Category: Compact Executive 
Price Range: £26,190 to £39,825
Quality and solidity, sumptuous cabin, big boot, gutsy 3.0 TDI engine, effective Multitronic transmission.
Feels nose heavy despite new chassis design, unresolved styling, poor rear-seat room.
Lacks a clear personality. Competent in many ways but could have been so much better. The 3.0 TDI Quattro is the best version.
Walter de'Silva, Audi's Italian head of design and past shaper of Seats and Alfas, says the Audi A5 is the most beautiful car he has ever designed. Certainly, with its gently waving waistline it's the least geometrical Audi in years. The look is important, because under the A5 is a platform (or 'component set' as Audi prefers to call it) which will underpin the next-generation A4, to be revealed at September's Frankfurt show.
This component set has two key innovations compared with that of previous mainstream Audis. It still has the engine mounted longitudinally, not least because it makes a Quattro four-wheel-drive version easier to engineer, but it's no longer so far ahead of the front wheels. In fact the A5 has little more front overhang than a BMW 3-Series, which makes it look much more dynamic and also improves the weight distribution. Audi has achieved this by repositioning the clutch behind the final drive, so allowing the latter to be pulled forward.
The other tweak is to move the steering rack downwards so the steering arms, which link the rack to the hubs, can be shorter and less flexible. These changes, together with a new design of multi-aluminium-arm suspension front and rear, should transform Audi dynamics into something a BMW driver might enjoy. Aluminium is used for the front wings, too, but not for any of the structure. Nor are there any trick adaptive suspension dampers, such as the Magnetic Ride system used on the TT and R8.
The A5 is a big coupe, wider than the new A4, but although it's billed as a four-seater there's not much space in the back. Engines available are a 3.0 TDI (240bhp and 369lb-ft of torque), the S5's 4.2-litre, V8 (354bhp and 325lb-ft, with FSI direct injection), 3.2-litre V6 FSI with 265bhp and a new variable valve lift system for better low-speed pull, 1.8T FSI turbo (170bhp) and 2.7 TDI diesel (190bhp). Four-wheel drive quattro models come with six-speed manual or Tiptronic auto transmission. Front-wheel-drive versions can have the Multitronic CVT.
Next to arrive will be a 3.2-litre V6 version with 265bhp and a new variable valve lift system for better low-speed pull; this can be a six-speed manual or Tiptronic auto with Quattro four-wheel drive, like the TDI and S5, or a front-wheel-drive car with a new version of the Multitronic transmission. Although this is mechanically a continuously variable transmission (CVT), it's programmed to use eight stepped gear ratios whether in automatic or manual mode.
Future variants will be 1.8- and 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbos and a 2.7 TDI manual or Multitronic, all of these with front-wheel drive. A hotter RS5 and a convertible are also likely.
