[Crazy_Bean]

Originally Posted by Aurum

My responses above in line.

Thanks. I sat in a Q5 in Dubai last year, had really fancy ambient lighting (Ice Blue), super bright.

Maybe tinker with MMI, the car of this class cant be sold without proper ambient lighting.

[Aurum]

Originally Posted by Crazy_Bean

Thanks. I sat in a Q5 in Dubai last year, had really fancy ambient lighting (Ice Blue), super bright.

Maybe tinker with MMI, the car of this class cant be sold without proper ambient lighting.

The brightness of the ambient lighting can be changed with a rotary knob, but there is no option to change colour. The white is pretty classy, though, so it's fine.

[Aurum]

Another year, another disappointing experience with Audi Service. At this point, purely because of the after sales experience, I will find it difficult to recommend Audi to anyone. Make no mistake, the car is an absolute peach to drive when it is with me (11 months out of 12, that is). All that joy gets wiped out in the 1 month it is in the workshop each year.

Here are the gory details:

As expected, the car has driven very little this year. I have been working from home. We weren't comfortable travelling, expect finally taking a few days off to Kashid in October. Finally, in December, we decided that a Goa road trip would be a fun way to wrap up the year (like many on this forum did). December is also the month the Q5 goes in for the annual service, so I booked a slot 29th November for the service.

It started off small. It was the day before the car was to go to service that fuel flap refused to open, and the car had very little fuel in it. So I advised the workshop team that since fuel was very low in the car, its best to get someone to the car and get the flap open so that fuel can be filled. Otherwise the car might not reach the workshop. The workshop team understood and sent someone to sort it out and pick up the car. My only other complaint was that one of the outer rear view mirrors, on occasion, did not open up the first time. I would need to switch off the car and switch it on again for it to open up. They noted it down. So far so good.

Then the saga began. Once the car reached the workshop, the service advisor made a couple of more observations - the window wasn’t very smooth in going up and down (I hadn't noticed). Also, there was some issue with leakage from the water pump, and the mounting was weak. Whatever it was, it hadn't manifested itself to me. However, I was grateful that these issues had been identified and would be sorted before my long trip.

As in my previous experience, the parts were available nowhere in India and would need to be ordered from Germany (would take up to 15 days). However, I needed the car over the next few days to make trips with my aged in-laws for property sale and registration. The pandemic is not the best time to do Uber trips with senior citizens. I requested for a courtesy car immediately.

Again, like my experience last year, getting a courtesy car from these folks was like squeezing water out of a stone. After 10 days of brow-beating, and having sorted out my trips with in-laws with a borrowed car, they eventually gave me an A6 on 9th of December, 5 days before my own car was supposed to come back to me. It was like winning a consolation prize!

Anyways, the 14th approached (day of return) and they hadn't received the parts. Would take another week more. Inching closer to my trip date (24th). By now I sounded them out that if the car doesn’t come, I would take the courtesy car to Goa. They were flexible and agreed.

Well, they finally got the parts around the 21st, and said they would give me the car on the 23rd. During their test drive on the final day, a warning light came up on the car which they couldn’t sort out.

So I didn’t have my car for the road trip which was nearly a month after I gave the car for service! I had to take the A6 to Goa (will share my A6 experience separately).

They sorted it out while I was there, and the car came back fit and fine when I was back.

If this whole experience was a one-time occurrence, I would have just brushed past it. However, this is the second time in as many years that it has happened. Each time:
• There is a damage that is not trivial (speaks for reliability)
• Parts are not available anywhere in the country (speaks for their planning and inventory management)
• A 10-15 day wait turns into a month long ordeal (lack of control)
• Getting a courtesy car is a nightmare (speaks for their service philosophy)

Luckily, I have the comprehensive coverage for 5 years, so this hasn’t cost me money. But the time, inconvenience and stress of this makes it clear to me that I would not inflict this on anyone. May be its Audi, may be it’s the service center, but its not worth it.

