**A Tale of Two Cars: A Review of My Trusty Audi SQ5**

As I sit here reflecting on my time with my trusty Audi SQ5, I am reminded of why we bought this car in the first place. We had always been a driving enthusiast couple, and every year, we would take our annual trip to the autobahn in Germany. This was our chance to put our car through its paces, and the Audi SQ5 did not disappoint. With its powerful twin-turbo diesel engine, this car could accelerate from 0-60mph in just under 4 seconds, making it a thrill to drive on the autobahn.

One of the standout features of the Audi SQ5 is its sport display. When you put the car into sport mode, the display shifts from a more subdued and comfortable setting to a full-on adrenaline rush. The numbers don't lie - with a horsepower rating of 349hp, this car can generate an astonishing amount of torque. It's not just about power, though; the SQ5 also boasts an impressive gearbox, courtesy of the ZF8-speed transmission.

**The Cost of Ownership**

As much as I've enjoyed driving my Audi SQ5, there's no denying that owning such a powerful and expensive car comes with its costs. We bought the car almost two years ago for €33,000, which is roughly £28,500 at the time. Since then, we've averaged around 7.7 liters per 100 kilometers, which works out to approximately 37 miles per gallon. With 90,000 kilometers on the clock over the past two years, our fuel consumption comes down to an impressive €295 per month.

In addition to fuel costs, there have been other expenses associated with owning this car. Insurance comes out at around €172 per month, while road tax is a mere €175 per month. Maintenance has also been relatively low-key, with the exception of some minor repairs and replacements - the most notable being brake discs and tires. Overall, our monthly costs come out to approximately €1643 per month.

**A Change in Plans**

The Audi SQ5 has played an important role in my life, not just as a car but also as a symbol of change. When we bought this car, it marked a significant shift in our lives - from a hobby-based driving experience to a full-time passion project. The SQ5 was there with us every step of the way, and I'll always cherish the memories we made together.

**A Record-Breaking Drive**

One particular trip stands out in my mind as a highlight of our ownership experience. Martin and I took the Audi SQ5 on a 700-kilometer drive from Germany to Berlin, where we attended a Formula E event. We had to pick up Martin at the airport in Eidgenossenschaft because he was coming from Monaco after a Formula 1 race. The drive was incredibly enjoyable, with the SQ5 effortlessly devouring the miles as we sped down the autobahn.

**The Verdict**

While owning an Audi SQ5 has come with significant expenses, I can confidently say that it's been worth every penny. This car embodies the perfect combination of comfort and power, making it an absolute joy to drive on both the road and on our annual autobahn excursions. As I prepare to bid farewell to my trusty sidekick, I'm filled with a sense of nostalgia and gratitude for the memories we've made together.

