Audi doesn’t think U.S. sales of its Q5 SUV will be hurt by the 2011 Bmw X3

I'll take that Bet...

If their not concerned why bring it up?

seriously?

thanks for deleting the advertising comment TRYMEE, that was why I wrote "seriously?"

The country of assembly of the X3 is really a drawback. I like the bigger interior, 8-sp tranny and the long list of standard equipment. However if X3 is compared with the German made Q5 with quattro, the US made X3 with the less competency x-drive looks a bit worse. Also with the recent massive recalls from Toyota, Nissan, Honda,..... in the States, I lose faith on the US-made parts and the craftmanship. Even BMW has a strict quality standard, who knows what will happen. Who knows the quality of the parts,........ .

Exactly. Look at the first gen X5 built here. I love the way they drive but man are they full of trouble! A girl I know bought one used and seemed to be in meticulous shape. Alternator, Air suspension, power window motor, climate control problems and many more. Needless to say I have been repairing it left and right to the point where I am worried she will think I am sabotaging it to get more work. It has been that unreliable. I was going to get one too until I saw what that poor woman has experienced, and I am a die hard BMW lover.

my trusty E34 and E30 have never let me down. Neither has my Discovery II. Our ML320 has been superbly reliable, despite all of the horror stories I hear, which surprises me even more because supposedly the ML is worse than the X5.

not to call you out or anything but you do realize the majority of the parts for the car come from Germany, right? It's just assembled here, and it uses most of the same parts from their other vehicles (for example, same engines as the new 5-Series, same eight speed automatic as the new 5-Series, same instrument cluster as the new 5-Series, etc.). Take a look at the window label for an X5 or X6 sometime, you'll see a breakdown of where the parts come from. It says right on there "ORIGIN OF ENGINE: GERMANY. ORIGIN OF TRANSMISSION: GERMANY. ORIGIN OF MAJORITY OF PARTS AND COMPONENTS: GERMANY. COUNTRY OF FINAL ASSEMBLY: USA." It's no different than the BMW plant in South Africa.

well, that hasn't EVER been a drawback before. the X5 has always been built in south carolina. and it's one of the best selling luxury SUVs of all time.

so, how exactly is this a drawback for the x3?

Saw the X3 at the LA show. Was really disappointed by the interior. Equinox is much better. We will be buying a Q today. Trading in a first gen X5.

really? i thought the interior was a huge improvement and up to par with anything in the class...especially the amazing seats.

Okay Rob I give you that. But I just find it odd that alot of U.S. Versions suffer from problems others don't. I'm not sure how well the newer X5 is but I know the 1st gen is plagued with problems, and it sucks because I really like the 1st gen X5 and the mid life refresh

Agree! Please correct me if I am wrong. If a foreign manufacturer wants to set up an assembly plant in the States, their final product must have certain percentage of components made locally. The major components such as engine, tranny, .. are imported but how about the other components, like brake, headlights, seats,....... . I believe they are US-made too.
The main problem of the US workers is that they don't have "heart" to make the cars. Especially during this economic crisis, people don't know when they will be laid off due to the poor sales. Therefore people have no loyality to the company. They work cuz they want to make money to survive. That's it! Besides this, the working culture in US also make the difference among Germany and Japan. When the coffee break comes, people have leave the work immediately. If you have in the process of engine assembly, you need to leave the screws, screw drivers,... in no more than 5 seconds. Otherwise your coworkers will point the finger at you, cuz you make them look very lazy. In this situation, even you have top-quality parts, you still can't make a top quality product.
In Japan, people often work in a company for the whole life. They work not only to survive, but also to contribute themselves to the company and to the country. They have "heart" in their work and loyality to the company. That's difference.

One obvious difference you can tell between an import and a domestic is that the door edges of the front door and the rear door always misalign. The door gaps on both sides are different, one smaller and one bigger. This situation always happens even on Camry and Accord. You hardly find this in the imports, even as cheap as a Yaris or Mazda 3.

The is the biggest crock of sh1t I have heard all day.....and I work with lawyers.

seriously, you're just being ridiculous now. Mass produced cars today are put together almost entirely by robots, with people feeding parts to the bots and spot checking everything. I can guarantee you that BMW (and Benz, and everyone else) doesn't use crappier robots here to put cars together than they do back home. They don't send us the reject robots. Go take a tour of the Spartanburg BMW plant sometime. It's pretty amazing.

Well, time can prove everything.

delan, this is an open discussion, and I didn't offend anyone here. If you don't like to "hear" it, forget this thread.

this is a nice PR push by audi. they're very worried about the x3. and they should be. the car is great looking in person and now has the much-loved n55 engine in its bay.