First, in the interest of full disclosure we need get this out of the way.
Normally we get our test cars for a week.
That way we can get a realistic feel for what it is like to live with the car. You know…drive it to the store, drive it on the highway, take it up to the mountains and really get to know the car.
Audi lent us this Ibis white Q5 quattro for only two days so our observations are a bit skin deep.
The first impression of the Q5 are that it feels really connected to the road.
We've already reviewed many of the car's that it directly competes with such as the new Cadillac SRX HERE, the Mercedes-Benz GLK350 HERE, and the Lexus RX350 HERE.
In terms of initial driving impressions the Audi seems to be the best handling of the bunch.
That's the good news.
The bad news is that Audi has managed to build a very confounding and overly complicated driver inter phase.
Here's a simple question. With your eyes closed where would you reach in a car to turn down the volume of the radio?
On the flat surface to the right of the gear selector lever of course…at least that's where Audi has put it instead of the usual center stack dashboard placement.
Score one for the Lexus RX 350 which has by far the best mouse system going today to work the secondary controls.
The Q5, on the other hand, has the world's biggest glass roof.
If you like the feel of the wide blue yonder you'll love the Audi Q5.
The Q5 also seems the easiest to drive once you get past the secondary controls. When you get in and get behind the wheel it just fits like a well worn glove.
Look for the short review of the this Q5 soon.
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