**Conclusion**

As I close this chapter in my car-owning journey, I hope that you'll take away some valuable lessons from our experience with the Audi SQ5. While owning an expensive car comes with its costs, it can also be an incredible investment - both financially and emotionally. Don't be afraid to indulge your passion for driving; there's no substitute for the thrill of putting pedal to metal on the open road.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwhat's up ladies and gentlemen and welcome to this pov review by auto top now my name is max and today we are reviewing my car yes this is my baby and it has been for the past 26 months it has been amazing driving this car and it was well it was on my list of cars to buy because i absolutely love my bmw 535d touring it is such a cool car it is such a good car as well and i have sold it it is time for something new we're moving on but i'm going to miss this car so much and because i sold it because it's leaving and because it is one of the most frequently asked questions uh what card do you drive yourself i decided to make a review on it and do like an owner's review because i have driven it for over two years so i can tell you a lot of stuff about this car and about the things i do like and don't like so that's what we're going to do today but before we start this review i just want to show you this cool smart little device which coincidentally is also today's sponsor it is carly ad this is such a smart little device it is an obd reading device as you can see so this is universal just plug it in to your car like that and i've got an app right here so start up the car this is the app now there are four things you can do with it you can check your car's health check for fault codes anything the car generates that you can't see customize it unlock and code hidden features so optional extras that are available but are not on the car or expand the configuration available to you in the idrive system the used car check just plug it in to any car you are looking at and it will generate a report and tell you if the mileage and everything is okay with the car and you can generate live data like engine rpm temperatures stuff like that most importantly code hidden features this is everything you can change in your car there are loads of menus and loads of changes you can make i for instance have added the digital speedo in my dashboard which wasn't there which i always thought was weird the configurability of my sport mode and the sport displays and one important thing is the start stop system so you can see that this is off i have coded that to always be off that's the kind of thing you can do with this car you can add functions to your car or you can configure them in a way that is not possible in your own car so if you're interested if you want one of these car leads you can check out the link in the top comment or the description and with that let's go check out my car okay so i'll do a lap around the car show you the spec i've got it in and then uh we'll do the interior and take it for a drive towards the autobahn uh so my car is carbon black this is one of my favorite bmw colors because it is a super deep dark blue when it's night it is well almost pitch black but when you park it underneath like a street light it you can see this hint of blue in there it is such a good color one of my favorites and uh well i'm super happy that this was the spec i got of course two years ago uh you know we we just wanted the 535d and we bought it at a dealership we were familiar with so we didn't really choose the spec this was just the one that was available to us i also changed the grille the kidneys so immediately put these black ones in because i really like that on these f11s i've got an m sport package so you can see that this is the m sport bumper with the more aggressive styling and the fog lights in there as well i think this is a really really good front end i still think this is one of the most beautiful two rings ever made i really really like it i think it's very sporty it's quite imposing sometimes uh but it's not like over the edge it's not it's still a little bit elegant i think uh beautiful headlights with the angel eyes of course which are disappearing now in bmws which is a shame the 19 inch m double spoke wheels with michelin pilot sport 4 tires really really good tire 245 40 zr19 all around so 19 inch wheels with quite a nice tire on there i just love these tires they are so good uh shallow line package so everything is black including the roof rails keyless go keyless entry oh there's a fly in there please get out of my car thank you nope oh that's going to be annoying later on okay so keyless entry um at the rear we've got the double exhaust for the 35d of course the split window which i really love with this electrically retracted cover which more modern cars after this still didn't have so i always thought that was super cool you close it and it goes down automatically boot size is really nice one of the reasons of course why we chose this car because it's so practical and still you have even some more stuff to or some more storage really those are the original kidneys back there but as you can see there's no room for a spare wheel there so that is because this car originally came on run flat tires so you don't need a spare wheel well you do when you change the wheels or the tires to regular ones because the run flats are way too uncomfortable uh so that's one of the reasons why i went for these pilot sport four tires they are quite new actually they've been on there for like three months um but they are so much more comfortable than the standard run flat tires which has this really hard thick edge inside so you can drive when you have a flat tire so yeah if you get a flat tire with this one you have to call roadside assistance um what else what else what else well of course it has done 190 000 kilometers so it does have some things here and there little damages little scratches and this this one is really ugly i think this is someone with like a bike handle that tapped it or something but yeah it it has had quite a hard life we've used it well this car and it has