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Audi S5 review


Chris_B
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My very nice Audi sales chappie kindly booked me their S5 out last weekend, Saturday morning to Sunday 4pm.

Phantom Black, red leather seats, advanced key, B&O. Very nice looking car indeed:

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First impressions are good. The key fits in a slot to the right of the steering column, and you press it to switch the ignition on. With the clutch pressed in, a push on the key results in an almost apologetic cough, a quick staccato bark and the V8 fires up with a lovely deep, rounded burble. A few seconds later, the engine management settles it down to a steady 600 rpm tickover, which is just low enough that there's the odd little half-stutter that you can only just hear and feel through the fabric of the car.

The clutch initially seems quite firmly weighted, especially to a regular tip driver of several years, but it's action is smooth and progressive. The gear lever snicks neatly through the gate, and gear selection seems smooth and uncluttered.

With some trepidation and excitment, I ease the clutch up in 1st gear and find biting point. The S5 trundles down the road and the bass note from the rear end deepens slightly. Being unused to the car, it seems a little easy to jerk and snatch in 1st gear, and second seems like a good idea, quite quickly. The S5 agrees, with a little white 1 in the dashboard that has a little green arrow pointing to a green number 2, the S5's hint that changing up will result in more economical driving. I comply.

In short order, the S5 wants me to shift up again and agin, all the way to 5th gear at a mere 30 mph, at which point, I see if it will complain if I decide to try out 6th gear at this town speed, which the S5 seems perfectly content to do. The gear action is tidy, and the clutch is growing on me rapidly.

Then I find myself leaving the 30 mph speed limit, with a chance to stretch the S5's legs a little.

Oh. My. Word!

Dropping down into 2nd gear and booting the action pedal results in a savage outburst of noise and motion, the S5's blunt nose (which for some reason reminds me of a manta ray) points towards the horizon like a missile, which is appropriate given how rocket-propelled the acceleration feels. The rev counter dashes madly for it's 7000 rpm redline, surprising me enough to nearly catch me out on the gear change, only the insistence of the banshee wail indicating the impending limit and reminding me that I need feet and hands in coordinated action here. The hairs on my arms stand on end.

Snicking neatly into 3rd gear, the S5 continues it's headlong dash, the rather uneven tarmac of a country minor road barely registering through the flat but compliant suspension.

There just isn't time to get into 4th gear before an approaching corner makes me think twice about keeping up the acceleration. The S5 smoothly and deftly slinks round the bend, and gives me it's last two thousand rpms as we rush out of the apex and hit 4th gear and shriek down the road, the greenery either side rapidly becoming a blur.

This is one fast car.

Overtaking is effortless, and could be acheived in quite high gear, but the S5's incredible engine encourages you to cog down and feel the fat 255 tyres trying their hardest to peel the tarmac back behind the rapidly dissapearing sleek coupe with the four ringed badge.

Handling is very impressive, with the stereotypical Audi understeer and lifeless behaviour gone. Some might consider the steering a little uncommunicative, but I found it subtle and complex, but perfectly able to communicate what the car is doing, even when I only had ten miles under my belt with it.

Inspired by my previous experience with fast Audi hardware, and the fantastic balance of the S5, I turn the ESP off. Properly off. The button performs two functions - a short press disables the ESR anti-slip, where a long press disables ESP fully, with a suitable yellow warning in the Drivers Information System display. Without the benefit of the sophisticated electronics keeping the car pointing the right way and shiny side up, I begin to explore the mechanical prowess.

I'm not dissapointed, not by a long way. In fact, I'm soon giggling like a schoolboy with a glamour magazine. The S5 is nothing short of tenacious round tight corners, and where my previous Audi experience would lead me to expect understeer behaviour barreling into a corner on the overrun, the S5 just glides round like it's bolted to the road. Where I'd expect to be able to break the rear end out with a violent turn in and a dose of heavy low-gear, high-rev full throttle, the S5 just clings to the road and gets on with it. Being new to the car, I hadn't found the S5's limits by the time it found mine, and I stopped pushing.

It's a sedate drive round town as well. The clutch didn't bother me as I had thought it might, me being in my sixth car with Tip. The automatic hill-hold feature works a treat, applying the parking brake as soon as the car comes to a halt and releasing it as soon as you reach biting point to pull away.

The S5 attracts eyeballs, tugged round by the viewer's ears towards the direction of the rumbling V8 and held there by it's mesmerising LED running lights. This is not a car for those who desire a low profile.

