[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