scrmorling

Not that I'm paranoid about it, but how come Audi can lower this baby by 60 mm but they can't lower the US spec SQ5 by a mere 30mm?

idale

The can, of course, just a matter of whether they will. Honestly no idea what's up with ride height these days. I'd seen posts over in some of the B8 models where S-Line looked like it no longer had the 30mm drop for some reason, and then for us it's looking like the SQ5 (a real S model) may have no drop at all.... Is Audi corporate doing it, is it AoA, and what's the reasoning there since whenever anyone's going for "sporty" they pretty much always talk about dropping (typically more than just 30mm, too).

BlackSVT

I have no inside info here, but my previous experiences with buying lower-volume, "specialty" version cars is that ride height mods create a lot of headaches in terms of re-certifying to US standards. In other words, the Q5 was brought to market at a particular height for the mainstream version. offering the SQ5 at 30mm+ lower ride height would force a re-cert on crash tests and other safety standards.

One particularly interesting approach that I came across when Ford's SVT group was still a separate entity to get around this -- they'd used re-spec'd springs on their SVT Focus with a known amount of settling. At delivery, the car was slightly lower than "normal", but a couple months down the road, the car sat a full 25mm+ lower. No re-cert needed for a car that sold only 2-3k /year, and a lower stance. I like creative solutions...

idale

The SQ5 had to be separately certified anyway, so at least for it (compared to for example A4 vs. A4 S-Line) certification shouldn't be the issue. It would be silly to have to recertify for a mild drop, but this is the US we're talking about and we already have pretty crazy certification requirements that cause us problems in getting models over here....

JaXeN

I wonder if the Euro SQ5 shocks are any different than the shocks of non-drive select Q5s?

Spijun? :-)

spijun

Shocks absorbers for SQ5 are different from the Q5 with/without drive select

JaXeN

Dammit... was hoping it would be a simple as swapping the TFSI SQ5 springs for TDI SQ5 springs to remain "stock".

*EDIT* - assuming the TFSI SQ5 suspension will be identical to stock Q5 susp.

Thanks for the info.

spijun

SQ5 TDI suspension in PDF form

MP4.2+6.0

I happened to be at Ingolstadt today doing the factory tour. We picked up our Q5 Hybrid yesterday on Euro delivery, and had the tour delayed until today.

One part of the overall factory site has a showroom, apparently used heavily by on site employees (35,000 of them!) for car ordering. Along the way I happened to take some Q5 pictures of a TDI SQ5 sitting on the showroom floor. The sticker says it has Drive Select, and I could see it had the 21" wheels. Another one had just been delivered to a German customer and was parked outside. It looked basically the same.

Maybe I don't know Q5's by visual appearance enough yet, but honestly I'm not sure I really saw ANY real difference here from other Q5s, gas or "regular" TDI over here in Germany. Judge for yourself.

scrmorling

Nice pics, MP; thanks very much.

I must say, however, that the darned thing doesn't look lowered at all and this is clearly a Euro-spec (TDI). Maybe the springs are expected to settle some or maybe it's an optical illusion due to the 21s and the /40 profile tires.

BTW, many grats on your new Q5 Hybrid.