I have to acknowledge a few positives though:
• The car is really enjoyable to drive. Every drive reminds me of why I fell for it in the first place!
• The courtesy cars they have given have been good. A Q7 the first time, and the new A6 this time. What they don’t recognize though is that someone who needs a car the next day needs it, even a Polo will do! I would rather have had any car for the entire period than have great cars for half the period.
• Also, once they have given the courtesy car, they were flexible enough for me to take to Goa. On the flip side, if they hadn't, I was already on the verge of violence.

Now that I have vented it out, Happy New Year, everyone !

[Aurum]

Since the Q5 was in the workshop, I got the new A6 as a replacement car in the end of December, which I had the opportunity to take to Goa and back. Some of my impressions from the same below. I don’t know if this should be here or a separate thread but since my reference point is mostly my Q5, here goes:

Positives:
• Classy looking car - There is something new-age about it that strikes you every time you look at it and enter it. Even though my Q5 is just a couple of years old, this one does look and feel like its half a generation ahead. This definitely attracts attention, feels just sufficiently different from the previous gen to be noticed.
• Really refined in its ride - This is a mature sedan and behave likes it. Compared to the Q5, it is lower to ground, and as a result doesn’t have as much body movement. Over long 12 hour drives, I suspect it might be more comfortable than the Q5 though I havent done a long enough drive in the Q5 to compare.
• Polished interiors - Everything felt simultaneously familiar as well as updated. Soft touch materials all around, interior lighting was beautiful (Q5 has an anemic version of the A6's interior lighting) and overall insides felt a bit classier than the Q5. Touchscreen MMI is really cool, though it has no added functionality. The sound system is great too.
• More leg room but narrower - I never sat in the back once in the period we had it, but I am pretty sure it has more leg room than the Q5. However, what it delivers in length, it seems to slightly compromise in width and shoulder room. Nothing to complain about, just an observation.

Hmms (not really negatives)
• Power delivery - Its great to have 250 hp on the tap. However, while the engine is the same as my Q5, how it puts it down to the ground feels very different. It’s a fully front wheel drive car, and even to my non-expert driving mind, I could immediately tell the difference. A slight press on the accelerator in the Q5 (with its quattro) seems to generate a more immediate response (I'm not sure if there is a big weight difference between the two). For the same input, the A6 always seemed to be more laidback. Since I never had both cars together to do an A/B, experts here might be able to tell me if I am imagining the differences to be due to the transmission. Its very much a personal preference what you like, but I certainly enjoy the Q5 power delivery more.
• All drive modes seemed like versions of comfort - In the Q5, when you switch from auto to comfort to dynamic, you can sense the difference in response, firmness of the dampers etc. In the A6, the only thing that seems to change when you go from comfort to dynamic (or efficiency) is engine response. The suspension, dampers etc feel pretty much the same. I don’t think the A6 has the adaptive dampers that the Q5 has, or the air suspension the previous A6 had, so it is probably limited in what it can do. You might like it that way (refined in all situations), but I certainly would have liked some more variance.

Negatives (mostly minor gripes)
• Position of multimedia touchscreen - You shouldn’t have to look down and to the left to see Google maps or change something on the MMI all the time. That is downright disconcerting on the highway. I never got used to it during the entire trip, and heaved a sigh of relief when I came back to the Q5. The touchscreen feels cool initially, but the novelty wears off. Overall, the new MMI is very cutting edge, but adds little functionality to the current MMI, and its position is a disappointment.
• Various warnings, beeps and buzzes - This is the first time I was experiencing the mandatory 80 km/hr and 120 km/hr beeps. Absolutely annoying. Also included are various feedbacks that come from the footpedal and the steering wheel when changing lanes etc. This just doesn’t work in Indian conditions.
• Temperature controls - the climate control in the Q5 is one of the most intuitive brilliant pieces of design that I have seen. The touchscreen version here with the need to reach out to various parts of the screen to change things was a bit much. Eventually, I bothered only with the temperature.
• Lights - Somehow I felt the Q5 adaptive lighting system is more confidence inspiring around turns etc. While this one has a cool adaptive high beam feature, in the conditions I was driving it at night in interior Goa, it mostly kept the high beam off even when I needed it. Not sure if the system is suitable enough for Indian conditions.


