Gadgetory

I know what you're thinking every time we bring you a car with a new advanced powertrain the question is that's great but how long will it take me to earn back the additional MSRP in my measly fuel savings let's do that math with a 2014 Audi q5 with the turbo diesel and check the tech now to my eye the first thing I notice about a q5 is that it's exceptionally spelt it doesn't have that big broad-shouldered look of some crossovers that are based on lower to mid-size sedans this guy's based on the same platform of the Audi five generally speaking you can tell it's been significantly enlarged but it still has a compact nough stew it it's a two row four-door only there are no other configurations of it and there's no third row option by the way now to be fair the 2014 q5 is very much a carryover in the cabin this is largely an engine story but let's do a quick review Howdy's MMI is not standard but it is included on this car at mid or higher levels you've got this four zone controller a nice little turn click and jog wheel additional buttons around there it is not a touchscreen in the way shape or form and you've got very good though not perfect voice command let's look at a few things on the main menu here navigation this is one of the cleaner looking nav screens that is out there you've got direct zoom in and out right here on the knob there's no menu to have to go to like some cars same thing goes for tour and move you can just hit this little jog wheel just move it again some cars make that a menu forget it by then it's too tedious and of course the Audi trademark you can go to Google Earth as your actual view on the map this is really pretty cool stuff but you will need to use a live data connection to do that that data connection lives down here in a sim card this car has its own 3G account separate from your phone there we go here comes the Google Earth data loading in takes a while that's 3G which it was for but it ain't as it's doing this it's gonna buffer I think it's a 25 mile radius so you're not constantly buffering as you go it does a big gulp at once and if you're really into maps the combination of this kind of photorealism plus really good traffic and guidance information you get here and on the helper screen makes this quite a nice experience all in switch into 3d view for additional oohs and ahhs turn on a few P oh is this is a kind of fun system to use now here's one of the best things about it when you want to find a place to go because you've got a live connection and Google services on the other end of it the voice command button actually becomes useful let's check it out online destination pizzeria Pico online destinations retrieving requested information if it's really smart it's gonna check in the greater area to enter the line to pizzeria Pico has been accepted okay well you just saw there is a big slice of the way all navigation systems should work but most don't about all that Mars that is a beep tone negotiation you've got to do you either have to wait for those beep tones that I think take too long or constantly get here on the voice button to preempt them and that's too much work so I wish they'd get rid of that the way BMW has all your modern sources are in here no headlines to speak of a hard drive I'd never use an SD card two of them in fact that I find odd you hook up your iPod to what they call the MMI connector they're in the cable and of course we have bluetooth streaming though I don't think every q5 has that watch your trim level standard audio can be optioned up to Bang & Olufsen 14 speaker 505 watts and as we'll see at the end of the piece the price on it's not bad I think I would do it now your drive controls your stick here is for your 8-speed automatic it's a Tiptronic though it doesn't have any Tiptronic controls on the wheel no paddles or thumb toggles at all it's all gait based so in Drive once for Drive another one for sport mode take it to the right and that's where you get your shift ability up for up shift down for downshift the way it should be you can't option this car up with Audi Drive select which will give you several buttons for different sort of drivetrain personalities we don't have that on this car the last thing I'll point out is a standard and vast power glass roof this guy is big and then once you get that big glass panel open look what you can do you've got a mesh panel you can decide to have closed which gets great gentle air circulation through here without all the buffeting of being all the way open or all that sunbaking I'm getting all the UV on your head the whole time it's a real nice middle ground now if the decals on the side of this thing didn't tip you off we've got a TDI in this vehicle they're pretty proud of that as the q5 gets that engine let's refresh what this great outtie mill is all about 3 litre v6 sitting longitudinally of course single turbo you see it sitting right there not a twin turbo configuration the results are 240 scrawny horsepower simply not enough to move something of this weight but hold on here comes the torque 428 crushing foot-pounds now we're doing just fine weighs about 4500 pounds big boy zero to 60 though in six and a half pretty trim seconds mpg is rated at 24 31 normally you get something low to low mid between those two but I've been observing 30-plus in real world that's nice all these guys have Quattro all-wheel drive standard and go out through that one choice only 8-speed automatic that we talked about oh by the way two gears on that 8-speed automatic are overdrive we're gonna check that out on the roads and this car does use your RIA injection it's got a 6 gallon AdBlue tank that once in a great while you will have to add to that's how a scrub a lot of the soot and junk out of the diesel exhaust let's go for a ride let's start here without moving an inch gonna be a little hard for you to hear but listen to this I'm gonna turn down the fan all the way to nothing audios off it doesn't sound like a diesel it sounds like any other car with a gas engine that's a real breakthrough not so much even in smoothness of the engine but I think isolation of the cabin that's a good thing let's go for a ride now of course with the kind of torque you have in addy so getting off the line is really fun I mean whoosh it's like getting shot out of a cannon you don't rev very high in these guys what you start to peter out at 4500 on the clock there the only issue I find with this power train transmission and engine combination is it does tend to hunt out those two overdrive gears very aggressively but on the freeway typically the vehicle will get caught flat-footed when you need to make a quick little squirt into a hole in traffic and it's in like you know Top Gear and even this much torque doesn't get the job done that's frustrating that happened more than a few times nice isolation of the cabin road feel is I'd say more comfortable than it is sporting therefore it's not a fatiguing car to drive at all visibility is not bad which is surprising for a car of this type at this era now as I mentioned we do not have i'li drive select so there's no adjustability on the suspension it's really a nice smooth car to drive I'm very impressed with this vehicle and how much the diesel behaves unobtrusively okay let's price our q5 TDI 46/5 plus delivery is your base so here's what I do I take that 46 5 I add 3,500 for the MMI navigation camera HD radio advanced head unit that's a good buy overall with the many technologies you get Google connectivity good voice command all of that another 850 for the Bang & Olufsen upgraded audio system and that's it I'm not going to add in the passive blind spot tech don't really need it as well as the $2,000 for the dual rear seat entertainment system get the kids a couple iPads bottom line it's gonna take you some time to earn back the diesel premium on this vehicle regardless of what other q5 you compare it to however it's fairly manageable especially compared to the gas v6 where you'll earn this back and I think less than 4 years depending on your diesel prices combine that with the nice Longinus car the really excellent cabin tech and the fact this is a really out they executed diesel and you've got a package you can definitely consider unlike some vehicles out there that will take you longer than you're a lifespan to earn back the green premium