If you’re planning on getting a used Audi Q5, it’s important that you know the best and worst years for the SUV, or you may regret your purchase.
There are several car manufacturers out there that have earned a reputation over the years for producing very reliable vehicles. Typically, these companies are based in Asia, such as the Japanese automakers Toyota and Honda — or those from South Korea, like Kia and Hyundai. Once you get beyond these stalwarts of reliability, it can be a little tougher to discern which vehicles out there will be able to last you a good amount of time, particularly if you are purchasing them on the used car market. Take a company like Audi. This German brand may have a reputation for style and luxury, but how much do you really know about how its cars hold up?
Let’s examine Audi’s best-selling vehicle in the United States: The Q5. This compact crossover SUV first hit the market for the 2009 model year and has steadily increased its prominence among the company’s lineup to be its flagship model, with 2023 being its best year in sales to date. However, just because a car becomes popular does not necessarily mean that it justifies your investment, and on the whole, SlashGear doesn’t generally recommend the Audi Q5 on the used market. However, if this is the vehicle you want and you have considered everything you should know about the Q5, there are some decent model years. Here, we are going to look at six different Q5 models. Three of them have earned high marks from drivers for their reliability, and the other three are model years you should steer clear of at all costs.
[Featured image by Vauxford via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled | CC BY-SA 4.0]Most reliable: 2013 Audi Q5
Unlike a good number of vehicles that hit the market, the reliability ratings started out decently strong in its first few years. However, there are not as many sources as one would like to take as a full consensus to recommend those vehicles. That is why the earliest model that will be on this list will be the 2013 Audi Q5. Up until this point, this is the highest-rated model for the SUV in terms of reliability, according to driver reports submitted to Consumer Reports. They have given it an overall average of 62 out of 100, which is the second highest for any Q5 model year. The drivers surveyed by J.D. Power are even higher in their praise, giving it an average quality and reliability score of 80 out of 100. For both publications, the Audi Q5 falls just behind the Mercedes-Benz GLK that year for the best vehicle of its class, and the difference between the two score-wise is minuscule for both publications.
The 2013 model year does have a somewhat higher number of issues submitted by drivers on CarComplaints, specifically due to some instances of excessive oil consumption. However, it is sandwiched directly between two truly awful model years — both of which will show up later on this list for negative reasons — and compared to those, this year is downright tiptop, which the reliability ratings elsewhere agree with. In a stretch where the Q5 could have completely fallen off the rails, the 2013 model stood as a pretty well-built SUV.
[Featured image by order_242 via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled | CC BY-SA 2.0]Most reliable: 2019 Audi Q5
As previously mentioned, the 2013 model year had the second-best reliability ratings from Consumer Reports. For the Audi Q5 that was able to best that model, you need to go forward six years for the 2019 edition of the SUV, which marks the third year of the Q5’s second generation. The difference between the two is rather small, but this one takes the cake with a reliability score of 65 out of 100 from Consumer Reports. However, the drivers over at J.D. Power are slightly less positive than they were about the 2013 model, giving this one a quality and reliability average of 76 out of 100. Three points higher one way and four points lower the other way, basically averaging out to the same overall score.