I am not going to write a whole travelogue here, but a brief sense of the driving experience to Goa and back. The road to Goa and back has broadly two or three different kinds of conditions -

The smooth multi lane highways - The A6 really excels here from a pure comfort perspective. Apart from the position of the map and the constant speed related beeps, which were minor irritations, it was a joy to go through these long stretches

The bumpy ghat roads - The drive to South Goa after Belgaum goes through a national park with tar roads that precipitously end on the side and have many potholes/ speedbumps. After one early speedbump where the bottom touched, I became wary of the ground clearance. Every time I had to give way on the edge of the road or a large speedbump came (many many of them), I was tentative.

The interior Goa roads - Again for the most part, the car was a joy to drive here, and I think that it felt a bit narrower helped. Squeezed it in situations where I'm not sure the Q5 would have been comfortable. At night was really hoping that the auto high beam would take the headache off of turning high beam off and on every time a vehicle approached (not that others show that courtesy). Somehow didn’t work like I hoped.

[Aurum]

A few weeks ago, Audi reached out to me through GTO. I directed them to the thread and the many emails exchanged with the service centre throughout the month my car was with them. Apparently the service centre did not follow protocols. There are internal SLAs for when they should offer a courtesy car for someone who comes in for general repair and maintenance (i.e. non-accident). Instead of offering me a car in 3 days, they held out for nearly a couple of weeks. On reliability, hoping these are exceptional cases. On parts availability, there were apparently many issues relating to containers being stuck at the port.

Anyways, shortly after, the service center customer execs wanted to meet me and apologize and offer a gift. These being corona times, I told them a meeting was not needed, and neither was a gift. Told them they have to deliver the service experience, not make up for it afterwards. They still sent across a small model Audi and free on-road service assistance. Audi also followed up afterwards to check and assure.

They have tried their best to make up after the fact. The proof will be in the pudding as I track reliability and the next service experiences. Lets see how those go.

On a different note, I have been driving my parents i10 in Kerala small town and rural roads over the last couple of days. What a dream compared to driving in Goa/ MH! A 100 km up and 100 km down trip to and back from Guruvayur, beautiful roads for the most part and only one speedbump along the entire route. Goa and Maharasthra interior roads are nightmares just because of the randomly placed speedbumps. The i10 on these roads was a more pleasurable drive than any luxury car in Goa/ MH.

[OffRoadFun]

Originally Posted by cosmic_ocean

Guys, looking at aftermarket touchscreen options for my 2010 Audi Q5. Has anybody gone this route for their Audis and if so, any Bengaluru based solution providers? Thanks in advance for your time.

Hello cosmic_ocean
I realize this is an folder post but wondering if you could get after market touch screen for Audi Q5. I also have 2010 Q5 and thinking the same. One good option is RSNAV. Appreciate your inputs.
Regards.

[cos.sec]

Just out of curiosity, what's the GC on the Q5.

The showroom says 210mm vs websites put it at 200mm.

[graaja]

Originally Posted by cos.sec

Just out of curiosity, what's the GC on the Q5.

The showroom says 210mm vs websites put it at 200mm.

I would go with what is mentioned in the website, which should be the official spec.

[adv]

Originally Posted by Aurum

My only other complaint was that one of the outer rear view mirrors, on occasion, did not open up the first time. I would need to switch off the car and switch it on again for it to open up. They noted it down. So far so good.

Hi Aurum, great review and thanks for sharing your ownership experience.
Regarding one of the outer rear view mirrors not opening as it should, did Audi service solve it, and if so, how? Was it just spraying some lubricant/ rust remover such as wd40 or did it require replacement of any component, etc.?
Has the problem cropped up again after that? Thanks!

[ninjax]

Originally Posted by adv

Hi Aurum, great review and thanks for sharing your ownership experience.
Regarding one of the outer rear view mirrors not opening as it should, did Audi service solve it, and if so, how? Was it just spraying some lubricant/ rust remover such as wd40 or did it require replacement of any component, etc.?
Has the problem cropped up again after that? Thanks!

my car is 4 years old as of today! I run into this issue once in a while. the solution has been retracting the mirrors (electronically) 2-3 time until it gets alright.

