Audi A5 Sportback 2009 Review - International

Audi A5 Sportback

What we liked
>> Terrific handling with Drive Select fitted
>> Strong four-cylinder petrol and diesel engines
>> Sleek looks with practicality

Not so much
>> Ride of standard cars without Drive Select
>> Four seats only
>> Doesn't offer enough over A4

About our ratings

There is a gap, invisible to you and me, between Audi's A4 and A6 models. We know it exists only because Audi said so; then set about building a range of cars to squeeze into it. So far, their microscope has proven fruitful, with the four-seat A5 coupe diving in to exploit it first, followed quickly by the A5 Cabrio.

The sense with these two A4-based cars was obvious, with the convertible taking over the traditional soft-top duties and the coupe building some sex into the model range.

But the emergence of the A5 Sportback has made things a little cloudier. It is, after all, based on the A4 and finishes up being disturbingly similar in almost every dimension. Indeed, you'll need pretty good measuring equipment to spot the differences because, at 4711mm long, the Sportback is only 8mm longer than the A4 sedan. It's 2810mm wheelbase is just 2mm longer and it shares the same 480 litres of luggage space with the rear seats in their normal positions.

It is, however, supposed to be better looking -- built to attract more buyers to Audi from other brands than it pinches from its four-ringed stablemates. And though there's clearly space for five, it only has four seat belts so, Audi insists, there's another clear point of differentiation.

There are some important specs that don't parallel so closely to the A4, though. It's considerably wider (with 26mm more front track for example) in the body and the long, sloping roof only pinches 5mm from the headroom in the rear, so six-footers shouldn't have any problems.

There is some clever detailing around the hatch area, too, with the seats folding down to create an enormous, flat area and the hatch itself gets a 70:30 split in its luggage cover, so you can flip up one piece of it to drop down your luggage or shopping.

But there's not much of that you can't do with the A4 Avant, so what's the good of it?

It looks a lot sportier, and that seems to be the big key internally at Audi. But, on our test in Tuscany, it struggled to add anything objectively tangible to the A4 Avant's qualities, unless you add in the expensive Audi Drive Select dynamic control (Euro 2500 for the full steering/throttle/suspension/gearbox combination in Germany).

There is the usual array of high-quality, low-consumption Audi engines, plus the aging 3.2-litre, direct-injection V6 petrol engine that is, officially at least, the flagship. It's the only non-turbo of the bunch, producing 195kW and 330Nm but it's also the thirstiest, powertrain consuming 9.3L/100km on the combined cycle. And though it might be beautifully linear in its delivery, it's not the strongest or even the quickest of the Sportback's available engines.

That honour goes to the 3.0-litre V6 TDI turbodiesel, which belts through to 100km/h in 6.1 seconds -- half a second quicker than the 3.2-litre petrol engine -- and still only uses 6.6L/100km. That makes the TDI the no-brainer choice... In Europe at least.

It's a nice engine -- smooth and quiet, with a refreshingly moody engine note at full throttle. Its 500Nm of torque makes light work of the 1720kg it has to carry around.

The big volumes in Australia are expected to come from the 2.0-litre TFSI (turbocharged and direct-injected petrol) engine. There are two version of it in Europe -- a 132kW base version and a 155kW kicker. A 2.0-litre TDI four-cylinder diesel features heavily in the car's Australian plans as well.

The trouble, though, isn't anything to do with the engines. It's the ride quality and the handling that are utterly unconvincing in both the 2.0-litre and the 3.2-litre petrol A5 Sportbacks we drove.

On some bumpy, under-tended Tuscan mountain roads, the A5 left us reeling with its vertical assaults, jolting and jouncing as the rear suspension felt like it was about half an oscillation slow in bringing the bouncing, stiff, short-travel spring back under control after each thump. It wasn't much better at the front end, and even in Quattro form, the Sportback left its driver knowing he wouldn't always feel like he had the control he sought.

It was as disappointing a piece of machinery as I've ever tested, to the point where we were shocked and, in collaring the few suspension people Audi had at the launch, we found that almost all of the English scribes were asking the same sort of questions with the same level of incredulity that we had.

Fortunately, the move to the 2.0-litre TDI brought a bit of sanity back into the equation. Capable of the 100km/h sprint in 8.7 seconds, it's much more impressive on the move and it's clear that this is the model that's had the most love from Audi's development people. Not only does it ride with more comfort and control than either of the petrol-engined cars, but it handles with more assurance as well. That and its 350Nm of torque makes it ready to roll strongly at any engine speed.

This, then, is our pick of the standard A5 Sportback and it sips 5.2L/100km just to drive home the point. And, almost inexplicably, its 1530kg kerb weight is the lowest of all the A5 five-doors.

Towards the end of our rather despondent test we found the A5's saving grace. It's called the Audi Drive Select and it transforms the chassis, the ride and the handling from something less than an also-ran to something close to the head of the pack. It's that good.

Combining the 155kW version of the 2.0 TFSI engine (with its 6.6-second sprint to 100km/h and 241km/h top speed) with the seven-speed double-clutch gearbox was always a good idea. But to add this latest piece of trickery, with its three-button choice between comfort, automatic and sports modes, was a piece of thinking that saved the Sportback from embarrassing itself.

Instead of the bouncing ride of the standard versions, the Drive Select-equipped version rides beautifully, making a mockery of the same roads that damned its lesser siblings.

In comfort mode, it rides softly, with more pronounced body roll and an emphasis on keeping all the human heads as still as it can, as long as it can. In automatic mode, it runs the gamut from its sportiest to its most comfortable modes, depending on the ground it's flitting over. As the default setting, it assesses the driver's habits with the brakes, the throttle, the steering and the aggression levels, mixes in the lateral and acceleration forces and works out the best way to set the car up for you.

Gone are the jolting vertical thumps and the awful sensation that the road is disturbing the car to the point that it isn't keeping its tyres on the tarmac. Instead, it runs like it's on a carpet and the seven-speeder shifts smoothly.

Flick across to Dynamic and it changes again. The steering tightens up and adds weight and feedback, the suspension seems intent on tracking down body roll and eliminating it, the gearbox whips up rapidly and holds gears to the rev limiter. Then, under brakes, it bites hard enough, yet the car remains stoically stable, regardless of the road conditions.

All that said, the system is a pricey option and even though the Sportback will be the cheapest of the three A5s, that doesn't make it acceptable for Audi to make the optioned car so good and the standard car so poor. Let's hope Audi Australia bites the bullet and makes it standard.

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