hitokiri

why don't you watch this one instead. At least it's in real life situation.
btw, this video is at least 3 years old. I am sure a lot of you had seen it.

http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyKstZ6a5ag

manup

I think they disabled or turned off the ESP! No way would that happen if it was working properly! Wonder what Kleinbus would say about it?

Quartz5

I call BS on the china video too, look at the background, all BMW ad logos. The Q5 can't be that bad. I'm not going to return my deposit cause of some fixed videos. btw, Im new to the forum. Hello! Just ordered my 2011 Q5

the-oneil

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...3197544018466#
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4l_t...eature=related

hawke94

Have yet to drive our Q5 in snow, but have driven in various snow and icy conditions in NY and MA in a B6 A4 w/ Quattro. My personal experience with Quattro has been very positive, especially compared with the wife's 330xi at the time. One time during a blizzard, we were moving our cars in the driveway to clear away some foot high snow. The A4 drove the snow like it was on dry pavement. The BMW, on the other hand, was having trouble getting traction and at one point actually surged forward as I pulled into a spot. Keep in mind that we're doing this in the driveway, so we're talking 1-2 mph. My guess is the BMW's AWD computer got confused and applied more popwer when it shouldn't have. And no, I did not have the gas pedal depressed (remember, we're talking creeping parking lot speeds here). To get to our house, you have to go up a long hill, about 20-30 angle. If the road hasn't been cleared completely, the BMW used to slip a few times. And this is with Blizzaks. Never had that issue with the A4 with plain ole Pole Position all-seasons. I'll admit I'm not an expert on AWD systems, but my understanding is that Quattro is permanent and mechanical, while xDrive relies on the computer to calculate wheelspin and other conditions and makes adjustments accordingly. The xDrive system does not kick in until slippage is detected. Quattro is active all the time, without slippage being detected. I think this is why Quattro-equipped cars tend to be faster off the line, especially in bad road conditions. Feel free to correct me if I'm mistaken.

Oh yeah, the wife got rid of the BMW a few years ago and got herself a B6 A4 too. She's been very satisfied with it and her next car will probably another Audi. I think we're unofficially known in the neighborhood as the "Audi family."

gat821

+1. When one axle has no traction at all on those rollers (or say, on a patch of ice), the torsen center differential acts as an open differential, and no torque gets transmitted to the other axle. It's just the nature of how the torsen works. Audi gets around this by braking the spinning axle and resulting in torque transferring to the other axle.

kleinbus

With winter tires, I drove mine into hub deep snow, almost got stuck when high centered, was able to reverse off and chose different route and got off.


About the video,

If ESP is manually turned off, it comes active (and stays active) when vehicle speed exceeds 20 mph. I tried and I tried to keep it off when playing with 4 wheel drifts last winter.

If ESP is OFF, it will not activate the traction control and allows low speed drifts!

If ESP on, it will kill any drifts as it is intended to do.

If ESP is OFF then video is pretty much true as the AWD systems are different.

Beemer haves multiclutch front-rear differential and car computer is able to lock it, like what happens to Audi A3 and VW Tiguan with Haldex clutch at full throttle take-off.

Audi Q5 doesn't have locking feature in its middle differential (the torsen).

Like Gat said, Torsen requires little resistance to convey the power to axle with traction. There is another roller test track video clip that shows same behavior with old A8 with ESP off and A8 was stuck as rollers are like clean shiny ice at ice hockey rink. When ESP is in normal stage (active) in case one end would be on clear ice without traction and spinning resistance, it will brake wheels enough (not completely) to create resistance that will activate the Torsen so the movement is done by Torsen and not by brakes.

There is something wrong with that video as I have driven mine to cross-hunging and if I DO NOT keep my throttle steady, I stay stuck (if I keep pumping, pressing brake and gas back and forth) and unless I keep the throttle steady only then traction control comes active and off I come from the ditch.

