The Audi A5 Sportback is a new car in the 5-door sector into which the MG6 is being launched. Hence, how the motoring press receives the A5 will be an important pointer for the MG6, even though the two cars will doubtless be differentiated.
(I hope the MG6 is a bit cheaper than £42k myself!)
Audi’s own moving ("mobile"!) presentation of this car:
http://www.audi.co.uk/audi/uk/en2/new_cars/A5/a5_sportback.html
Picture from audipic.com:
Here is auto motor + sport's test of the Audi A5 Sportback 2.0 TDI from 10 September 2009:
HATCH OF THE DAY
Here comes another sporty little niche filler: the A5 Sportback, a coupe with four doors
plus a fifth hatchback door with a great deal of space under the tailgate. You might say it's a wannabe estate that looks like a wannabe coupe. All clear now?
Given the increasing number of variations on the A4 and A5 theme, let it never be said
that Audi are losing sight of their basic product philosophy. Let's face it; right back in the early days before driving licences the Greek philosopher Heraclitus had arguably predicted the new Sportback. “Everything flows” he said wisely 2,500 years ago, and he could only have meant the flowing lines of this new fastback.
(my source - what was this reporter thinking? It's a nightmare pun on Fastback in German, as though he's been checking the flow rate in the local bar)...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heraclitus#Panta_rhei.2C_.22everything_flows.22
Nevertheless, this A5 is a bit of a puzzle - and one which gets all the more complicated the
nearer you get to the car and try to apply the two main standards to it used by the car-buying public – namely “looks” and “practicality”. From some ten yards away – a good distance for judging a car's styling – the A5 looks solidly planted on the road. The Sportback has inherited the A4's long wheelbase, yet it is 2.8cm (1.1”) wider, a little longer and 3.6cm (1.4”) lower than the saloon. That makes for pleasing proportions, particularly as the roof's long downward sweep gives this car an elegant rump.
From thecarconnection.com
Still, it begs the question – if a buyer really wants looks, is not the car which designer Walter de Silva called “my most beautiful car yet”- the A5 Coupe - in fact just a touch more extravagant?
And if a potential purchaser is thinking more about practicality, must the A5 Sportback not constantly be compared with the A4 Avant, itself a good looker, but one with 4.5cm (1.7”) more headroom, five, not four, seats, and, with rear seat backs folded down, 50.4 cubic feet
(1,430 litres) carrying capacity instead of 34.6 (980)?
These are the questions you can be pondering at length standing in front of the test car
– until, suddenly, a man on a £2,000 mountain bike freewheels onto the car park at the edge of the woods, gets off, walks once round the car, walks round the car again, looks in through the open tailgate, nods his head and says “Nice motor there, mate. You can even get a bit of gear in there if the fancy takes you. Think I’ll be getting one myself”. He must have been sent round by Audi's marketing department.
40,000 to 50,000 people like him around the world are expected to buy an Audi Sportback – the same number as projected for both the A5 Coupe and the A5 Convertible together. Which only goes to show: after the A4 Avant and the A4 saloon, the A5 Sportback is Audi's third-most-important mid-sized model.
Just what the buyer gets for his money is revealed in this test. In fact, the mention of “money” is a reminder of something the prospective buyer of a Sportback is going to need in wodges. The car we tested has a sticker price of over €47,000 (say £42k) not even including the
leather upholstery.
As for the tailgate, we noticed:
1) you wouldn’t even notice it was there when it’s shut. At first sight, the way the car’s lines sweep along the sides mean you think the car is a four-door A4 saloon.
The revelation comes only when the huge tailgate is raised right up.
2) the boot’s floor is significantly higher than that on the A4 Avant with an annoying high sill.
3) that you can get just about anything into the boot, except fridges. Anyway, nowadays you get fridges delivered to your door. You can lower the rear seat backs in no time at all, but then the load space is unfortunately not completely flat.
Not everyone finds the new Audi equally comfortable. Driver and front seat passenger can have no grounds for complaint. The interior width is very generous, in common with all A5s, and the ergonomics to the same high standards as the build quality. What about the two
rear seat passengers? Their seats are particularly low-slung. A chap who’s fallen victim to a slipped disc twice in his past will fear a third attack is imminent as he tries to wriggle in. Even more irritating is the lack of headroom. Let’s face it, a fastback is not a traditional “slab backed” estate, and any passenger over - at the most - six feet tall will feel the roof lining
getting on his hairstyle and on his nerves. Not ideal.
