joseaudi

what bells and whistles. Audi's have all that stuff too.

BlueSander

535 is a pretty boring car. I found myself sitting there getting bored while in the A6, I actually have to keep myself from touching here and there. It's a fast RWD but the xdrive is pretty sluggish. 3 people in my family started out looking at the 535xi but all landed on something else later after the test drive. I can totally understand why someone buy the 3 coupe, the 6 & 7 or X5 and X6 but... the 3 sedan, 5 and X3 are lame. I do recommend my friend to try out the X6 though, it's an amazing car (except the road noise is just annoying on such an expensive car).

I'm sure you have never driven the 550i in snow. Throw on a good set of snow tire and you're ready to go. With an experienced driver, 550i can be a beast even when it's snowing hard.

schnellmb

i don't know how you say the 535xi sucks, but that's your opinion.

bimmer magazine #81 didn't see a 550 sport MT a better package than a sport pack MT 535i.

xdrive changes some handling, and it goes through the snow as well as quattro in my experience...and we've gotten near 12ft of snow this year.

both "intensively"....like you've gone on a test ride or you've had a year's seat time?

the N62 might have the V8 grunt, but when you're stuck in a snow storm dumping 3-4" an hour or traveling into the mountains, AWD becomes a lot more important than RWD assumed superiority (snow tires or not).

BlueSander

my family and our relatives own almost all the mid range luxury sedans you can count of in the market. the xdrive is no where performance wise compared to quattro. For average driver, the margin may be closer but "the same" should not be used in the previous sentence by any mean.
Also, I don't know how bad your area is but our local official has been doing very good clearing snow, I don't see the need of not buying the 550i because of the 1/365 (assuming it stays that way the whole entire day) chance I would be driving around in the 550i (another 1/3 chance if you have at least 3 cars in the house) when it's snowing to the extreme like you said.

Rory

That's a "no".

schnellmb

cough, bs, cough............

BlueSander

Lexus GS, audi a6 of my own, acura TL, mer E550 and, sadly, a 535xi fully loaded that will get traded in soon for an X5. aren't that how many other mid range there are? Call yourself an bimmer bias before calling other bs.

schnellmb

i have some experience with Audis, and my beef is a lack of good service, which requires a 90 mile one-way trip in my area. i have BMWs because the local sales and service is superior to the Audi dealership. outside of that, i think Audi makes some decent products.

before you start throwing ****, try and take some balance and learn some manners.

and are you the forum gestapo?

you still haven't explained why the 535xi sucks outside of your hard on.

BlueSander

A million posts don't make anyone smarter. Also, not everyone lives 90 miles away from an Audi dealer like you. Superior service doesn't always mean the car itself is better.Regarding the 535xi, I think I also shared my thought of why it's bad.

Also, I do think the title of my original reply is a little too much.

schnellmb

if you don't like a car, that's cool--we all have had good cars and bad ones that we've liked better than others.

if you don't like the 535xi, that's fine with me. i wanted to know what you felt as i've had excellent service from both 5's i've had, and my 335xi (which i really don't like).

customer service and reliablity are very important to me. a good dealer and service network makes a big difference IMO.

while superior service might not be the best, a car that doesn't visit the dealer monthly goes a long way for the make.

you're right, not everyone has so few dealers nearby as me, which makes a good dealer network all the more important.

good luck.