[adv]

Originally Posted by ninjax

my car is 4 years old as of today! I run into this issue once in a while. the solution has been retracting the mirrors (electronically) 2-3 time until it gets alright.

Haha that's what I am doing but it can get a bit cumbersome to retract the mirrors 2-3 times right... esp when one is in a hurry? Was wondering whether there was a more efficient alternative

[rev_to_redline]

Got my Q5 technology delivered towards end of June. It was 68L on road with 2 years extended warranty from Audi Karnal, Haryana.
I have been trying to spare time to write a detailed review for some time now. But have mostly been busy driving it and in work. Also did a long round trip from my hometown in Kaithal, Haryana to Nashik, Maharashtra.

I couldn't wait anymore, so sharing this small post first before my detailed review. Here is a pic of the beast

[rev_to_redline]

I have been a proud owner of Manual Verna SX Petrol 2019 for the past 5 years. It has served me very well with no major issues. Itch for an upgrade started when I got married last year. We wanted an automatic car which would comfortably and safely take us to our road trips. We started checking out cars but fairly passively. Itch grew stronger when we were blessed with a kid. We felt really insecure on the road when idiots approached us from behind, flashing their lights at dangerous speeds and overtaking us with not so safe distance. Real hunt for a car started then.
Budget was up to 50L, but we didn't mind buying a cheaper car if it met all our criteria's which were:

• 5-star safety
• Decently powerful engine and horsepower to weight ratio
• Reliable ASS
• Somewhat comfortable
• Decent ground clearance

All in all, our hearts wanted a sedan, and our heads wanted an SUV. Initially, we were open to Verna 2023. It was launched and looks didn't impress. We really tried hard and forced ourselves over a few months, but every time we looked at one on the road, we were not impressed. Side profile looked good, but the front and rear profile never ticked. With Verna out of consideration, we checked diesel Tucson out as it would have been as reliable as Verna . It was a spacious and sporty looking car with an impressive engine, but we couldn't come on terms with that weird looking tablet-like instrument cluster. That combined with spending 40L on a Hyundai didn't feel right. There is another major issue of sensitive ABS in Hyundais, and my Verna reminds me about it every now and then. I asked about it on a Tucson YouTube video and team-bhp Tucson review thread, but still I wasn't convinced. With Tucson not as much of a strong candidate, we half-heartedly started going back & forth and considered all cars in the 20-50 L bracket. Listing down why we didn't select any of these cars despite their merits:

• Creta & Seltos : Safety rating, smaller boot
• XUV700 : Buggy electronics, ASS experience
• Slavia/Virtus : Reliability issues on gearbox, fuel pumps, ASS experience
• Superb: Discontinued, relaunched too expensive, ASS experience
• Kodiaq: Mixed opinion on looks, ASS experience
• Fortuner: Really drooled over it every time I saw it on road. But stiff suspension, heavy steering, outdated interiors
• A4: Looks with those dull alloys didn't feel right for a 50L sedan, small boot space