been like our commercial van as well and we've went very fast on the autobahn and it's just it's had a hard life um rear space i always thought it could have been better it's a bit disappointing when you look at the size of the car how much how much space there is in the back but of course you do have a really big boot and i you can see that my seat is quite far back of course that was the fly again where is it don't know okay moving on engine so being a 535d uh this is the three liter inline six twin turbo diesel engine with 313 horsepower and 630 newton meters stock this one has an ec remap stage 1 tune so it delivers 363 horsepower and 716 newton meters of torque which is really really nice this is the n57d30t1 engine built from this car from 2010 to 2017 but it got an update already after the first year so the first ones the first 35 ds have 300 horsepower and from 2011 they have 313 so mine is from 2012. so it has 313 stock now let's talk about some of the things i really really wanted in my car let's talk about the most important thing i think this these are the comfort seats they are optional and everyone who's ever ordered a bmw or is ever going to order one should go for these seats if they can because they are one of the best out there they they are so comfortable the seating position is spot on uh you can have them you can set them uh you can configure them in so many ways uh you can make it like a sports seat these bolsters are adjustable and you can really make them tight throughout your body you have this extendable part for your legs for your upper legs which is really cool you can see how far they extend it's really nice to have that underneath your uh thighs on longer trips the headrests are electrically adjustable and you can adjust the headrests as well it's just the best the best absolutely love those seats now another thing we have as an option is of course the panoramic roof go be free no keeps coming in i think it's gold um so this is really nice it's a quite a big roof you can see that and you can open it of course like that but the problem is um this car having an all-black interior and this being quite a big roof it gets really really hot in here in summer it's like insane it's like a sauna and it's just not a very good combination to have that black leather with that roof because it's just unbearable and i don't have ventilated seats so that would be a lot better so in the future when i'm looking at cars or if i go for a black interior i always want ventilated seats it's just better it's just impossible so uh the inlay not the biggest fan of that they still have that in modern bmws in a different iteration but i really i don't think this is anything special i would have chosen something else if i had the opportunity but again i just wanted the 35d didn't really care what it looked like just wanted one so m sport steering wheel of course and flappy pedals set f8 speed and i guess that's it for the spec of my car okay so let's take it for a drive towards the ultraman to see why we are going to miss this car so much because that is what this car is built for the ultraman i'm going to open that for some more light in here start stop not all great got my digital speedo right there let's go for the sport this place as well man all the things i've added to this car it's incredible okay so driving the car so one thing i have to tell everyone who is interested in this car thinking about buying one you could get it with an m sport package now there were two different things with that m sport package the exterior and the the chassis the suspension basically this has passive m sport dampers so they are you can hear it already on those little bumps it is quite stiff it's also lower than a standard 5 series so it does look a little bit better and it does handle quite well for such i mean something like 1850 kilos station wagon it goes like hell around corners but it is quite firm and i would recommend anyone to go for the adaptive dampers which were also available on this car and you could get an m sport exterior package but go for the adaptive damper so you would have best of both worlds that's yeah it's quite tough to to drive this car with his suspension especially as i said with those run flat tires that combination was not a great one and of course because you have that big sunroof the panoramic roof you also lose a lot of rigidity that way so you can sometimes hear like the roof flexing and yeah it's it's not the best combination for uh comfort of course it does mean that it goes round corners pretty nicely and that is nice too but i just don't go for the m sport suspension because you will you will get annoyed with it at some point so stock this car does 5.5 seconds to 100 and has a top speed of 250 kilometers an hour but this car is not stock and we actually had it on the dyno so those numbers i told you earlier 363 horsepower and 716 newton meters are actually dino verified that's the real power number and that means that this car is so well suited for the autobahn because it is seriously quick so we'll put the gearbox to sport the car in sport plus and activate sport displays so full throttle and this is why we bought this car because we drive quite a lot on the autobahn every year and of course the sport displays they don't generate the right amount of horsepower because this is tuned but because we drive so much in germany this is why we bought this car i can reminisce with you guys all day about some trips martin and i had one in particular to berlin when we went to the formula e i had to pick up martin at the airport in eidoven because he came from monaco from the f1 race and we had to drive through the night to berlin uh like something like 700 kilometers and it was just such a pleasure with this car because you could just ram it down the autobahn and i don't know how long it took but it was i think it was a record but just the effortless performance you get with this engine and especially with the tuned version of this engine is just so nice and it it feels like a petrol v8 like the amount of torque this car has this engine has it feels like you know a modern m50i something like that and i think that's