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CAP Blog > CAP Blog > Martin's Blog
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Jan
13
Written by:
Martin Ward
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
When we first saw this car at the Audi R&D facility in Ingolstadt in 2007, we were taken aback by its styling and what we thought Audi were trying to achieve. The car we saw was in the wrong colour, it had the wrong wheels, the wrong interior, which was beige cloth; in fact, the whole car simply looked a mess and we left Germany wondering if the mighty Audi machine had got it wrong for once. Then we saw it again a few weeks later in a much better colour, with larger wheels and with black leather upholstery, and it looked a million times better.
 I have been using an A5 for a few weeks now and found it to be a very stylish yet practical car; well almost practical, we’ll come to that later. It does attract attention with its unusual shape and the LED running lights do make it look very special, turning this car into quite a sporty looking one. The A5 sportback cannot be compared to an A4 saloon or the A4 avant, and does not sit in between them. It is a car in its own right and is the third member of the A5 family joining the A5 coupe and A5 cabriolet. It will appeal to those who want the sporty look of an A5 but need that little bit more room. Previously, the only option for the Audi buyer was a choice of either the A4 with a boot or the avant, which is the estate. Some people just wanted that bit more style and this is where the sportback makes its entrance.
However, the sportback does have one distinct disadvantage in the fact that it only has four seats, so if you want to carry the occasional three people in the rear, then you can’t. This was the case during the time I had the car, but I can understand that Audi would want the sportback to be sporty and fit in with the A5 family. Unfortunately, I think on this type of five door car, many would expect to have five seat belts and not four.
 We had the A5 during the recent spell of poor weather so taking photographs of it without snow on it, around it, or in the background was impossible. I took this photo of it covered in snow (left), which much like the first time we saw it, didn’t do it any justice. Then I found the photographs of a red car I had whilst on the press launch in Tuscany last August and so decided to use them also in this piece. These photographs show the car at its best and also remind us that better, sunnier weather is coming. We can then all complain that it is too hot.
The car we had was powered by a 2.0 litre TDI engine, coupled to a six speed manual gearbox. It produces 170ps, goes from 0-62mph in 8.7seconds and has a top speed of 142mph. This A5 was fitted with start/stop but this system needs ideal circumstances for it to work efficiently. The recent cold weather is not liked by start/stop because the battery is constantly being drained by the heater being on full, the heated rear window is being used constantly and the dipped lights are used most of the time. The system detects the drain on the battery and the car will not shut down at traffic lights, roundabouts or whilst standing in stationary traffic to preserve precious electricity. However, when the start/stop did operate, it is very quick, quiet and efficient, with hardly any vibration felt on shut down.
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It has a CO2 emissions figure of 137g/km and the official combined fuel consumption figure is 54.3 mpg, but we achieved an average of 44.8 mpg during the time we had the car.
The interior, like all Audi models, is superb and the quality of materials used is excellent. All the seats are comfortable and I made quite a few long journeys which left me feeling just as fresh when I got out as I had when I got in. Despite the sportback’s sloping roof line, there is surprisingly enough headroom for the average adult. The rear seats fold down very easily and when they are down the load space is enormous. Even when the seats are up, there is still plenty of room, making it into a practical, versatile load carrier.
 The price of a standard A5 sportback 2.0 litre TDI SE is £27,725 on the road, but our test car had a price of £31,720 as it had quite a number of options fitted to it, the most expensive of which being the electrically adjustable front seats priced at £735.
The new A5 sportback doesn’t really have any direct competitors currently and will appeal to those who require a quality car with plenty of space, reliability and good fuel economy. It is at a relatively sensible price, but would have even more appeal if it had five seats.
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