I had the pleasure of driving a loaner car for the past week. All the excuse I need to dust off the Car Chronicles series!
My Audi Q5 has been great. I’m nearly two years into my lease and other than a few annoyances, I have been extremely happy with it.
Late last year I received a notice for a recall on the backup camera. When I called to schedule an appointment in early January, the dealer told me the repair would take at least a day, they were only scheduling two per day and the next opening was in February, and I would get a loaner while they had my car. They recommended I add on anything else that needed attention, so we included my annual maintenance and I asked that they check out my tailgate, which had been opening and closing erratically for awhile.
I got excited when I heard the scheduling lady mention a loaner. I figured Audi probably gives you a nice car, right? A few years back when my base trim level Suburban required an extensive repair, the Chevy dealer gave me a high-end Tahoe. That worked, as when the Suburban lease came up we replaced it with a more expensive and nicer Tahoe.
It is 2023, though, and I wondered if inventory issues would affect what Audi could give me.
Last Thursday I dropped off the Q5 and my service rep handed me the keys to a brand new (195 miles) A5 S-Line Sportback. It was pretty sweet!
L was excited when I picked her up from school in it that day. She got a big, silly grin on her face when she saw it. I noticed a lot of kids giving it long looks as they walked to their cars.
The A5 has the exact same engine as my Q5, but by being so low and sleek and weighing about 1000 pounds less, it seems significantly quicker. When you punch it, it goes. I never went for it too hard, as I was always in traffic, but I got from 0–50 a second or two faster than I can in the Q5. The engine also sounds a lot different. It definitely has a sportier growl than my SUV.
I figured my car would be ready Friday afternoon, so after lunch I took the A5 out on the highway and headed north. I drove about 30 minutes north of Indy but never could get out of traffic to really drive fast. I tried to come flying down an entrance ramp, but I timed it poorly and had to aggressively brake to squeeze in between an RV and a couple tractor trailer rigs that were stacked up. Once there was a clearing to the left, I floored it and zoomed past them.
Just good, clean, fossil-fuel eating fun.
Turns out that tailgate issue required the dealer to order some new parts, which didn’t arrive until Wednesday morning. So I got to keep the A5 for six days. As fun as it was, I started getting nervous that someone would hit me, I would blow a tire on one of Indy’s famous potholes, or something else dumb would happen. I still enjoyed zipping around in it, but didn’t drive it any more than I had to.
I’m a committed SUV guy. I both enjoy and feel safer sitting up above traffic a bit. The Q5 is no beast, but you sure have better visibility than in the A5. I could never really get comfortable sitting so low, always nervous that something was happening around me that I couldn’t see.
My biggest complaint was that there was no grab bar to assist getting in and out of the vehicle. I could drop in pretty easily, but it was a chore getting out. It very much reminded me of my stepdad’s Corvettes, and the process to unfold my body and find something to gain leverage with to pull myself out of the driver’s seat. There needs to be the same handle that is on the inside frame of most SUVs.
Another semi-bummer was how the A5 and Q5 are near mirror images of each other inside. My car is a higher trim level, so where I have leather seats that are heated and cooled, the A5 has cloth seats that are only heated. L actually liked the cloth seats better because they weren’t as cold when she first sat on them. So while I was very comfortable with where everything was, when dealing with the electronics it didn’t feel new and exciting compared to what I’m used to.
The S-line stuff is purely cosmetic; it isn’t a true S5 with the bigger engine. I did really like the S-line steering wheel wrap. That sounds dumb, but it sure felt better than mine.
The A5 was already set to the Dynamic driving mode, which I stuck with for the week. I’ve read a lot about Audi’s driving modes and people argue about how much they actually alter the driving experience. I normally drive in Auto, which adjusts depending on road conditions. It’s tough to compare the two since they are different cars and I don’t know how much of the variance in feel was based on car vs drive mode.
The A5 was super nice to drive. It was gorgeous, smooth, fast, had that nice engine growl, and cornered amazingly. I would happily drive one again for a few days if someone offered one to me. My old man body can’t take getting in and out of something so low, though, so I don’t think when I begin looking at cars again in about a year the A5 will be on the list.