the only way you really can compete with those big petrol engines is to have like a twin-turbo diesel engine it's so nice and this is such a pitch of an engine it's comfortable when you want it that's also down to this great gearbox the zf8 speed but it's quiet it's comfortable but it's also powerful and aggressive when you want it and that's just such a nice combination now of course because i'm selling it let's talk about numbers let's talk about what it cost me to run this car because as you know cars are expensive and since we put like almost 90 000 kilometers on this car in the last two years of course there have been some invoices and costs that went with that as well so we bought this car uh a little over two years ago for 33 000 euros something around that and we just sold it for 15. so depreciation is 18 000 euros which is 692 euros per month which is wow that's a that's a bitter bill to take uh insurance 172 euros a month road tax 175 maintenance 309 euros per month over the last two years and fuel consumption now you have to take into consideration that we ram this car down the old man quite often we meet you guys over here when you bring us your cars we have to go to south of germany to visit tuners uh we went to switzerland we went to austria i don't know i take it on my holiday of course so we averaged over the last two years around 7.7 liters per 100 kilometers which is roughly 37 miles to the gallon which i think is not bad at all i think that's actually quite respectable and over the last two years with 90 000 kilometers that comes down to 295 euros per month so yeah those are the numbers it's quite a lot actually i have to say that it is more than i thought when we bought the car uh but it has been worth it i mean i've enjoyed every every kilometer in this car every minute it has served us so well it never really made a peep it never said no this is too much for me or it it just took the beating and went with it it was just really really impressive the reliability has been great as well of course we've had you know the usual stuff uh brake discs tires filters oil stuff like that but nothing major really and i think that's really impressive considering this car has been tuned for quite a long time as well so a little over two years it has been i've driven this car or we've driven this car for 3 300 kilometers a month on average and that has cost us 1643 euros all in with everything that includes maintenance road tax insurance fuel everything and well that might be some good consumer advice for you guys of course something new is coming and i just i'm i'm going to miss this car i really am because this car also embodies the big change we made i mean we went from a jaguar x-type diesel with a manual gearbox and and like 150 or 60 000 kilometers to this and it also represented the change for our channel going from like basically a hobby to full time and trying to make this our job and this car was there with us uh and so it's also so it's always going to have a special place in my heart i hope you guys like it too and of course we are going to make a video when we pick up my new car thank you so much for watching i hope you enjoyed it you can subscribe by clicking the big button right there you can also check out this video or go check out this playlist see you at the next one byewhat's up ladies and gentlemen and welcome to this pov review by auto top now my name is max and today we are reviewing my car yes this is my baby and it has been for the past 26 months it has been amazing driving this car and it was well it was on my list of cars to buy because i absolutely love my bmw 535d touring it is such a cool car it is such a good car as well and i have sold it it is time for something new we're moving on but i'm going to miss this car so much and because i sold it because it's leaving and because it is one of the most frequently asked questions uh what card do you drive yourself i decided to make a review on it and do like an owner's review because i have driven it for over two years so i can tell you a lot of stuff about this car and about the things i do like and don't like so that's what we're going to do today but before we start this review i just want to show you this cool smart little device which coincidentally is also today's sponsor it is carly ad this is such a smart little device it is an obd reading device as you can see so this is universal just plug it in to your car like that and i've got an app right here so start up the car this is the app now there are four things you can do with it you can check your car's health check for fault codes anything the car generates that you can't see customize it unlock and code hidden features so optional extras that are available but are not on the car or expand the configuration available to you in the idrive system the used car check just plug it in to any car you are looking at and it will generate a report and tell you if the mileage and everything is okay with the car and you can generate live data like engine rpm temperatures stuff like that most importantly code hidden features this is everything you can change in your car there are loads of menus and loads of changes you can make i for instance have added the digital speedo in my dashboard which wasn't there which i always thought was weird the configurability of my sport mode and the sport displays and one important thing is the start stop system so you can see that this is off i have coded that to always be off that's the kind of thing you can do with this car you can add functions to your car or you can configure them in a way that is not possible in your own car so if you're interested if you want one of these car leads you can check out the link in the top comment or the description and with that let's go check out my car okay so i'll do a lap around the car show you the spec i've got it in and then uh we'll do the interior and take it for a drive towards the autobahn uh so my car is carbon black this is one of my favorite bmw colors because it is a super deep dark blue when it's night it is well almost pitch black but when you park it underneath like a street light it you can see this hint of blue