Goodbye To The Lexus 220d Mm

Haf · May 12, 2009

Well I finally handed in my lexus company car yesterday and picked up a audi a5 2.0tdi sport. The lexus went back after 3 years and 75000 miles. I've had the audi for 24 hours now so thought i'd post my comments on the 2 cars.

I have to say that the A5 is a lovely car and i have no regrets over switching. The engine/gearbox is so much smoother and the car just feels easier to drive - although the power streering is a bit heavier.

On the subject off fuel consumption I did my usual warwick-staines 90 miles trip that used to get me mid 40's when driven carefully in the lexus and the A5 gave me 56mpg at a 70mpg cruise. It felt a bit strange to be using 6th gear as I don't think I used 6th in the lexus after the first year (i tend to not go above 75mph). The A5 6th is effective from 45-50mph and the gear change indicator highlights it quite quickly.

The cruise control is on the other side of the steering wheel to lexus so that keeps catching me out and the armrest isn't quite in as a good a spot as the lexus either.

I am so glad to see the back of the lexus satnav startup message but miss the touch screen a bit. The A5 'command console' is actually quite good once you get the hang of it and it seems to allow you to do most things when on the move whereas the lexus often didn't (eg phone book lookup etc)

I also miss the keyless bit of the lexus as i decided to not order that option on the audi - i keey trying to open doors and press the 'start' button - but hopefully i'll get used to that. the audi reversing camera is similar to lexus but they inc the front rear sensors so the overall experience is a bit better.

The audi's handbrake-button and auto hill start features are quite nifty but again take a while to get used to.

All in all a very happy audi customer at the moment and thanks to everyone on the lexus forum for keeping me informed/interested over the past 3 years. I may pop back every now and then...