I mean no offense to people owning these cars. All of these cars have their own merits, we simply didn't have the appetite to deal with the not so good parts of their ownership.
One day, through all this pain of not finding the right car, I happened to come across a black Q5 with brown interiors parked in a hotel in Gurgaon. I took my sweet time to check it out and that was the car I wanted us to seriously consider, even though I knew that it would be way out of our budget. For a few weeks, we checked out the YouTube videos. From some angles it really looked good, from some it didn't. Anyway, we decided to take a test drive and get a fair idea about car as well as the price. To have an option of negotiating price between Gurgaon, Karnal and Chandigarh Audi showrooms, we started with Audi Gurgaon. We took the test drive of the technology variant, and we were blown away by the 260ish horses. We knew that this was the car we wanted to try to buy. With deep discounts as our only hope, we began the negotiations and Audi Gurgaon quoted 72L on road. We told them we won't (or rather can't) buy this car unless it's for much less, but they didn't budge. Instead, the saleswoman tried to push the Premium plus variant. Politely refused as we wanted all that technology variant had to offer. Then she tried to push for A6 and given our love for sedans and those absolutely lovely lines, we took a test drive. I pushed the A6 hard on turns and torque steer was unpleasant. Then I pushed it hard in a straight line and I could feel it slightly deviating left and right from the straight line by 1 or 2 degrees. Stabilising systems helped, but if a car can't handle the torque in a straight line on a dry, clean road, it shouldn't be a FWD in my opinion. Also, my wife felt that the rear seats, with more legroom than Q5, felt claustrophobic due to lower head room. With all that, we wrapped up our Audi Gurgaon visit and geared up for negotiations in Karnal and Chandigarh. Few days down the line and negotiation between Chandigarh and Karnal, we were offered 67L on road without extended warranty and 68L on road with extended 2-year warranty by Audi Karnal. We chose the latter. We could have bargained for longer and maybe gotten the price further dropped by a lac or two. But I don't like to negotiate, and I already had done enough. We made the booking on Wednesday (26th June) and planned for a delivery on Saturday (29th June). Car was to arrive in the showroom on 27th. With intrusive thoughts of something going wrong with the car in 2 days at the showroom, we couldn't wait and asked the Audi Karnal team if the car can be delivered on Thursday itself. They said yes and we took the delivery on Thursday evening. Kudos to Audi Karnal for such a fast delivery.


What I like about the car

• Powerful engine mated to a quick gearbox.
• Sharp interiors: Even though some might feel that Audi's have outdated interiors, but those brown seats, rotary dials, crisp screens and gear lever did it for us. Every time I sit in the car, even for a quick cleanup, I feel nothing but luxury. I always take some time to enjoy all the premium-ness it has to offer before I start cleaning it or driving it.
• Build quality: It is my first time experiencing German build quality. And the other cars (Altroz, Verna) I sit in now, feel like they are made of plastic.
• Strong headlights: I feel a lot of brands have moved from Halogens to LEDs without properly setting up the reflection angles and housing. From reviews of all VW/Skoda group cars, I knew this wouldn't be a problem and it hasn't been. It lights up the road very well. Even though we don't travel too late at night, it makes for confident late evening drives.
• Most of the buttons have a good click feel to them. I say most and not all because I don't like the lock unlock button on the drive window. They are somewhat different and feel cheaper.
• 3 zone AC and fan controls on all vents.
• Adjustable steering and suspension. I never finish a ride without playing around with different *] Strong brakes and smart ABS tuning: ABS won't intrude 99 percent of the times. But when it does, it does a really good job of stopping the car. I have tried to experiment with it on dry, wet, muddy roads and it performs very well. Under harsh braking, it is very aggressive and doesn't let the car slip further by an inch while it makes that durrdurrdurr... sound. It might be a common trait for German cars, but it is impressive and a solid piece of engineering coming from a Hyundai.
• This one would be weird, but I wanted my next car to have big disc brakes. I am not a fan of tiny discs even if they do the job of stopping the car very well, which they mostly do as they are usually proportionate with car weight. But Q5 doesn't disappoint. Every now and then, I like to sit and just enjoy those big shiny discs.
• Audi is known for boring alloy wheels, but this one has better ones. Although not diamond cut, they still look very sporty.
• Tyre profile except width is a good choice by Audi India. I have hit really nasty potholes at really high speeds and tyres/rims came out undefeated. Exactly how SUV tyres should be.
• Suspension and noise insulation makes for a comfortable ride, but it can't insulate you from the cost cutting and corruption on Indian roads.
• Boot access from rear seats
• Service interval of 15K KMs.
• Not a good case of off-roading, but on our way back from Nashik to Kaithal, we visited Amber fort, Jaipur. The Q5 navigated the entirety of uphill tricky road effortlessly, under 1200 RPM and with just feathering the accelerator.
• Fuel efficiency: So far, we have got 12.6 KMPL as highest, but that's because we have not been patient enough to drive it with light foot. I am confident it will run at ~ 14KMPLif we are patient enough. To us, ~12KMPL is good enough for a turbo petrol SUV with quattro drive.

