The A5 Sport back arrived in Moonlight blue metallic color. Yet, if the car is parked in dark chances are that it will be mistaken for black. You may need to squint a little, to actually figure out the real hue. However, there’s another area that requires more attention: the badge. The A5 S carries a badge of 50 TFSI quattro, that requires more imagination than what meets the eye! Conversely, this gets the things interesting. More on this later…
Euroback design 8.5/10
For some reason’s car manufacturers in Europe to satiate the hunger for fashion and style, have to add extra body style so that the customers can express their personalities. Hence you’ll have more choices than just plain sedans or hatch backs. The A5 is a sporty variant of Audi’s A4 sedan. If you choose the badge A4, you’ll have the option of either a 4 door sedan or a 4 door station wagon and is called Avant in Audi’s speak. In short if you choose to be more stylish and sporty person and wants to boost your image, then A5 is the way to go. Here you have a choice of Coupe and a soft-top cabriolet and now recently added into the mix is a 4 door coupe called Sport back in Audi’s speak! Furthermore, A5 Sport back is not a small or compact car. The exterior dimensions are similar to midsize/ large segment cars, with classic long hood with short rear deck!
Our tester, 2014 Audi A5 Sport back is actually a facelift model and seemingly gathered the sharper angles and creased edges from Audi’s 2009 electric concept, The e-tron. Interestingly, it looked refreshed. Moreover, when you look at the A5 Sport back, it’s not a small coupe and hence shows a lot of presence.
Upfront, are the newly redesign angular LED daylight running lights enhanced with S-line package front bumper and a big center grille; the subtle side skirts. The rear end also incorporates freshly design LED tail lights. Swing open the cool frame-less door, and you’ll be greeted with the near plum colored all leather interior in Audi’s speak it is known as Fine Nappa Leather in Garnet Red. The whole cockpit appearance is then finished with beautiful Aluminum Trigon inlay along with ambient light glow in the dark.
The Brute 8.0/10
When you see the 50 TFSI badge on the rear deck and one on the engine cover that reads V6 TFSI, it simply means the engine is actually a 3.0l, V6 and equipped with a supercharger blowing out 272Hp with 400 NM of torque and mated with fantastic 7-speed S tronic, Dual-clutch transmission. Though the power delivery is sublime, but it is endless as well. Additionally, packaged with the S-line badge is a sports suspension and a tuned exhaust! Grab the meaty sport steering wheel with shift paddles, the whole experience simply transforms into an ear to ear smile. Though the chassis easily allows a softer ride with limited body roll as the experience is tuned with driver selectable mode input from Comfort, Auto, Dynamic or Efficiency. Select the Dynamic drive mode and the S tronic transmission can hold gears until the needle hits the red line. The A5 Sport back dashes 0-60 in 6 seconds. It’s then simply a matter of finding a long winding, switchback road to enjoy an exhilarating sporty drive.
Safety 8.0/10
A brilliant sporty yet compliant suspension delivers a comfortable ride with all round safety assurances from its intelligent quattro (all-wheel drive system in Audi’s speak) provides full time fun-to-drive. Even though fuel economy is quite fair even when the right foot sticks to the race pedal. It’s a challenge to guess that how many more miles you can go until the fuel warning comes on. Why? Ironically, the gauge that indicates “Distance to Empty” is not available. However, other available tech-wizardry features Audi active lane assists, and side assists (blind spot detection) support the driver focused in lane and during lane changes. However I was surprised to realize the absence of my favorite Radar/Adaptive cruise control.
Subjectively speaking, Audi A5 Sport back delivers exactly what is promised and is intended to do: A social status that is aware of environment hence a 134 grams of CO2 per km. Audi claims: the best of any vehicle in its class. And then even after keeping the race pedal fully pressed most of the time, the fuel economy indicated is superb at 12.5l/ 100Km.
Reality Cheque 7.5/10
I’ve driven some really fast cars with special badges like BMW’s M or Mercedes AMG and Audi’s own RS, SVT from Ford. All the above badges not only make the car special in terms of pricing but primarily they are fast cars and capable of delivering near super car performances. Having said that, their docile behavior, Jackal and Hide characteristic made them day in day out everyday cars. However, to enjoy them to the max you need to take them to race-track where you unleash track oriented menacing disposition to let them stretch their very performance to the limit. Here is my argument: how many customers follow this regimen? The graph is pretty low. Hence we hear every day the nuisance caused by juvenility, endangers the lives of innocent common people. Just in case, in order to get your hair spiked, because of exhilarating drive, there is off-course S5. Hence this Sleeper Audi A5 Sport back 50 TFSI quattro makes more sense!
The advanced MMI infotainment systems MMI navigation plus, the top-of-the-range version, features a large hard-disk drive, a DVD player and a seven-inch color monitor with 3D navigation mapping and multi-functional sports steering wheel.
Our tester’s starts with a base price of AED 209,600/- that includes the badge of 50 TFSI and quattro. Moreover, added is an exterior S – line /Style package inclusive of 5-arm rotor Audi Sport cast aluminum alloy wheels in the matt titan finish for another AED 10,300/- And lastly, the Equipment package that includes Navigation Plus along with Parking system with reversing camera. All above and many other gizmos (including the absent ones) rapidly stacks up the price to AED 233, 000/- and I said hastily; ouch followed by Why? Perhaps, this is the life less ordinary…
