Audi A5 2.0 TFSI quattro 2009 Review

What we liked
>> Muscular turbo four and seven-speed S tronic
>> Fuel economy
>> Flawless fit and finish

Not so much
>> Maintains German tradition of gouging on options
>> ... on top of a hefty initial price tag
>> Noisy on coarse tar

About our ratings

OVERVIEW
Forget Subaru. Forget Porsche. Audi is now the marque of choice for the smash-and-grab set. An unwanted mantle to be sure (well, publicly anyway), but reports of its product's popularity for the purposes of fleeing blown-up ATMs provide a useful pointer to Audi's rising stocks in the fast-Eddie sector.

The latest 2.0-litre turbo AWD variant of the A4 and A5 will only enhance that reputation, thanks to its fast and fleet manners. This is a ride for the blagger with an environmental conscience. It's no RS4, but it will match a WRX and it goes further than either on a litre of fuel.

And what fun one can have consuming that fuel. More so again with the seven-speed S tronic twin-clutch transmission, which makes its simultaneous debut in the A4.

It's a combination that loves revs and turns them into vector forces with an alacrity that has you glancing around and checking the mirrors to gauge your chances of breaking the law with impunity.

PRICE AND EQUIPMENT
The TFSI 2.0 quattro drivetrain first appeared in the A4 range at the end of 2008. In that model, it sits midrange, topping the fours but still slotting in below the diesel and petrol V6s. For the A5 coupe lineup, it introduces a new bottom end.

Prices for the A5 2.0 TFSI quattro start at $79,900 for the six-speed, with the S tronic taking it to $83,500. I've already done the maths: it's a $3600 option.

Standard equipment is what you'd expect of this sector, with 17-inch alloys, keyless entry, leather interior, electric everything, height and reach adjustable steering, cruise, rear parking beepers, multifunction sports wheel (with paddles on the S tronic) and tri-zone climate control (driver, front passenger and rear).

It lights up the surrounding landscape well, too, with xenon lamps, front and rear foglights and Audi's signature bright white LED eyelashes.

In the manual, the driver information system includes a shift indicator telling the driver when to change gears to optimise fuel consumption.

Open the options book and, as usual, the German value proposition plummets. I'm sure there are people out there willing to pay $1695 for metallic paint, but I'm not one of them. Audi's Multimedia interface (MMI) integrated control package with satnav and iPod/USB interface is $5900 [Ed: or ten top-of-the-range Navmans]. Rear view camera: a further $1100 on top of the satnav package. Adaptive cruise: $2945. Bigger wheels: 18 inch $1350, 19-inch $3150. Side assist blind spot warning system: $1350. With lane departure warning system: $2550. And so on...

It's all enough to make the Bang & Olufsen sound upgrade appear half reasonable at $1550.

For those in search of a bit of that south-western Sydney look, Audi's 'S Line' package adds sports-design front and rear bumpers, rear diffuser and logotyping for $3600.

The A5's turbo four doesn't have the whack-in-the-back of the TTS, but it is good for a lusty 155kW and 350Nm. That's 20Nm more at peak than its 3.2-litre V6 sibling, and it comes 1500 revs earlier -- from 1500rpm -- matching it to 100km/h in 6.5sec through either gearbox.

As with other A5s, weight distribution is near 50:50. The AWD quattro drivetrain is skewed in basic setting to favour the rear wheels 60:40, but varies torque distribution by the millisecond according to road, load and driver demands.

The big news under the bonnet is the A5's joining of the twin-clutch club with the seven-speed S tronic transmission. The advantage of twin-clutch transmissions lies in the way they hopscotch back and forth between clutches as they shift up and down through the gears.

They work like a well-oiled relay act, running in one gear on kupplung [Ed: clutch] K1 while preparing the next one to engage through K2 a few milliseconds after K1 disengages. So at the moment of shift, all that hard-earned torque gets shunted straight up through the next cog. Shifting down, it's easy to paddle back through the gears to wash off speed smoothly and progressively.

All of which does no damage at all to the fuel consumption figures of an engine Audi claims is around 20 per cent more fuel efficient than its existing 2.0 FSI. On the fuel-thirsty city cycle, the S tronic's 9.5L/100km represents a half-litre advantage over the manual.

Overall however, the manual wins out over the S tronic, reclaiming that half-litre on the highway -- 5.9 to 6.4 -- and pipping the twin-clutch on the combined cycle 7.4 to 7.5. Explanations? The S tronic has a shorter first and a longer second, allowing it to exploit that low end torque better around town. Above that, it's likely the manual, with a top gear ratio located between the S tronic's sixth and seventh, is better able to stay in top while the S tronic shifts more between sixth and seventh.

You can't tell these things for sure on single-day launch run. At any rate, it takes pedantry of Teutonic magnitude to warrant much quibbling.

Considering the A5's size and performance envelope, the TFSI runs clean, too. Audi claims Euro 5-ready CO2 emissions of 173g/km for the manual and 179 for the S tronic.