Much closer to ideal is the drive in the Sportback. Despite the frameless windows - these don’t lower all the way down at the back, which looks pretty odd - wind noise is low. Not every manufacturer gets that as right. There again, visibility to the rear over the driver’s shoulder could be better.
Another interesting point: Despite the name “Sportback”, the new arrival is rather a comfortable derivative of Audi’s family-sized cars. The test car has the standard suspension settings, which are, in any case, dialled in to a somewhat more relaxed setup on the A4/A5 than the extra-cost optional adaptive suspension even in its “comfort” setting. The bog-standard suspension has been altered to a more comfortable setting in the Sportback by tweaking its spring and shock absorber rates. The Sportback is heavier and has a longer
wheelbase than the A5 Coupe, too, which adds to its refinement. Only transverse bumps can momentarily shake the suspension's composure.
The steering is precise, but not ridiculously direct, which harmonises with the suspension as is demonstrated in the A5’s handling: the Sportback always obeys the driver’s demands right up to a generous limit - and the rest of the time it leaves him alone and has no need for constant input. In short, like the sort of children all parents wish they had.
The Sportback’s dynamics benefit from the new technical underpinnings that Audi unveiled previously with the A5 Coupe: the differential and the front axle were both moved further forward. As ever, a front-wheel-drive Audi will betray transmission influence in the front wheels and slow itself down in those corners the driver attacks over-eagerly. But now it does that later, stays neutral for longer and brings fun to driving without overdoing the sporty bit.
Thanks, too, to a Start-Stop system, "change up" gearchange indicator and regenerative braking, the 170 DIN bhp TDI delivers fuel economy on test of 39mpg. When driven
particularly frugally on our standard test route, it will eke that out to 58mpg. The common-rail diesel could do a better job of pulling away from a standing start, which isn’t that much of an issue. But once the turbo is on full song, the TDI goes about its business with such enthusiasm that each press on the loud pedal makes you look forward to the next.
There again, in the wet, you’ll be wishing for the better traction of a four-wheel-drive version.
The longer you drive the Sportback, the harder it gets to remember all those questions the A5 made you ask yourself when you first saw it. So who’s going to buy one? Well, anyone who might buy the A4 saloon. Or the Avant. Or the A5 Coupe. That’s actually quite a lot of people.
(Ralph Alex, auto, motor + sport - please credit patpending's translation to English if you would like to use it)
(I hope the MG6 is a bit cheaper than £42k myself!)
Audi’s own moving ("mobile"!) presentation of this car:
http://www.audi.co.uk/audi/uk/en2/new_cars/A5/a5_sportback.html
Picture from audipic.com:
Here is auto motor + sport's test of the Audi A5 Sportback 2.0 TDI from 10 September 2009:
HATCH OF THE DAY
Here comes another sporty little niche filler: the A5 Sportback, a coupe with four doors
plus a fifth hatchback door with a great deal of space under the tailgate. You might say it's a wannabe estate that looks like a wannabe coupe. All clear now?
Given the increasing number of variations on the A4 and A5 theme, let it never be said
that Audi are losing sight of their basic product philosophy. Let's face it; right back in the early days before driving licences the Greek philosopher Heraclitus had arguably predicted the new Sportback. “Everything flows” he said wisely 2,500 years ago, and he could only have meant the flowing lines of this new fastback.
(my source - what was this reporter thinking? It's a nightmare pun on Fastback in German, as though he's been checking the flow rate in the local bar)...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heraclitus#Panta_rhei.2C_.22everything_flows.22
Nevertheless, this A5 is a bit of a puzzle - and one which gets all the more complicated the
nearer you get to the car and try to apply the two main standards to it used by the car-buying public – namely “looks” and “practicality”. From some ten yards away – a good distance for judging a car's styling – the A5 looks solidly planted on the road. The Sportback has inherited the A4's long wheelbase, yet it is 2.8cm (1.1”) wider, a little longer and 3.6cm (1.4”) lower than the saloon. That makes for pleasing proportions, particularly as the roof's long downward sweep gives this car an elegant rump.
From thecarconnection.com
Still, it begs the question – if a buyer really wants looks, is not the car which designer Walter de Silva called “my most beautiful car yet”- the A5 Coupe - in fact just a touch more extravagant?
And if a potential purchaser is thinking more about practicality, must the A5 Sportback not constantly be compared with the A4 Avant, itself a good looker, but one with 4.5cm (1.7”) more headroom, five, not four, seats, and, with rear seat backs folded down, 50.4 cubic feet
(1,430 litres) carrying capacity instead of 34.6 (980)?