What I don't like:

• Can't handle corners very well, which is expected of an SUV with comfortable suspension.
• No Dashcam from Audi India even as a paid accessory
• No dedicated button for the fuel lid. Don't like having to unlock the entire car to allow Petrol pump staff to open the fuel lid.
• No cornering headlights.
• Low beam can't be adjusted for height. You can get it adjusted at the service centre, but it can't be done from the car cabin. So, either I have to blind oncoming traffic even at low beams or keep them dangerously low. There is no in between.
• Rear parking lights are weak and almost useless when it's completely dark, which is common in the area I live in.
• Rear parking camera quality sucks. Apart from camera quality and illumination, something about the rear parking guidance system doesn't feel right. I rarely rely on the rear camera guidance in Q5, and mostly do it with ORVMs. It is opposite in Verna. I can mostly rely on rear camera and guidance with rare peeks at ORVMs.
• There are a lot of side movements in the 5-15 KMPH range on potholes, so either you have to jump over those potholes at slightly higher speed or navigate them carefully in 1-2KMPH range.
• Seat cushioning is hard, but still makes for a comfortable ride.
• Although tall, the tyres are not wide enough at 235mm. They look thin from the rear. Audi should have shod Q5 with at least 255mm wide tyres. Will have to upsize when the car is out of warranty. Also, I don't know if it is the right assumption, but due to the slim tires and lower car body weight to tyre width ratio, the car doesn't stay in a straight direction even on smooth roads. I have to keep bringing it back in a straight line with slight steering inputs. It doesn't feel like an alignment issue, rather the slim tyres. I had no such problem on the Verna which I upsized with 205 55 R16 tyres. Steering wheel is a bit large for my liking. And stitches on it sometimes hurt my fingers when I turn the car purely with a finger.
• Indirect TPMS. It can tell if there is a puncture but doesn't show the PSI values for tyres.
• No wireless AA/ACP
• Some USB ports are of type A, some are of type C. So, I will have to buy a lot of cables considering all the combinations of guest travellers vs USB charges. In Verna, I have to simply carry 2. One for phones with USB C, and one for lightning ports
• Wireless charging heats up both Samsung and Apple phones.
• No spare tyre
• All weather mats from Audi are slippery and almost useless in containing dirt.
• Adjustable suspension features won't make the suspension hard enough for a hardcore sporty drive.
• Although rare, gearbox takes up to a second to downshift
• Wiper and indicator controls on the opposite side have totally messed up our muscle memory. We get it wrong in the first few usages every time we switch between Verna and Q5.
• Instrument cluster shows navigation but not from the phone connected with AA/ACP.
• Expected from a DCT but the gearbox can be jerky at low speeds especially at turns.
• It might be a trait of all automatic cars, but brakes and clutch working against each other while parking in tight spots grinds my gears.
• I am not sure about the component name, but there is suspension component, which is directly above front tyres, leaving next to no room for tyre upsize. I won't do any as long as the car is in warranty, but still some room would have been good for the future.
• The same suspension component I am talking about is clearly visible from the sides and sticks out. Wifey doesn't like it and I am going to get it painted black.
• Rear seats have a recline function but not enough to make for comfortable naps.
• Although the touchscreen is quick, the music play pause button mounted on steering is slow. It takes about a second to play or pause the music.
• I am neat picking here, but the distance to empty drops by 10 KM and not any sooner. So, you see the distance to empty dropping like 500, 490, 480. I like the ones where it drops every kilometre or so.

