2021 Audi Q5
Complaints about this year name gateway far more often than the model's other years — 17% of them, about 44× the usual rate of 0.4%.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 235 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 51 |
| Involving a crash | 6 |
| Recalls | 8 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 25 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- seat — 21.7% of this year's complaints, against 3.3% across the model's other years (6.6×).
- wet — 22.1% of this year's complaints, against 6.3% across the model's other years (3.5×). Owners wrote it as: wet, messages, although, audi aware.
- happened — 20% of this year's complaints, against 7.6% across the model's other years (2.6×).
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
Also unusual this year
- module — 26% of complaints, 8× usual
- seat — 22% of complaints, 7× usual
- windows — 11% of complaints, 29× usual
What owners wrote
While driving the vehicle many warning lights suddenly turned on and the vehicle came to an abrupt stop in the middle of an intersection. Then the windows rolled down automatically. Vehicle would not start, posing a serious safety issue as it was in the middle…
Gateway control module shutdown. After a rain storm vehicle had electrical issues such as rear light turning off, and engine start malfunction alarm on dashboard. To vehicle automatically stoping with no vehicle nearby, seat belt tightening and to engine seize…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 21V606000 SEAT BELTS Fixed free of charge.
- 22V034000 TIRES Fixed free of charge.
- 21V947000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
- 21V295000 SUSPENSION Fixed free of charge.
- 22V742000 BACK OVER PREVENTION Fixed free of charge.
- 22V753000 ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING Fixed free of charge.
- 23V842000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
- 25V080000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Audi Q5 was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2021 Audi Q5? What happened to yours?
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