Right. I traded RXh for '17 SQ5 which is last one made in Germany. 2018 model is first production out of brand Audi plant in Mexico. I never drove super charged vehicle so I wanted to try one. 2018 comes with
Turbo charged V6. Definitely more fun driving SQ5 for sure. Launch speed is better without turbo lag. Almost approaching age of 80, I have a few years left for fun driving, LOL! I just had 3M PPF installed for the
front of SQ5.

 

Just keep in mind, Audi has many flavors of AWD.
In order to comply with ridiculous CO2 European emission taxes, Q5 is no longer a full-time AWD implementation, but a part-time, somewhat similar to the RX350:
For the very same reason, my S4 manual was only available in US and not in Europe, out of all places.

 

I believe you've got the same engine as I do in my S4. I love the Supercharged power as well - way more instant than a Turbo, no matter what anyone says.
They only went with a Turbo for an efficiency sake. I took an S5 with the turbo on a course at an Audi driving event, it was just blah.
While your SQ may have been made in Germany, the engine was assembled in Hungary.

 

This is true, Audi Quattro has changed numerous time over the last few decades. i believe the latest is called ‘quattro with Ultra technology ‘ which they say is proactive instead of reactive... engaging in .5 seconds and before the driver realizes he needs it.

 

Well... if it's not one delay, it's another!

The clear chip guard is due in at some point in the future, but at least it's ordered and will arrive. However, the custom pin stripe work may not be done until late January because the ONE GUY used by ALL the body shops in entire state of Alabama fell and broke his hip, and can't work until late January. I've just spent the last 45 minutes chasing down other regional body shops and finally found a path into a potentially local guy who may be able/willing to do the work. It turns out that body shops use a small group of people who do this kind of work, but there are lots of other pinstripers around who just don;t work the "body shop scene"... motorcycle custom painters and tattoo artists! I have the local Harley shop checking with one of their sources to see if this local guy would do the work. I don't care if he has to re-stripe both sides of the vehicle, I'm just not willing to accept tape stripes at all!

Also, when I called the local Porsche/Audi/Lexus/Land Rover/Jaguar shop as a stating point, I was able to talk to their shop manager for a while and reviewed with him what had happened to my door. He says, "Yeah, we see that more often that you'd think!" He said depending on the shop and how bad the pillar was torgued upwards, the repairs generally come out very well. He also vouched for the shop which has done the work thus far on my RXh, so that was somewhat comforting to hear.

 

Can you remove pinstripes altogether and call it a day?

 

I can have them do that, but would prefer not to. If it comes down to waiting 2 months or having them removed, I'll have them removed. It's hard for me to just give in and not be "made whole" for something which was not my fault.

 

I spent two hours yesterday calling all over the region, and this guy who broke his hip is indeed "the" guy for the local dealerships and collision repair centers. However, I ended up with a lead from a custom pinstriper north of Atlanta, and now have a local guy who specializes in custom pin-striping on hot rods and motorcycles. He's willing to do the work, says he's confident that he can take care of what I need, and will stop by the shop on Tuesday to look it over. I've seen some photos of the work he does, and everything I've seen is amazing.

Also, the clear rock shield will be installed either latte today or tomorrow.

Here's to hoping he can knock it out and I can get my vehicle back by Wednesday next week.

 

I was called by the shop to pick up the vehicle a little while ago, so I went to inspect it. I rejected the repairs because the bottom edge of the door, front to back, was over an 1/8" out further than both the front fender and rear driver side door trim. In my mind, this is an indication that the door hinge pillar has not been put back quite in the correct position yet, and that's what I told the shop owner. There was also a paint chip on the door handle which had not been repaired, the pin striping was not good at all with wavy lines of irregular thickness. I drove it for a while, and could hear some abnormal wind noise beside the door once I got above 60 mph. I approached the issues unemotionally and straight forwardly, politely and not aggressively, but was firm in what I saw and the fact I am not happy about it and will not accept it in that condition. I'm beginning to think this may not turn out so well, and am more inclined than before to be ready to replace the vehicle once I do get it back.

 

I'm sorry to hear that your RX had not worked the way you wanted.

Hopefully it all can be sorted out in the end....

 

From my experience, once your vehicle is repaired, it will never feel whole to you, even if the repair got it to the exact condition it was before.
You will always pay attention to things that you wouldn't otherwise. Wind noise, for example.
When I'm driving the RX, there are some creaks here and there in the interior. Likely because of the child seat, things in the trunk, and items placed in door pockets.
But if any work was done on it, it would drive me crazy thinking it was related.

I would start shopping for a replacement. Find something you may like better and go for it. In the end, it will work out for the best.

 

We do love the RXh, but my wife has noticed that she has a sort of blind spot at the passenger front pillar/side mirror. She only realized it after driving the tin can Escape. I'm already shopping from a theoretical standpoint -- really, it's more of a researching effort at this point than true shopping.. I currently have it boiled down to either another RXh or a Q5. I'm not going far enough yet to drive any Q5's though, until my wife gets back in the Lexus and agrees that she wants to consider a replacement. I like everything I read about the Q5's except for the mileage and potential reliability issues. Were it to be my own DD, I wouldn't care excessively about either, but this vehicle is my wife's grocery getter and our tripper vehicle, and that makes both mileage and reliability some top priorities for us. At the same time, though, if my wife is more comfortable and safer with better visibility in something like the Q5, I have to take that issue just as seriously.

In the meantime, I'll keep up the struggle with the insurance company and the body shop.

 

UPDATE!

Things started getting a little ugly with the shop owner this morning over the pin striping issue, but I managed to get that settled down and have a compromised, but acceptable, path forward. The door adjustment is supposedly complete, and the chipped door handle has been painted. The pin striping will be managed between me and the pin striper "offline". It turns out that he has never used the beugler device with which the original stripes were painted with, even though he has one. He distinctly left me with the impression last week that he would use that to d the work, but free-handed it instead. Well, when he and I talked a little while ago, he said he would spend some time getting fluent with using the beugler this weekend and over the next week, and that he will meet up with me to remove the existing stripe and re-paint the new stripe to match the other side, and that he was glad to work with me to make me satisfied with the work. It involves a little inconvenience, but it gets me past the fact that the insurance company would not cover the car past tomorrow and the collision shop would not cover anything else because they used "my guy". My short term options were quite limited and I had only between now and tomorrow afternoon to get something resolved before everything would get really messy.

Perhaps this won't be as bad as it was beginning to appear. I'm just way beyond being sick and tired of this entire experience!

 

Picked up the car. It's SOOO much roomier inside than the Ford tin can we've been driving. At this point, it seems that the repair has been made well.

I took the RXh straight over to the tire shop to finish getting the tire replaced. I told the manager that if at all possible, I wanted the same technician who damaged the car to be the one to finish the job so he could have a chance to see the problem to the point of actual completion, and thereby have a chance to somewhat redeem himself. After all, I believe that the average person would be much more careful with this kind of opportunity, and choose to assume that he is not one of those folks who just doesn't care regardless of what happens. I'll pick up the car tomorrow, and next week locate someone to take care of refinishing/repairing the curb rash on the edge of the rim.

 

It is indeed my pleasure/privilege to have met you on the net. The world be lot better if there are more folks like you. [I hope the guy is still employed]

Salim