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Audi A5 Sportback car review

10/09/09

Price27,140, £27,415
We like...Looks, ride, drive
We don't...Cost of some extras

Newest Audi keeps coupe looks but adds extra doors, a bigger cabin and a hatchback . A winner? we think soNo other car company is shovelling new cars at its buyers as Audi is just now. The make’s launched a new car in the UK pretty much once a month this year and here’s the newest: the Audi A5 Sportback.

You can already buy the A5 as a coupe (with two doors, plus boot) and as a cabrio (two doors, boot, drop-top cloth roof). The Sportback adds a pair of rear doors and a tailgate into the mix.

Now, of course, Audi already makes its A4 compact saloon car, and its A6 midsizer. Both are conventional four-doorers, plus boot. This newest A5 is longer, lower and wider than an A4, and is longer between the wheels. But there’s not much in it. So, you must ask, is there room in the range for another car?

Having spent a day with the newcomer, we think there is. For starters, it’s a handsome boy, to our eyes even prettier and better proportioned than the A5 coupe which is, itself, already quite a looker.

Audi A5 Sportback Then there’s that rear hatch, which slopes steeply but opens easily on to a generous boot. Seats up, it’s as big as that of an A4 saloon. But, seats down, there’s greater space and, either way, getting your belongings into and out of is becomes an utter cinch.

And, unlike the coupe, there’s good head and leg room in the back. Although the rear is broad enough for three seats Audi provides just two, as it ds in other A5s. If you’ve a family, four seats not five could be a deal-breaker.

It’s bigger than other A5s, and while there’s a strong family ‘look’ present, the body and underpinnings are all its own. It’s set up to cover distance quick and in comfort rather than to give blazing performance, although an S5 hot-shot model will appear later.

We tried two cars, a 2.0-litre 168bhp turbodiesel with a manual gearbox, and a 2.0-litre 208bhp petrol turbo with Tipronic gears and Quattro all-wheel-drive. The first is the most sensible A5 of all, quick enough to eat through miles, uncommonly smooth and quiet and settled at speed. The extra inches between the front wheels and the rear help it to ride absorbently, but there’s enough control in its steering and body responses to make it a friend whenever you hook it across a string of country-lane curves.

Audi A5 Sportback This is the first Audi we’ve driven featuring a fuel and emissions saving stop-start system. This, like others you’ll find in BMWs, Minis, Volvos and Toyotas, kills the engine whenever you stop in traffic and puts the gears to neutral, to restart in a breath whenever you dip the clutch. We found it, however, reluctant to switch off, even when the engine is up to temperature. Audi tell us that the system will kick in only when the car is fully warmed and things are otherwise just right – applying a little lock to the steering is, for instance, enough to upset it. We’d be interested to hear how owners get on with it.

Even so, this engine’s verve, fuel economy and low emissions tally make it for us, the default choice. Though we’d be sorely tempted by the 2.0 petrol turbo for the way that it spins merrily through its revs, giving a mighty shove as it gs about its work. The gearbox picks its shifts cleanly and when you’d want it to, giving you little reason to recourse to its wheel-mounted paddle shifts, unless of course you want to.

The model line-up is a big one: 10 different engines and a choice of three trim levels while as always, there’s Audi’s long and often very costly options list. Despite this, sales ambitions are modest – Audi expects to shift 550 cars in 2009 and just fewer than 5000 next year.

From what we’ve seen, there’s no doubt that they’ll find that many buyers... and more.