rendart

Hey guys I am considering pulling the trigger and purchasing an Audi SQ5, been thinking this over for a few months as I would like a more powerful car as well as need a little more room as I currently drive an A5.

My question is to those people who have purchased the Prestige option over Premium plus as well as the Driver Assistance package, I understand you get the following added benefits with Prestige if you already include the Technology pack and Sound system with the premium :

1- Thermal cup holder
2- Manual SunShade for the rear seats
3- Adaptive Cruise Control
4- Dynamic Steering
5- Adaptive Headlights (weren't these banned?)

So the price difference is $5,400 between prestige and premium with those added options, my question is to those that elected to pay the difference and have used these options, do you feel they are worth the extra buck, or do you regret it?

All seem useless to me, except for the dynamic steering, since its a car with some decent speed it would be a shame not to have better handling, but is it worth that price difference, I am not sure.

Anyways, thanks for looking and would appreciate any opinions and input.

laakness

I had a S4 with the Adaptive Cruise and Dynamic steering prior to my SQ5.

I did not like the Adaptive Cruise. It works very well but I ended up shutting it off most of the time. Even the most aggressive setting it still leaves about 3-5 car lengths in front of you which is completely safe...but people just cut in and then the car hits the brakes or drops you back.

Eryeal

Disagree about the Adaptive Cruise - I absolutely love this feature, especially for long car trips. It's one feature that prior to having I didn't really think I'd use, but ended up loving it and now would be hard not to have it.

laakness

The other part I didn't like about the adaptive cruise was when the person in front of you didn't have their cruise on and over time would slow down 5-7 mph and if you didn't pay attention you were doing 60 in the right lane on a 65mph highway. I guess it depends on where and how you drive as well as traffic conditions.

MP4.2+6.0

Couldn't get it on the Hybrid Q5; have it on the A8. On closest setting the gap is minimized enough there isn't a lot of cutting in, even w/ NorCal quasi aggressive traffic--or where traffic is so heavy and variable its not a great idea to use anyway. I have to manually move speed up and down a lot more on Q5 w/ out it than A8 w/ it.

scrmorling

For me, the Adaptive Cruise Control is the feature that gets used the most. In town to keep my speed in check and on the freeway for comfort, convenience and safety. Steve

laakness

I had read (not verified) that an alignment on an Audi with adaptive cruise was much more expensive because of the sensor calibration each time? Can anyone confirm that?

MP4.2+6.0

I have had my 2006 A8 aligned by my indy tire shop with zero issue with adaptive. Frankly, my wife used to park the 2004 Sienna with Toyota adaptive "by Braille" into all kinds of stuff and tweak the bumper at times. One time it bent the adaptive sensor bracket. I unbolted it and straightened it out literally by eye. It went back to being fine.

I think the theoretical issue with alignments and newer Audis is actually the rear camera parking skewed line display on the MMI screen. But, I would never rely on that stuff for total precision anyway. I suppose if some goofball so thoroughly misaligned a car that it crabbed down the road it might get into an issue with adaptive, but that is really extreme. In practice, I have used it extensively in two lane I-80 Sierra mountain driving with large speed differences (loaded semi's) on upgrades, and it rarely gets confused even in banked sweep turns, the usual acid test--a decreasing radius with a slower vehicle in the lane to the right is the once in a while point of confusion, no matter how well aligned everything is in theory.

rendart

Thanks for the feedback guys.

Still a little torn with the idea but I started to think, if I plan to keep this car hopefully for 4-5 years, I can look at the extra cost of 5400 over 5 years at about a 1000 per year. I guess its not too bad when you look at it that way, and the worst thing about purchasing something is having any regrets.

And so far I'm pretty confident I probably won't have any regrets with the model/make I selected, so probably best to eliminate any regret with the lack of options selected.

Anyways I'm over thinking this, I think I'll leave it to the dealer, if they have any in stock with these options I'll get it, otherwise I don't think I'm interested in the lag time of a placed order (which usually takes 3 months or is it less?)

Thanks again for reading.

snagitseven

And, while you won't get close to the the full amount back in 5 years, there will be a portion that you'll realize in future value. At the very least, all other things being equal, the Prestige will be more desirable to a potential buyer than a Premium Plus at a given price point.