in there it is such a good color one of my favorites and uh well i'm super happy that this was the spec i got of course two years ago uh you know we we just wanted the 535d and we bought it at a dealership we were familiar with so we didn't really choose the spec this was just the one that was available to us i also changed the grille the kidneys so immediately put these black ones in because i really like that on these f11s i've got an m sport package so you can see that this is the m sport bumper with the more aggressive styling and the fog lights in there as well i think this is a really really good front end i still think this is one of the most beautiful two rings ever made i really really like it i think it's very sporty it's quite imposing sometimes uh but it's not like over the edge it's not it's still a little bit elegant i think uh beautiful headlights with the angel eyes of course which are disappearing now in bmws which is a shame the 19 inch m double spoke wheels with michelin pilot sport 4 tires really really good tire 245 40 zr19 all around so 19 inch wheels with quite a nice tire on there i just love these tires they are so good uh shallow line package so everything is black including the roof rails keyless go keyless entry oh there's a fly in there please get out of my car thank you nope oh that's going to be annoying later on okay so keyless entry um at the rear we've got the double exhaust for the 35d of course the split window which i really love with this electrically retracted cover which more modern cars after this still didn't have so i always thought that was super cool you close it and it goes down automatically boot size is really nice one of the reasons of course why we chose this car because it's so practical and still you have even some more stuff to or some more storage really those are the original kidneys back there but as you can see there's no room for a spare wheel there so that is because this car originally came on run flat tires so you don't need a spare wheel well you do when you change the wheels or the tires to regular ones because the run flats are way too uncomfortable uh so that's one of the reasons why i went for these pilot sport four tires they are quite new actually they've been on there for like three months um but they are so much more comfortable than the standard run flat tires which has this really hard thick edge inside so you can drive when you have a flat tire so yeah if you get a flat tire with this one you have to call roadside assistance um what else what else what else well of course it has done 190 000 kilometers so it does have some things here and there little damages little scratches and this this one is really ugly i think this is someone with like a bike handle that tapped it or something but yeah it it has had quite a hard life we've used it well this car and it has been like our commercial van as well and we've went very fast on the autobahn and it's just it's had a hard life um rear space i always thought it could have been better it's a bit disappointing when you look at the size of the car how much how much space there is in the back but of course you do have a really big boot and i you can see that my seat is quite far back of course that was the fly again where is it don't know okay moving on engine so being a 535d uh this is the three liter inline six twin turbo diesel engine with 313 horsepower and 630 newton meters stock this one has an ec remap stage 1 tune so it delivers 363 horsepower and 716 newton meters of torque which is really really nice this is the n57d30t1 engine built from this car from 2010 to 2017 but it got an update already after the first year so the first ones the first 35 ds have 300 horsepower and from 2011 they have 313 so mine is from 2012. so it has 313 stock now let's talk about some of the things i really really wanted in my car let's talk about the most important thing i think this these are the comfort seats they are optional and everyone who's ever ordered a bmw or is ever going to order one should go for these seats if they can because they are one of the best out there they they are so comfortable the seating position is spot on uh you can have them you can set them uh you can configure them in so many ways uh you can make it like a sports seat these bolsters are adjustable and you can really make them tight throughout your body you have this extendable part for your legs for your upper legs which is really cool you can see how far they extend it's really nice to have that underneath your uh thighs on longer trips the headrests are electrically adjustable and you can adjust the headrests as well it's just the best the best absolutely love those seats now another thing we have as an option is of course the panoramic roof go be free no keeps coming in i think it's gold um so this is really nice it's a quite a big roof you can see that and you can open it of course like that but the problem is um this car having an all-black interior and this being quite a big roof it gets really really hot in here in summer it's like insane it's like a sauna and it's just not a very good combination to have that black leather with that roof because it's just unbearable and i don't have ventilated seats so that would be a lot better so in the future when i'm looking at cars or if i go for a black interior i always want ventilated seats it's just better it's just impossible so uh the inlay not the biggest fan of that they still have that in modern bmws in a different iteration but i really i don't think this is anything special i would have chosen something else if i had the opportunity but again i just wanted the 35d didn't really care what it looked like just wanted one so m sport steering wheel of course and flappy pedals set f8 speed and i guess that's it for the spec of my car okay so let's take it for a drive towards the ultraman to see why we are going to miss this car so much because that is what this car is built for the ultraman i'm going to open that for some more light in here start stop not all great got my digital speedo right there let's go for the sport this place as well man all the things i've added to this car it's incredible