Q5 Buying Advice

[CountJunkula]

Hello guys,

Currently I have a BMW 320d Sport Touring and hoping to chop it in for a Q5.

I previously had an X5 and loved it so my initial thought was to go X5 again, but I'm on my 5th BMW in a row and have never had an Audi before. That, and the budget of £12k is steering me towards the Q5. I can get a 2008-2009 X5 or a 2010-2011 Q5 for the budget.

From my research so far, the car I will be buying will likely have 90k+ mileage. One of the reasons I sold my X5 was the notoriously 'clunky' and unreliable Auto box. The first whiff of a '4x4 system!' warning on the dash and I dropped her like third period French! 

At the higher mileage mark 80k-100k, and on a 2010-2011 Q5 would I be best off going for the manual box to save big repair bills or is the auto box fairly reliable? On the X5 they advised that the gearbox oil lasted the lifetime of the car. Any time I asked for a quote to change the GB oil I was asked to sign a disclaimer to state that I was accepting responsibility if the gearbox failed, and therefore I never did it. I heard that Audi recommend a Q5 gearbox oil change every 40k, so hopefully the gearbox is a little more robust.

A few things I'm not particularly keen on with the Mk1 (pre-facelift) Q5 is the steering wheel/gearknob, they both look really dated now so I will at some point be upgrading to the flat bottom newer style wheel/airbag and gear lever. I'm also considering doing the front and rear lights too - although the work involved in brackets, looms, coding etc are a little off putting. The original lights don't look to bad either.

Another thing I'm curious about - I'm used to the I-Drive controls in the BMWs and I would like the 'multimedia display' controls to be in the same place as the BMW (i.e on the gear shift console rather than on the dash). Most of the cars I've seen are non-Nav models and therefore have the controls on the dash and a big blank area on the shift console where something is missing.... Is it possible to relocate this back to the gear shift console position or does it have to stay on the dash if you have no Nav? (The BMW Nav is useless so I'm not too bothered about actually having the Audi Nav, but I prefer the 'controls' to be located on the gear stick instead of the dash). I'm hoping its a case of buying a few parts and just relocating the controls, but knowing my luck it's probably not possible.

Anyway, thought I would register on here. Hope to join you all soon.

If anyone has any advice or can point me towards a Q5 buyers guide (if such thing exists) please go ahead!

Thanks!