There are obvious limitations to how far you can put brakes to the test on public roads, but even with repeated jumping on the pedal over five minutes, the A5's ventilated front and solid rear disks barely had to get out of bed to bring the car to a quick, unfussed halt. The feel is silken and controllably progressive, up to expectations of premium German product.

Audi's interiors are always first rate, aesthetically and ergonomically. This one's no exception.

Open the long door -- keyless entry is standard -- and you'll find it's a fair drop to the leather seats below. They're electrically adjustable through all the necessary planes; with a height and reach adjustable wheel it's easy to get comfy.

The back seats, too, are extremely luxurious, as long as you're a box of Kleenex or a handbag. The restricted headroom comes at the expense of a view out the window. Which you can't open.

I wouldn't like to be stuck there for a drive to the Sunshine Coast. Not even if I lived in Noosa. Not even my own climate control zone would be enough to persuade me.

While you're never going to master the controls of a car like this in all their finer nuances on a day ride like this, getting in and going was painless. While MMI isn't perfect, it's the best of the current wave of such systems coming out of Germany. It was clear to me that it wouldn't take more than a day or two to be across the whole thing. And if such systems bamboozle you, most of the controls are duplicated on the console.

SAFETY
The A5 hasn't been Euro NCAP or ANCAP tested, but the A4 on which it's based has a five-star rating, so it's reasonably safe to assume that the A5 will follow in its footsteps.

On the inside, it gets front, side and head-protection airbags. Underneath it gets the full alphabet soup -- ESP (stability control), ABS (antilock braking), ASR (traction control), EBD (electronic brake distribution) with brake assist and an EDL (electronic diff lock) to assist with rough-surface take-offs.

In short, it's as idiot-proof on the inside and the outside as we've come to expect of the premium German brands.

On the explosion-for-your-unit-of-exchange scale, the A5 2.0 TFSI puts up a very compelling case indeed against the BMW's 325i coupe and the CLK 200 Kompressor. It bears a substantial torque advantage -- 90Nm -- over the BMW, which presents in differences in acceleration. Up against the Audi's 6.5 seconds, the naturally aspirated 3.0-litre BMW (160kW/250Nm, from $86,317) does it in 7.6 seconds, the supercharged 1.8-litre CLK (135kW/250Nm, from $88,859) in 9.1 seconds.

And the S tronic has a $2800 advantage over the Steptronic-equipped BMW and more than $5300 over the auto-only Benz.

A quick diversion here: given the relative uselessness of the A5's rear seats, some might look on the BMW's turbocharged 135i as a competitor -- at which point BMW plays a lightning-fast catch-up game.

Oh, and up against Alfa's beautiful Brera, the Audi is well ahead of Alfa's 2.2 litre JTS on performance and $10,000 or more ahead of the 3.2 litre V6, against which it's more evenly matched on performance.

On takeoff, the turbocharger spins up fast enough to render any lag virtually unnoticeable. It hums around the urban sprawl without a fuss, although it is possible to catch the S tronic unawares on occasion. 

But that's the problem with sequential transmissions -- they're sequential, even when you don't want them to be. As the torque figures suggest, the manual matches the six-speed 125i convertible I had a few months back for the flexibility it offers in non-sequential shifts. For those who like to put a bit of thought and vigour into their driving, it's a good thing around the first-third-sixth terrain of suburbia. For the rest of us, the S tronic is Hamilton-in-a-box for $3600.

Out down the gorges and round the bends of Ku-ring-gai National Park -- the launch venue, out the back of Sydney's northern beaches peninsula -- is where the A5 comes into its own. Plant your foot and peak muscle pours forth from a low 1500rpm.

Of the left-down, right-up paddle shifters I've tried, this is the most comfortable -- both ergonomically and in the way it allows you to relate to the gearbox in manual override.

The tar gets a bit coarse up around those parts and it showed up in a bit of road noise. But there's little in the way of properly rough road, meaning we got to feel plenty of the good bits without much opportunity to properly test the suspension.

The low stance, the broad track and good grippy footwear allow lots more cornering latitude than you can sensibly use in a part of the world where every blind bend serves up a pair of cyclists. But the quattro drivetrain keeps it close to neutral through corners. It's been said about the A5's steering before and I'll say it again: it would benefit from a little more weight and feel.

Overall? The A5 has already proved a winner for Audi, contributing to strong sales growth in a segment down 26 per cent year-on-year.

I can't see this one doing the cause any harm at all. But it may present Audi with an in-house problem. On the surface of it, the new entry level A5 pushes the old entry level car -- the V6 3.2 FSI -- up into the midrange. But the 2.0 TFSI is as fast as -- or faster than -- the front-drive version of the V6. And with the quattro as standard it's a better handler. It's also more economical and comes in $10,000 or more cheaper. Which leaves the base V6... Where?