dchayer

Our 2008 Q7 3.6 premium is up next month. It has been a great car with the exception of horrible tire wear and allignment issues. We have 35k miles on the vehicle and it is ready for it's 3rd set of tires. at 1300/yr in tires I have no interest in buying it off lease.

We are looking at a new Q7, Q5, X5 and Toureg. Has anyone had both the Q7 and Q5? My only concern is space. We don't use the 3rd row more than 5 times a year.

Any other big differences between the Q5 and 7? I am expecting the new 5 to be more responsive than our existing 7 which is a bit sluggish.

Anyone one else shop the X5 against the Q5? Why did you end up purchasing the Q?

My wife loves the interior of the Q and does not care for my BMW so I know that will be a check against the X5.

Thanks in advance.

DC

LeicaNut

I had an 08 Q7 which I traded in for 10 Q5. The cargo space is slightly smaller than in the Q7 with the third row down and larger than the Q7 with the third row up. The mileage and handling of the Q5 are much better more sedan like than truck like. The interior is much nicer in the Q7.

The Q5 is more manueverable in traffic and I do not give that much up in cargo space and towing. The Q5 is comparable to the VW Touraeg and Porsche Cayenne (old version, not the new 2011) than the Q7.

dchayer

Thanks for the info. that is exactly the type of info I was looking for.

What makes the Q7 interior better than the Q5?

The G Man

The Q7's ionterior is based off an A6 and the Q5, the A6. The Q7's interior is one step up in the Audi lineup. Having said that, we test drove the Q7 and the X5 when we were shopping for a SUV last year. We also had a loaner Q7 for a weekend, in my opinion, the Q7 does not drive like a Audi, more like a highway cruiser. The Q5 and the X5 is much more fun to drive than the Q7. The X5 actually handle better than the Q5 I thought, but my wife didnt notice the difference, plus she was in love with the Q5's look The deciding factor was that the X5 came in at $10000+ with the same option and the X5's interior was very boring and dated.

hawke94

We didn't own a Q7 prior to purchasing a Q5, but we did test drive one. The Q5 felt felt more agile and quicker, and was wider in the rear for our two car seats. I came from a 2002 A4 and never did like the design of the A6 interior. For example, I didn't like how high some of the buttons and ***** were placed on the A6 dash. The headlight **** is mounted high above the vents and I was used to it being below the vents, out of sight. Just a personal preference.

We also test drove an X5 (non-turbo) and it felt heavier, slower, and not as agile as the Q5. This was with 3 adults inside: me, my wife, and the salesperson. The price of the X5 was also almost 10k more than a comparably equipped Q5. The diesel was actually less expensive thanks to some Federal green rebate, but still much more expensive. We wanted to test drive a diesel, but after much searching around the lot, it was discovered that the dealership owner's wife had borrowed it for the weekend. We know them, they're great people and regular customers of ours, but that pretty much made us decide not to go with the X5. That and the fact that my wife had horrible experiences from their service dept when she had a 330xi. Not to worry because they still got our money. They also own the Audi dealership we bought the Q5 from. The wife actually ran into the owner on one of our negotiation days.

moonan

I must "almost" qualify for your question, I traded a 2005 Touareg for the Q5.
Must say that I always thought of the Touareg as a "Q6"
Big differences are:
1. Slightly smaller (4 inches shorter in length, 4 inches lower in roofline, 4 inches narrower in width), but does not feel cramped inside. Noticably less room in the trunk, but with forward-back sliding rear seats you can have your choice of rear leg-room or more luggage space. This would be more so if comparing your Q7.
2. Much lighter and more "nimble" on the road. Compare the weight specs for the Q5 you are looking at - in my case (R5 TDI Touareg - 2.0 TDI Q5) the Q5 is something like 700kg lighter! Around 1500lb less to carry around.
3. This makes handling better, as does the more car-like dynamics of the Q5.
4. Interior is very classy, but you have to make your own judgement here as it is a personal choice.
5. One negative - the Q5's climate control system is not as sophisticated as the Touareg or the Q7. In the T, I set the temp setting on the day I bought it, and pressed the AUTO button, and then never had to adjust it in the 4 years I owned it. Whisper quiet, you never had air blow on you directly unless you opened or directed a face-level vent at yourself, and if you closed a face level vent then the system adjusted to the lower flow requirement just fine.
With the Q5 I find that I often manually reduce the speed of the fan to stop excessive blowing air at face level, if you close a face-level vent then all of the air keeps blowing and forces itself out of the other face-level vents, including whistling around the closed or almost-closed vents.
This is a lot of detail about a small problem, but it is hard to describe in a couple of words. I have not compared this with other Audis but would be surprised if it is a problem in all other models.

I hope that this helps

cheers,

LeicaNut

The Q7 interior is based on the A6, and the quality of the dash, controls are reminiscent of the A6. The Q5 interior is based on the A5/A4 and as such are a notch below that of the A6 in luxury.