These are the questions you can be pondering at length standing in front of the test car
– until, suddenly, a man on a £2,000 mountain bike freewheels onto the car park at the edge of the woods, gets off, walks once round the car, walks round the car again, looks in through the open tailgate, nods his head and says “Nice motor there, mate. You can even get a bit of gear in there if the fancy takes you. Think I’ll be getting one myself”. He must have been sent round by Audi's marketing department.
40,000 to 50,000 people like him around the world are expected to buy an Audi Sportback – the same number as projected for both the A5 Coupe and the A5 Convertible together. Which only goes to show: after the A4 Avant and the A4 saloon, the A5 Sportback is Audi's third-most-important mid-sized model.
Just what the buyer gets for his money is revealed in this test. In fact, the mention of “money” is a reminder of something the prospective buyer of a Sportback is going to need in wodges. The car we tested has a sticker price of over €47,000 (say £42k) not even including the
leather upholstery.
As for the tailgate, we noticed:
1) you wouldn’t even notice it was there when it’s shut. At first sight, the way the car’s lines sweep along the sides mean you think the car is a four-door A4 saloon.
The revelation comes only when the huge tailgate is raised right up.
2) the boot’s floor is significantly higher than that on the A4 Avant with an annoying high sill.
3) that you can get just about anything into the boot, except fridges. Anyway, nowadays you get fridges delivered to your door. You can lower the rear seat backs in no time at all, but then the load space is unfortunately not completely flat.
Not everyone finds the new Audi equally comfortable. Driver and front seat passenger can have no grounds for complaint. The interior width is very generous, in common with all A5s, and the ergonomics to the same high standards as the build quality. What about the two
rear seat passengers? Their seats are particularly low-slung. A chap who’s fallen victim to a slipped disc twice in his past will fear a third attack is imminent as he tries to wriggle in. Even more irritating is the lack of headroom. Let’s face it, a fastback is not a traditional “slab backed” estate, and any passenger over - at the most - six feet tall will feel the roof lining
getting on his hairstyle and on his nerves. Not ideal.
Much closer to ideal is the drive in the Sportback. Despite the frameless windows - these don’t lower all the way down at the back, which looks pretty odd - wind noise is low. Not every manufacturer gets that as right. There again, visibility to the rear over the driver’s shoulder could be better.
Another interesting point: Despite the name “Sportback”, the new arrival is rather a comfortable derivative of Audi’s family-sized cars. The test car has the standard suspension settings, which are, in any case, dialled in to a somewhat more relaxed setup on the A4/A5 than the extra-cost optional adaptive suspension even in its “comfort” setting. The bog-standard suspension has been altered to a more comfortable setting in the Sportback by tweaking its spring and shock absorber rates. The Sportback is heavier and has a longer
wheelbase than the A5 Coupe, too, which adds to its refinement. Only transverse bumps can momentarily shake the suspension's composure.
The steering is precise, but not ridiculously direct, which harmonises with the suspension as is demonstrated in the A5’s handling: the Sportback always obeys the driver’s demands right up to a generous limit - and the rest of the time it leaves him alone and has no need for constant input. In short, like the sort of children all parents wish they had.
The Sportback’s dynamics benefit from the new technical underpinnings that Audi unveiled previously with the A5 Coupe: the differential and the front axle were both moved further forward. As ever, a front-wheel-drive Audi will betray transmission influence in the front wheels and slow itself down in those corners the driver attacks over-eagerly. But now it does that later, stays neutral for longer and brings fun to driving without overdoing the sporty bit.
Thanks, too, to a Start-Stop system, "change up" gearchange indicator and regenerative braking, the 170 DIN bhp TDI delivers fuel economy on test of 39mpg. When driven
particularly frugally on our standard test route, it will eke that out to 58mpg. The common-rail diesel could do a better job of pulling away from a standing start, which isn’t that much of an issue. But once the turbo is on full song, the TDI goes about its business with such enthusiasm that each press on the loud pedal makes you look forward to the next.
There again, in the wet, you’ll be wishing for the better traction of a four-wheel-drive version.
The longer you drive the Sportback, the harder it gets to remember all those questions the A5 made you ask yourself when you first saw it. So who’s going to buy one? Well, anyone who might buy the A4 saloon. Or the Avant. Or the A5 Coupe. That’s actually quite a lot of people.
(Ralph Alex, auto, motor + sport - please credit patpending's translation to English if you would like to use it)
Last edited by patpending on Wed Oct 07, 2009 11:03 am; edited 3 times in total
