Audi A5 2.0 TFSI 211PS Car Review

Facts At A Glance
Car: Audi A4 2.0TFSI 211PS
Prices: £28,235 - £33,840 – on the road
Insurance Group: 15
Emissions: 154g/km
Performance: 0-60mph 6.9s / Max Speed 155mph
Fuel Consumption: (combined) 42.8mpg
Safety: Twin front, window & side airbags, ESP, ABS, traction control,
Dimensions: Length/Width/Height, 4625/1854/1372mm

BRAND ON THE RUN

Our Rating: 7.4 / 10

Audi excels at cultivating its brand image but the cars aren’t bad either. Steve Walker looks at the A5 2.0 TFSI

Audi’s A5 is a great-looking car and the 211PS 2.0-litre TFSI could well be its best engine. The powerplant uses advanced technology to deliver strong performance with good economy. It’s good enough to make you question the need to climb further up the engine range.

A significant part of Audi’s recent success has been built on factors that are hard to quantify. Desirability, exclusivity, prestige, cachet, cool, Audi has them and to the casual observer, it’s not always entirely clear how it got them. Of course, it helps that the manufacturer seems as adept at engineering its products as it is at engineering its brand. The A5 Coupe with the 211PS 2.0-litre TFSI petrol engine is a case in point on both fronts.

Audi has been carefully nurturing a youthful and sporty image that’s also less brash and overbearing than the marque’s premium German rivals. Audi at its best keeps things low key, its products playing it cool while subtly emphasising their technological prowess and desirability. It’s this approach that Audi customers have been buying into in their thousands and this A5 Coupe 2.0TFSI typifies it. The question is, once all the glossy advertising and marketing spin has been stripped away, how good is it?

The A5’s 2.0-litre TFSI engine is offered in both 180 and 211PS guises to fill out the bottom end of the A5’s petrol engine range. The six and eight cylinder units above have more power but for most, the upper 2.0 TFSI unit will have enough. How much is enough? The engine produces 211PS at 4,300rpm but the stat that reveals most about this unit’s character is its 350Nm maximum torque that’s available all the way from 1,500rpm to 4,200rpm.

This powerplant pulls strongly and seamlessly almost from the outset with an almost diesel-like surge of power through the mid range and no discernable turbo lag. It’s achieved through the use of a variable geometry turbocharger and Audi’s Valvelift technology which allows the combustion process to be precisely controlled and adapted instantaneously to the demands of the driver. The 0-60mph sprint takes 6.9s or 6.5s if you go for the quattro all-wheel-drive model and the top speed is an artificially-limited 155mph.

The A5 has you at a disadvantage as soon as you drop into the driver’s seat. Unless you’ve had the foresight to approach it blindfolded or sneak up on it under cover of darkness, you’ve seen how the car looks and those delicately arching lines will already be pounding out a big soft spot in your heart as you thumb the starter button. On the move, the handling is fluid and engaging while falling short of being outright sporty. The suspension flows easily over even poor road surfaces, giving a reasonable level of feedback, though both this and the steering lack the edgy, responsiveness that the keenest of keen drivers will yearn for. Everyone else should be more than satisfied and when the A5 is sent on more mundane journeys, its smoothness and refinement really add to the enjoyment.

As the company that popularised four-wheel drive sports cars, Audi has developed a reputation for innovation and design. Therefore, it was imperative for it to start divorcing itself from what was seen as a rather old-fashioned and suboptimal chassis layout. The A5 has broken that mould. The steering system has been redesigned to offer better feel, five link front suspension helps optimise balance and a there’s the familiar quattro drive system. This abandons the stodgy old 50:50 distribution in favour of a sportier 40 per cent front and 60 per cent rear torque split. It’s just another example of the way Audi really is getting serious.

Leaving aside its radically improved chassis, the most significant factor for most buyers will be the simple fact that here at last is an Audi coupe that real people with legs and a head will be able to sit in the back of. The A5 will seat four adults in reasonable comfort and still leave room for 455 litres of boot space.

The A5’s styling is reminiscent of the Nuvolari concept car, first shown in 2003, albeit with a good deal more shape in its flanks, the wavy beltline that runs from the headlights right back to the tail lights being the car’s most di