mwaarna

Not sure which category this suits best, but I follow the Q5 the most.. So I thought I'd post it here..

http://pressroom.consumerreports.org...-top-list.html

http://www.autoblog.com/2012/10/29/f...orts-reliabil/

MonzaA5

I wouldn't put much faith in the Consumer Reports reliability survey. Their methodology is highly suspect, as evidenced by massive, difficult to explain fluctuations from year to year. How could Ford go from having 90% of its models in the 'above average' range to being next to last in just two years? It's not like there have been any huge changes in Ford's product mix or manufacturing methods over the past two years. Ditto with Audi. The 18 spot improvement within such a short timeframe cannot be attributed to improvements in manufacturing processes or quality control. In short, this is a completely pointless survey.

SteveDu

Well CR was right in terms of post ownership cost for the Q5...

Did my 25k service today, end up replacing the pad for the front and tire rotation / balance.

Total? $840.

But no more downshift jerking though!

m1964

Can you post itemized charges?

I changed my front brakes myself, parts alone were ~$280, but the labor was free-did it at ~19K miles.

idale

Ford's plummet seems to be MyFordTouch-related from what I hear. Same as the plummet for the B5.5 Passats back in their day (bad batch of coilpacks from a supplier, a few people had some trouble, everyone complained and rated the Passat horribly even though it was all covered under a warranty recall and it didn't seem like many people were truly adversely affected).

CR relies on select owners returning forms so it's hardly an objective source and very easy to tamper with the "reliability" results. Swings will be due more to whether owners are "happy" or not, rather than true reliability. I figure Audi coming up is a good sign, though, since I would think generally such owners are probably going to be more critical of any imperfections rather than a standard Japanese brand owner. Never seen the survey myself, so I'm not sure the exact format it takes, but I certainly don't trust a random owner to objectively report on their vehicle's reliability.

georgehf

I got a quote last week. Front brakes and rotors - $810 out the door. I think that they said that the labor was $350, which is 2 hours at my dealership.

If you paid $280 for the parts, my dealership must mark them up another 100% over msrp. I'm glad that I decided to wait!

Daisame

You are right about the surveys only being as good as folks are willing to respond. However, their questions are not so much "how do you feel" but "what happened". They look for facts and use that to compile reliability data. It is about as scientific as you can get without having detailed repair and maintenance records on every car sold.

m1964

and the same consumer report "finds" 09-11 V6 Q6 unreliable.

There were 3 issues w/ them, all fixed by now: defective WP, LED modules, and sunroof leaks.