UrbanExtant

Several weeks ago I posted that due to Audi's inability to correctly repair my Q5's transmission, I had sadly traded it in for a BMW X5 M-Sport. After roughly three weeks of driving the BMW, my partner and I are in the process of selling it to replace it with a new Q5. To say the BMW has been a colossal letdown is an understatement. I will list a few reasons why this is so, but to all of you reading this forum who are considering a BMW over an Audi, DON'T DO IT!!! While Audi has its faults, and you may run into a problem like we did, overall, the Audi is the better car for the price.

1) iDrive v. MMI - iDrive is archaic, lacking of features, and to do something as simple as call someone in the phonebook takes MULTIPLE steps, not just the "Call (name)" as with the Audi. The iDrive also gets voice commands wrong most of the time. I'm from upstate NY, have no real accent, and the Audi always understood me, but the BMW often does not, and there is no voice training as with the Audi. There is no easy way to go from one system, i.e. nav to cd to radio, without having to go through multiple selections and screens to get back to where you previously were within one of the systems. The Audi remembers your last screen when you switch between them. Also, the "hot corners" with the selection buttons are a great feature in the Audi MMI. The iDrive feels like last decade's technology to me compared to Audi's MMI.

2) Interior Quality - other than the 20 way multi-contour seats, most everything in the BMW is lacking compared to the Audi. Upon first glance, it seems "nice", but after driving for 3 weeks, it's not so "nice" now. The lack of a color LCD driver information screen with the gauges is a huge minus for me. The rear climate control system in the BMW, that is like the main climate control, is great, and I wish Audi had that in the Q5, along with the heated rear seats. I used to think things creaked in the Q5, but they are out of control in the X5. I'll take my rear seat rattle in the Q5 back over this any day. The quality of materials used by Audi seems far superior to what BMW uses. Let's also not forget the irritating locking system. The doors lock, and the only way out is to pull the door handle twice, or to press the ONLY lock/unlock button in the car in the center of the dashboard.

3) Exterior Quality - who'd have thought that the front fenders in the BMW X5 are PLASTIC, certainly not me. Also, a HUGE manufacturer design flaw in the BMW X5 M-Sport is that it sandblasts its own paint off on the rear doors, rear fender flairs, and rear rocker panel in front of the rear wheels from rocks kicked up from the front wheels. We're in the process of getting BMW North America to repair/repaint them before we sell it. For a car of this price, it shouldn't damage itself just driving a few hundred feet down the road.

4) Within the three weeks we've owned the BMW, two vent covers have broken off just adjusting them, the paint is being sandblasted off by the car's design flaw, the rearview camera is in need of repair (flickers/scrambles itself), and the iPod cable randomly disconnects the iPod while playing so we have to unplug the cable, and reattach to the car for it to "maybe" register again, sometimes it takes 3-4 tries for it to work. The Audi, in 8 months of ownership only had the transmission problem, which we were told by Audi of America, after we traded it, that they would have continued to try to make it "right", even though they had previously said they would not. We wish we had known that before trading it.

So, sorry for the lengthy post, but I don't want someone to make the expensive mistake we did.

Chris

DrV

Wow Chris! Unreal. I have never owned a BMW, but you make some compelling points. Let's trust that your next Audi will be without issues and serves you well. Welcome back

Houstonmobilian

When we were cross-shopping the Q7 and X5 (diesel version), I agreed with you completely of how cheaply made the X5's interior looked like. My partner and I were disappointed that X5's interior is a let down. Not only X5 is more expensive, it just not as efficient as the Q7's TDI. Welcome back!

tridentnyc

Great post, thanks very much. I'm seriously on the fence on whether to accept delivery on my 2012 factory order due to the absolute laundry list of issues with the Q5 on this forum. Not sure your post helps but at least it seems at least there is at least one crappier German manufacturer than Audi. Not saying too much though.

Good luck with your second time around, keep us posted.

By the way, just curious if you don't mind me asking: What kind of hit did you take financially on the first Q5 and what kind of hit do you expect to take on the X5?

UrbanExtant

Sent you a private message about the financial aspects.

Le Chef

I'm not sure from your post whether you were buying a form of transportation or an iPad with wheels. Most of your complaints center around iDrive and not driving itself. And did you not try out iDrive before you bought what is an $80K vehicle?

Really not sure why you went for what is a high performance SUV and then come back to a Q5. Why did you go for an X5M rather than the new X3 which has a similar performance envelop to the Q5? Or if you wanted the performance why not get into a used Cayenne Turbo rather than coming back to a Q5? TheCayenne is better designed and made than either the Audi or the BMW and significantly faster.

Someone tell me what I'm missing here, because I'm not seeing the logic in any of this.

UrbanExtant

We bought the X5 because it seemed the "right" choice at the time(we liked the way it drove, coming from a car that no longer drove well), knowing what we did, and seriously disliking the X3. Hind sight is 20/20 they say though, and we have learned our lesson. As for driving quality, yes, it does drive somewhat better than the Q5, but $30k better, NO! I do not think the X5 M-sport is a "high performance SUV", just my view. To me, and I say ME, a car that does nothing but drive well isn't enough, I need the creature comforts, and quality, to go along with it (which I expected an $80k+ vehicle to have, and learned over time did not), so...I'm willing to compromise slightly on drive quality to get the creature comforts. It's all fun and games to drive well until you hit something while trying to navigate the 5 steps it takes to call someone on the telephone through their system. The iDrive, upon first use, seemed "ok", but has turned out to be not so great. There's only so much one can do during a 20 minute test drive, and sitting in the vehicle to tinker with things. We did not have the option to connect our phone(s) and try to make a call, we wish we had. It takes a couple weeks of driving a vehicle to figure out what's good, and what's bad, and online research can only do so much, and frankly people who love BMWs are so enamored with them, that they overlook serious flaws I've come to see.

In case you didn't read the whole post, I mentioned many other things besides iDrive that make it a less than stellar vehicle, I even mentioned a couple that make it a better vehicle. I have no complaints with it's drive quality, the complaints are with everything else.

As for the Porsche, it's not a vehicle we find interesting, and I find the interior design dismal at best. That's just a personal thing though, as others very much like it. To answer another question I'm sure being wondered, we don't like the Q7, we'd rather the sportiness of the Q5 with one of the aluminum storage pods for the roof when we travel.

Audirings4

We are over 18k miles on our 2011 and a total of 1 issue. A backseat squeak that was fixed by 3 inches of electrical tape.

Not sure what "laundry list" you're referring to?

gat821

Wow, sorry to hear what you went through, but nice to see you back with Audi. I was cross shopping the 328 vs the A4 for our next car, and I agree with you on iDrive - too many submenus. Fit and finish did look on par along with material quality, but that was an impression only from a few test drives.
Eagerly waiting for my A4.

Le Chef, it seems the OP was taking issue more with build quality and the iDrive and not necessarily the engine or drivetrain. How good the driving dynamics are can take you quite far obviously, but its not the whole package.

tridentnyc

Just check recent or near recent postings on this forum, here are a few for entertainment purposes:

Creaking sunroof, creaking rear seats, high oil consumption (2.0T), lurching transmission (2.0T), very out of date GPS maps, transmission whine, unusually heavy brake dust, brake groaning, low speed clunking while turning, etc.

Those are just the recent ones and ones with more than a few members reporting the same issue.