USED Audi A5 Coupe (07 - )

My car

Have one of these for test drive over the weekend, so initial thoughts. Am actually looking to get a Sportback with this engine in SE Tecknic Trim. So:

Good Points:

Looks Stunning Wonderful build quality Performance and handling good.

Bad Points:

The ride is terrible and I mean shocking. You feel everything shoot through the body of the car and you get shaken and rattled about.

So I will need to test drive the SE Trim which has supposedly a better ride. Ok the car wont look as good as an S line model but am an age where comfort means more than posing, which seems to be the main reason for the S line!

Also as a musician upgrade to the B and O system. The standard one on test here is OK but not great.

If only the 3 Series or C Class had a hatchback version. ( I dont like estates and need space for my drumkit!!)

My car

I've had this car for over a year, & for the 1st time ever I plan on keeping this car for longer than 12 months (I'm that sure of it I've just given Audi £800 to extend the warranty).

This car is brilliant to drive. It has great acceleration and performance, especially on the motorway. Fast, yet quiet and refined (there's no way you can tell it's a diesel). Corners are also dealt with very easily with minimal body-roll and an assured level of grip from the 'Quattro' system.

The running costs would have been a 5* up to last October but Audi diesel engines all seem to take a big hit in mpg during the cold. I was regularly averaging nearly 40mpg on a 10 mile commute but over the winter this dropped to 30mpg. I suppose not bad for a 3.0 but still a little unexpected (although the warmer spring weather has meant it is gradually getting back up to high 30's).

Inside the car the materials are excellent & the quality up there with the best cars I have driven. The Sat Nav is easy to use & usually routes well. The ipod interface is brilliant (iPod hidden in the glove box and yet all functionality is controllable by the audi multimedia interface).

The back seats are ok, but if you're thinking of an A5 it probably isnt for a family with 2 teenagers. My 3yr old sits on her booster seat in the back & has few complaints - and i have no problems getting her there. Related to that, the boot is very big for a coupe and easily handled a weeks luggage for 3!

Overall, I love the A5

My car

Lovely car, but with only 1500 characters to write this review, I’ll just describe one serious design fault:

This is a potentially DANGEROUS car. With its electro-mechanical parking brake system, it is all too easy to park with no brake applied. Why? You never need to release the parking brake – it’s automatic. You don’t even need to apply the brake if you’ve been using Hill Start Assist – it’s automatic. When you use this feature, you can get out of the car without touching the parking brake switch - it’s already applied. The trouble is when you haven’t been using HSA. I’ve left my car a few times without the brake applied and so have Audi's service staff! Sooner or later an A5 (or other Audi with this braking system) will be left without the brake applied and it will roll down a hill and kill people.

Audi could so easily resolve this potentially dangerous situation with a simple software upgrade. The braking system knows when the vehicle is stationery and it knows when you turn off the ignition or open to driver’s door. With this information, it should ALWAYS apply the parking brake when these conditions are recognised.

Rant over – otherwise it’s a fabulous car to drive, admired by others, goes like a train, and is stuffed with loads of complicated-to-operate gizmos.

My car

This is a gorgeous car with a beautifully sculpted body, and the general shape of the car. This car certainly doesn't look cheap, it is a work of art. The front is both classy and aggressive, the back looks less good, but the 4 exhausts certainly make up for some of the lack of ambition there. The extra sideskirts, little extra bits on the back and front also add to the appealing looks. People ask me all the time how much it costs and when I tell them it would sell for £48,000 new, they say that's cheap! Now for the drive, and here is where you may be surprised. Yes it is fast, yes it sounds delightfully monster-esque, yes it handles brilliantly and feels extremely stable but it also feels heavy and you just wonder why it is so boring when you're hitting 80mph. It feels heavy because it IS heavy at 1630kg, but quality is always heavy. I can't quite explain it, but when you're going flat out in it, it just seems tedious and pointless. You're just wasting fuel! You'll get a mere 250 miles for a full tank if you drive it like an old man with the occasional go at the throttle - for a 63L tank, that's poor. I'm not saying I don't love driving it! I just think it makes you grow up and understand that it is not a racing car. It is a gorgeous looking cruiser that has oodles of extra grunt if required.