Why You Should Never Buy a 2012 Audi Q5
Audi is known for making some of the best cars in the world, but like any other automaker, Audi doesn’t have a perfect track record. This is true in particular for the 2012 model year of the Audi Q5, which is one of the SUVs that Audi offers. Here’s why you should avoid the 2012 Audi Q5 at all costs.
The 2012 Audi Q5’s biggest problem
According to Car Complaints, while the 2012 model year isn’t the worst model year for the Q5, it was the model year that had the most complaints from its owners. And in terms of what they complained about, it was mostly unanimous. The most common problem for the 2012 Q5 had to do with its engine consuming far too much oil.
Car Complaints says that, after an average of about 80,000 miles, many 2012 Q5 owners reported that their Audi’s engine started drinking way too much oil than it should. This isn’t a big deal in terms of safety, but it is a big deal in terms of your bank account.
Cars that consume far too much oil than it should, like some models of the Toyota RAV4, will cost their owners in two ways. First, before you realize that there’s an issue, you may notice that you’ll have to change your oil a lot. This, of course, means spending more money on oil than you should be spending. Secondly, when you finally realize that there’s an issue, it’ll cost you a lot of money to fix it as well.
Car Complaints says that the average 2012 Q5 owner spent about $940 fixing their engine’s oil consumption problem permanently. It’s not clear how most of those owners did that, but many owners simply chose to replace their engine entirely. Obviously, that will cost a lot of money.
The 2012 Audi Q5’s other engine issues
While the 2012 Q5 suffered from a lot of oil consumption issues, those weren’t the only engine issues that it had. Car Complaints also reported that a lot of owners had issues with their fluids leaking. This includes the car’s oil leaking as well as its coolant leaking.
Some of those issues were ultimately related to the 2012 Q5’s excessive oil consumption issue, but other times it wasn’t. Car Complaints didn’t report on how much money it cost the owners to fix these related issues, but some owners did say that it wasn’t worth fixing these issues compared to the price of their car.
Notably speaking, these fluid issues were occurring after the car had about 60,000 miles. Having these issues at such a low mileage shows that the 2012 Q5 may not be the most reliable luxury car on the market.
Dangerous airbag problems
Another common problem on the 2012 Q5 had to do with its airbags, but in fairness to Audi, the 2012 Q5 didn’t use airbags made by Audi, but rather it used airbags that were made by a company called Takata. Takata’s airbags were subject to a massive recall campaign that affected many other automakers, including Toyota and Honda.
The 2012 Q5 had airbags that were part of this campaign. While these defective airbags have caused, according to Car Complaints, two crashes, they have fortunately not been responsible for any injuries or deaths on the 2012 Q5.
On top of that, many 2012 Q5 owners had to replace their airbags early on, as the average mileage for the cars that got their airbags replaced was only about 6,000. This means that while the 2012 Q5 had bad airbags, most of them are likely fixed by now due to that recall, though there are some exceptions.
