Costs & verdict
Everyday costs, plus how reliable and safe it is
As a cash purchase, the Audi A5 Sportback is fairly closely priced to the equivalent BMW 4 Series and Mercedes C-Class Coupé. If you want to spend a little less, you’ll be able to pick up an equivalent Kia Stinger or Volkswagen Arteon for quite a bit less.
Oddly for an Audi, the A5 Sportback's resale values aren't that strong. It loses a similar percentage of its list price as the C-Class Coupé, while the 4 Series should hold on to more of its value after three years. Even the Stinger and Arteon experience slightly slower depreciation.
Going for the top-of-the-range Vorsprung trim gives you even more equipment, including heated outer rear seats, a head-up display and park assist, which will parallel park the car for you. All those toys come with a hefty jump in price, though, so we can’t really recommend it.
As a brand, Audi finished 18th out of 30 manufacturers in our 2021 What Car? Reliability Survey. That's above Volkswagen (20th) and Mercedes (22nd) but below Kia (9th) and BMW (13th).
Safety systems are good, with six airbags and an effective automatic emergency braking (AEB) system as standard. It’s a shame you have to pay extra for blind-spot warning and lane-keeping assistance but, even so, the A5 Sportback attained five stars in its Euro NCAP test. That was in 2015, though, and since then the test has become harder to pass, so the 4 Series' five stars in 2019 is more impressive and should make it the safer car.
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