UrbanExtant

It should be noted that the Q5 we had problems with was not the only Audi we owned/own. We have a 2011 A4 we bought the day before ordering the Q5. In the ten months we've owned the A4, it has had NO problems other than the dealership destroying the paint finish, which they are having a body shop repair. Thankfully it's a lease, and we can just hand it back to them at the end, and not deal with trying to trade a repainted car later on.

The purpose of my original post about the X5 experience was to provide the knowledge, and perspective gained from being on both sides of the fence. You know, the whole "the grass is greener on the other side" thing and all.

TIME89

What can I tell you - welcome back!
As a current owner of BMW, can agree of many of points that you describe. But there some, I not agree with you and I think you missing few steps or didn't read a manual (or I wrong and X5 didn't have a features that I have on my 3).
Voice dial - If it's simple world like 'Home' or 'Mom cell' - BMW don't have problem recognize my Russian-English accent and dial. But once every 6-7 call it miss.
Switch between CD, Radio Am/Fm - it's a programmed button on steering wheel.

UrbanExtant

The only way we could get it to dial a contact was to hit the voice command button, say "phonebook", wait for it to ask what name, say the name, then wait for it to ask which number entry under that name to dial, and then say "yes" when it asked if we actually wanted to dial that number. We read the book, and we even sat with the tech at BMW to go through the system with him. In the Audis we just said, "call (name)" and it would dial it, one simple command, and it was done, not so with the BMW.

I, too, have the media button on the steering wheel, my complaint lies in that when switching from one component, i.e. nav, radio, cd/ipod, to another, it always brings you to the starting menu, whereby you have to reselect everything to get to the screen/menu you were on before you switched. The "back" button only worked so-so to get us back, and only if we made one screen change, if we made more than one it only brought us to the previous screen, not where we wanted to be most of the time. Maybe you're lucky and your 3 series functions differently than our X5 does.

When I showed the BMW tech the printed out list of MMI voice commands one could use in the Audi, his response was, "yeah....our system doesn't do that, it's not as advanced...."

The G Man

UrbanExtant, welcome back from the dark side
I think one member here said it best, if performance is your only priority, than BMW is your car, but if you can give up a little bit of performance, then Audi is a better buy. Audi is a better all around car, the material quality is better, better value for the dollar, much nicer interior and a more comfortable ride. When you think about it, how many times do we push our cars to the limit?

UrbanExtant

Thanks! It was actually me that said Audi was the better buy. I can say I truly believe that having gone Audi to BMW and back. The X5 does drive crazy good, but you are absolutely correct in asking how often one pushes their car to the limit, not so often for me, especially with traffic here in Philly. I'd rather the very good ride of the Q5 with all the creature comforts, than the crazy good ride of the X5 with lesser comforts/quality.

Now, the question we are asking ourselves is what color do we order the new Q5 in now that they nixed the color we truly wanted, deep sea blue. I've seen quite a few threads/comments on moonlight blue, but does anyone actually have an idea what that color is really like?

I don't think I've ever seen the documents I'm going to attach anywhere on this forum. They are quite handy, and hopefully they'll help someone else on here. They've helped us with the A4, and will with the new Q5.

TIME89

Not that BMW list is a small one.

tridentnyc

Urban,

I posted some pics I took a while back on the "ExamPles Of Moonlight Blue" thread, last page, last posting. You can try this mobile link, not sure if it will work or not, give it a shot:
https://www.audiworld.com/forums/sho...2805417&page=5

I liked the color so much I cancelled my original order with Brilliant Black and repressed with the Midnight Blue, costing me two months of extra wait time! Definitely worth it IMO.

Great sophisticated color, looks deep blue in some light, blue gray in other light and even black in some light. Wife loved it too! Hope this helps.

PS On my iPhone, thus the earlier mobile link

UrbanExtant

Thanks for the response. The Audiusa.com website has just been updated to the 2012 Q5, but the configurator is lacking the ability to display two colors, monsoon grey, and moonlight blue. They show it as being available in Daytona Grey Pearl Effect, which seems to have caught my eye. When we bring the A4 in to be repainted August 1, I'm going to see if the dealership has color swatches of the blue and the grey.

TIME89

UrbanExtant,
if you familiar with BMW "Monaco Blue" - you have very good idea how "Moonlight blue" looks.

HotRodW

"people who love BMWs are so enamored with them, that they overlook serious flaws I've come to see."

True statement, Urban. I would add that this trait applies to many people who are loyal to just one manufacturer. I believe BMW's drive so well that owners are even more likely to overlook the nagging issues.

I'm curious . . . did you consider/test drive other vehicles before making the decision to go back to Audi?