okay so driving the car so one thing i have to tell everyone who is interested in this car thinking about buying one you could get it with an m sport package now there were two different things with that m sport package the exterior and the the chassis the suspension basically this has passive m sport dampers so they are you can hear it already on those little bumps it is quite stiff it's also lower than a standard 5 series so it does look a little bit better and it does handle quite well for such i mean something like 1850 kilos station wagon it goes like hell around corners but it is quite firm and i would recommend anyone to go for the adaptive dampers which were also available on this car and you could get an m sport exterior package but go for the adaptive damper so you would have best of both worlds that's yeah it's quite tough to to drive this car with his suspension especially as i said with those run flat tires that combination was not a great one and of course because you have that big sunroof the panoramic roof you also lose a lot of rigidity that way so you can sometimes hear like the roof flexing and yeah it's it's not the best combination for uh comfort of course it does mean that it goes round corners pretty nicely and that is nice too but i just don't go for the m sport suspension because you will you will get annoyed with it at some point so stock this car does 5.5 seconds to 100 and has a top speed of 250 kilometers an hour but this car is not stock and we actually had it on the dyno so those numbers i told you earlier 363 horsepower and 716 newton meters are actually dino verified that's the real power number and that means that this car is so well suited for the autobahn because it is seriously quick so we'll put the gearbox to sport the car in sport plus and activate sport displays so full throttle and this is why we bought this car because we drive quite a lot on the autobahn every year and of course the sport displays they don't generate the right amount of horsepower because this is tuned but because we drive so much in germany this is why we bought this car i can reminisce with you guys all day about some trips martin and i had one in particular to berlin when we went to the formula e i had to pick up martin at the airport in eidoven because he came from monaco from the f1 race and we had to drive through the night to berlin uh like something like 700 kilometers and it was just such a pleasure with this car because you could just ram it down the autobahn and i don't know how long it took but it was i think it was a record but just the effortless performance you get with this engine and especially with the tuned version of this engine is just so nice and it it feels like a petrol v8 like the amount of torque this car has this engine has it feels like you know a modern m50i something like that and i think that's the only way you really can compete with those big petrol engines is to have like a twin-turbo diesel engine it's so nice and this is such a pitch of an engine it's comfortable when you want it that's also down to this great gearbox the zf8 speed but it's quiet it's comfortable but it's also powerful and aggressive when you want it and that's just such a nice combination now of course because i'm selling it let's talk about numbers let's talk about what it cost me to run this car because as you know cars are expensive and since we put like almost 90 000 kilometers on this car in the last two years of course there have been some invoices and costs that went with that as well so we bought this car uh a little over two years ago for 33 000 euros something around that and we just sold it for 15. so depreciation is 18 000 euros which is 692 euros per month which is wow that's a that's a bitter bill to take uh insurance 172 euros a month road tax 175 maintenance 309 euros per month over the last two years and fuel consumption now you have to take into consideration that we ram this car down the old man quite often we meet you guys over here when you bring us your cars we have to go to south of germany to visit tuners uh we went to switzerland we went to austria i don't know i take it on my holiday of course so we averaged over the last two years around 7.7 liters per 100 kilometers which is roughly 37 miles to the gallon which i think is not bad at all i think that's actually quite respectable and over the last two years with 90 000 kilometers that comes down to 295 euros per month so yeah those are the numbers it's quite a lot actually i have to say that it is more than i thought when we bought the car uh but it has been worth it i mean i've enjoyed every every kilometer in this car every minute it has served us so well it never really made a peep it never said no this is too much for me or it it just took the beating and went with it it was just really really impressive the reliability has been great as well of course we've had you know the usual stuff uh brake discs tires filters oil stuff like that but nothing major really and i think that's really impressive considering this car has been tuned for quite a long time as well so a little over two years it has been i've driven this car or we've driven this car for 3 300 kilometers a month on average and that has cost us 1643 euros all in with everything that includes maintenance road tax insurance fuel everything and well that might be some good consumer advice for you guys of course something new is coming and i just i'm i'm going to miss this car i really am because this car also embodies the big change we made i mean we went from a jaguar x-type diesel with a manual gearbox and and like 150 or 60 000 kilometers to this and it also represented the change for our channel going from like basically a hobby to full time and trying to make this our job and this car was there with us uh and so it's also so it's always going to have a special place in my heart i hope you guys like it too and of course we are going to make a video when we pick up my new car thank you so much for watching i hope you enjoyed it you can subscribe by clicking the big button right there you can also check out this video or go check out this playlist see you at the next one bye\n"