though -hah.