Coscienzios

Model years to avoid

Audi Q5

What it says about you

Opinion

Handsome, and calibrated precisely not to be commented on at school pickup. Roughly nine other people at that school reached the same conclusion.

Not measured, not from the data, and offered in fun. Everything below this is not.

18 model years on record, 1,692 complaints filed.

The years to look at closely: 2021 (gateway), 2018 (water), 2015 (engine cooling), 2014 (steering), 2013 (steering). Everything else drew a normal number of complaints for this model.

What owners report, and when

Faults that dominated the complaints of more than one model year. Not the same question as which year to avoid — a car can have an ordinary number of complaints every year and have most of them be about the same thing.

  • takata 2010, 2011 peak 38.4% of that year's complaints
  • fuel 2010, 2011 peak 28.3% of that year's complaints

Every year

  1. 2026 nothing on record 2 complaints
  2. 2025 1 recall 40 complaints
  3. 2024 4 recalls 32 complaints
  4. 2023 5 recalls 51 complaints
  5. 2022 4 recalls 89 complaints
  6. 2021 gateway 235 complaints
  7. 2020 6 recalls 35 complaints
  8. 2019 5 recalls 49 complaints
  9. 2018 water 197 complaints
  10. 2017 5 recalls 42 complaints
  11. 2016 5 recalls 77 complaints
  12. 2015 engine cooling 185 complaints
  13. 2014 steering 201 complaints
  14. 2013 steering 182 complaints
  15. 2012 6 recalls 4 complaints
  16. 2011 5 recalls 142 complaints
  17. 2010 4 recalls 99 complaints
  18. 2009 6 recalls 30 complaints

What does a Audi Q5 say about you?

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Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints — compared against itself rather than against other cars, so popularity and age do not decide the answer.