The front seats were comfortable and nicely adjustable (although the rear seats are not designed for anyone over 5 and a half feet tall really), the MMI system was a treat to use as always, and the B&O sound system is a joy all the way from gentle background to in-car concert levels.

The S5 blew me away. I've driven many a fast Audi before, but I think this car even stands a good chance of knocking it's bigger sibling, the awesome S8, off it's pedestal, depending on where you place the value line between driving dynamics and comfort. Given the substantial cost differential between them, if you can live without air suspension, adult back seats and a chunk of luggage space, the S5 is far better value as a luxury smile-maker.

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And I love those sunrise [sunset?] pictures notworthy.gif

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Sunset on Saturday night. I missed the time window I really wanted by about 15 mins, and i only had the point & shoot with me, not the full SLR kit, otherwise I'd have had a few better ones.

I was too busy driving it to bother with too much photography! cool.gif

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Great pics and nice right up.

I agree with a lot of it but two things I find myself disagreeing with :

[1] "booting the action pedal results in a savage outburst of noise and motion"

I found that the throttle response was actually quite slow and soft and the power power welled up rather than being savage and instant. The noise of the car was amazing.....in it's ability to shelter you from it. I was surprised just how quiet it was. At 80mph it felt like 50mph due to the reduction in wind noise/road noise etc.

[2] "the stereotypical Audi understeer and lifeless behaviour gone."

I think with more time to push on you'd find it's still very close to it's roots. I was disappointed that the 40/60 power split was that noticable from a 50/50 set up. I only had the car for 30 mins but in this time I did manage to quite easily induce understeer. I tried to provoke power oversteer and it was very reluctant. I tired lift off over steer and it just tucked the nose in. All very safe but all very predictable.

In summary I was a bit disappointed that the new platform wasn't so different. This may be all down to my expectations. The handling has improved but I was expecting a lot more.

I came away feeling that it's a lovely car but it's just not moved on enough to what I have to justify the cost of change. Perhaps it's not a critism of the car but just it failed to meet what I hoped to find.

I'm not currently sure what I want out my next car and the S5 is certainly no bad place to hang out. I'm just not sure that paying £45k for a specced S5 that I'd ever feel I got that value out of it.

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I like the look of the S5.

However, I do wish they'd get rid of those absolutely lurid, horrid, chavness personified LED's. They're far too bright and lower the whole tone of the car to the point of it being so in-your-face it's laughable.

I also find it somewhat ironic that they're on a car many purport to be the more anonymous choice of performance when compared to others. Umm, it looks anything but with those lights on.

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There is a black one in the area I live.

It looks quite nice (when it's clean mind you, which is rare) - when it's on a side profile or you're behind it.

When it's coming towards you, the driver always has the LED's on, no matter when, I think it looks like someone trying too hard. Each to their own of course, but I just think it is out of character with the otherwise aesthetic appeal of subtle lines.

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As it happens, the black S5 I referred to previously followed me for a while today. It's been a lovely bright day of sunshine up here - and the lights just looked plain silly.

I'd be interested to know if many S5/other variant with these DRL's have been flashed much; because I do think they're extremely distracting and in low light I can imagine a good few drivers thinking they were a fog lamp equivalent and flashing cars out of irritation.

The car was clean today mind, and it did look nice.

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[ QUOTE ]

I like the look of the S5.

However, I do wish they'd get rid of those absolutely lurid, horrid, chavness personified LED's. They're far too bright and lower the whole tone of the car to the point of it being so in-your-face it's laughable.

I also find it somewhat ironic that they're on a car many purport to be the more anonymous choice of performance when compared to others. Umm, it looks anything but with those lights on.

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Yes "chavey" and too much attention grabbing, not enough rear leg room for my lot, so no go, maybe RS6, who knows.

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Chavvy looking? how biased are you FFS. Anything that's not an RS4 is from chelfing in your book! ROLLEY~14.GIFsmashfreakB.gif

They look lovely. Yes attention grabbing - but chavy - how is a 50K factory specced german car chavvy exactly?

As has been said loads, all cars will have bright DRLs soon. 169144-ok.gif

Of course an RS4 is uber-discreet. Who'd notice chrome mirrors, big grills, big arches, big oval exhausts and a big RS4 badge! znaika.gif

I love car banter. Everyone is so biased! Me included, and everyone else. We're all just biased towards different types of car! tongue.gif

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