My brief experience purely about driving the car:
It does most of the driving effortlessly, silently and without even breaking a sweat. It can do 100KMPH below 2000 RPM. At times, I have also seen it cruising comfortably at 1000 RPM. Overtakes are also butter smooth. It's a pure joy to watch that tachometer needle jumping up and down with accelerator inputs. Just watching that needle action in itself is pure fiction. And when you find an empty stretch and put pedal to the metal, that is when German black magic unfolds. At first, it tries to sneak the car from under you and hits you by surprise even though you were betting on it to do so. And then it keeps on pulling. Somewhere in between all of that you notice that turbo whistling. You know it's sipping through your fuel tank, but unintuitively it makes you proud. While the torque rush starts to fade, you take a look at the speedometer and have the scary realization why. This engine doesn't feel like petrol at all. Or maybe this is the first time I am owning a Turbo Petrol. Even if Audi had a diesel option available, I would still have gone with the Petrol one as it comes with much more horses at a similar price. Plus, no worrying about DPF during hill station tours. Despite the long list of what I don't like, it's a wonderful car and it will do very well at what it is supposed to do, which is take us comfortably and safely to places. We intend to keep it for at least 10 years, longer if it proves to be reliable. Based on team-bhp threads, I am confident that the Audi service centre experience will be better than VW/Skoda horror stories, even though Audi falls under the same group.

On a side note, we have decided to not sell Verna, as I expect the Q5 to spend at least some time in the service centre. It will also be a good companion for city chores. It has much more value to provide then the price it will sell for. I intend to keep it as well for 10 more years and I hope the new legally adulterated fuel doesn't mess with its BS4 engine. *

Here is a failed attempt at doing mini photoshoot of our beauty and the beast:






Few questions for fellow BHPIans

• What is your opinion of mud flaps on Q5? Do they really help?
• Have you found good floor mats? If yes, please share a link.
• Should I go for leather floor matting? If yes, please share a trusted service provider in the NCR area.

PS: I still love driving my Verna somewhat more than Q5. And I now realise that driving pleasure is not all about 0-100 times and BHP.

[Aurum]

Others have been keeping this thread alive more than I have!

Congratulations on the car, @rev_to_redline, my advice is to keep it under warranty as many years as you can. I recently took the extended warranty for the 6th-7th years at the end of the 5th year (cost me upwards of 2.5 lakhs) and needed it a few weeks back.

A quick update: For the most part, its now mostly used by the kids and wife. I end up taking a car from office for the day to day. Its been running 8-10 k a year.

The one long drive we did was to my parents place in Kerala and back to Mumbai in the last week of 2023. Southwards by NH 66 and back North by NH 48. At that time, except parts of Maharashtra and nearly all of Kerala, NH 66 was already a dream to drive on. Stopped overnight in South Goa and Mangalore. On the way back, stopovers were at Hassan and Kolhapur. Again, Kerala and parts of Maharashtra were under construction. Karnataka and Goa were great throughout. The car was a dream during the entire trip. Will find some time to add more details.

A more recent experience was a leakage of coolant due with which the car is currently at the service centre. Initially, they did a diagnostic and told me that a pipe was leaking which is rubber and not covered under the extended warranty. Cost was 43 k. 13k for the pipe and 25 k for flushing and refllling the coolant. I thought this was ridiculous since its not a wear and tear part. I looked through the extended warranty documentation, and nowhere does it say that rubber parts are not covered. Pushed them, they went back to Audi and are covering it now. Now this pipe has been coming from Germany and by the time I get it next week, the car would have been sitting with them two weeks. Service is not the worst, but you have to be on your toes.

[Amey Kulkarni]

Originally Posted by rev_to_redline

I have been a proud owner of Manual Verna SX Petrol 2019 for the past 5 years.

What I don't like:[list][*] Can't handle corners very well, which is expected of an SUV with comfortable suspension.

PS: I still love driving my Verna somewhat more than Q5. And I now realise that driving pleasure is not all about 0-100 times and BHP.

Congratulations on the Q5. I'm a bit surprised though on the quoted dislike. What are your references? Hyundai Verna?

With the adaptive dampers especially, the Q5 will definitely take corners with confidence. I believe you need to spend more time to realize this or maybe what you are referring to is the steering feedback which is supple and could be a bit stiff but that's just Audi for you.

Wishing you happy smiles with the Q5 and eventually you'll not miss Verna.

Cheers,
Amey