Also Q5 "off-roading" sense takes moment to learn what driver intends, first time I took mine to "ditch training" it took computer a moment to understand what I wanted and it took moment from me to learn not to pump the gas.

After I came off the ditch I did second run and that time computer activated traction control right away and I went through like nothing.

I tried few times more, now ESP OFF and I stayed stuck no matter how I pressed the gas and how I allowed the wheels to spin and throw the crap around. Once I reactivated ESP, it took second or so to understand car was in cross-hanging over the ditch and with steady throttle it came off like nothing.

By looking the video I can say...

- don't even bother to go to ramp if ESP is OFF!!

- most extreme (and most common "roller" test track for AWD systems) that does not mimic normal flat icy road situation, rather icy uphill and driver would be screwed when sliding all the way down and crashing to woods or what ever.


In "ramp world" where we would drive our cars around ramps all day, X3 with multiclutch and lockable centerdifferential would win in such ramp. Even my ex VW Tiguan 4mot would slap Q5 around the cheeks and go up that ramp and even VW Passat 4mot (not V6 with Torsen) would go up that ramp and even Audi A3 and TT would go it up too as all those have Haldex lockable center differential...


IF you strip any vehicle down and be without electric assistance then X3 would be stuck as the electric multiclutch doesn't function and X3 is just rear wheel drive. Most Audi models with mechanical Torsen and some Subaru models with mechanical drives are the only ones (from passenger cars) that would have AWD without electrics.

At the end, why didn't I get the X3 if it's AWD is better on roller test track?

Don't get me wrong, I have owned Audi's, VW's, Beemers and MB's and each of their own.

I still love the old Mercedes G diesel I had but it have's its own purpose and for normal drive I would rather take Q5 or if I would want more, I would get Touareg, if that wouldn't be enough then I would get back to G and if I still would have issues, I would get Mercedes Unimog 5000 series (as there is nothing better in this world)

Coolieman1220

i'm glad we have people here who understand how quattro works and other awd systems. There is rarely a time when you will ever be in a situation such as the roller one. IMO i still think quattro is better...

soonerfan

MB Unimog! The ultimate all-wheel drive, go anywhere machine. When I lived in the Colorado Rockies, I wanted one of these things, but my old 1.8T A4QM took me wherever there was a snow covered paved or hard-packed gravel road. The Mog would have been a fun toy.

hawke94

Have yet to drive our Q5 in snow, but have driven in various snow and icy conditions in NY and MA in a B6 A4 w/ Quattro. My personal experience with Quattro has been very positive, especially compared with the wife's 330xi at the time. One time during a blizzard, we were moving our cars in the driveway to clear away some foot high snow. The A4 drove the snow like it was on dry pavement. The BMW, on the other hand, was having trouble getting traction and at one point actually surged forward as I pulled into a spot. Keep in mind that we're doing this in the driveway, so we're talking 1-2 mph. My guess is the BMW's AWD computer got confused and applied more popwer when it shouldn't have. And no, I did not have the gas pedal depressed (remember, we're talking creeping parking lot speeds here). To get to our house, you have to go up a long hill, about 20-30 angle. If the road hasn't been cleared completely, the BMW used to slip a few times. And this is with Blizzaks. Never had that issue with the A4 with plain ole Pole Position all-seasons. I'll admit I'm not an expert on AWD systems, but my understanding is that Quattro is permanent and mechanical, while xDrive relies on the computer to calculate wheelspin and other conditions and makes adjustments accordingly. The xDrive system does not kick in until slippage is detected. Quattro is active all the time, without slippage being detected. I think this is why Quattro-equipped cars tend to be faster off the line, especially in bad road conditions. Feel free to correct me if I'm mistaken.

Oh yeah, the wife got rid of the BMW a few years ago and got herself a B6 A4 too. She's been very satisfied with it and her next car will probably another Audi. I think we're unofficially known in the neighborhood as the "Audi family."