Audi A5 review

The A5 drives with the maturity and predictability you would expect from this bread and butter car: Audi knows what it’s doing and was never going to mess this up too readily. Everything does what it’s supposed to – the diesel is a frugal cruiser, the petrol a flexible all-rounder (especially in its more powerful state of tune), the PHEV is a taxman pleasing jack of all trades and there’s the V6 petrol in the S5 if you want something spicier (but cajun spice rather than ground chilli powder).

Likewise the suspension’s been tuned for a smooth ride, with more nibbly feedback coming through the higher up the trim levels you go (big wheels and that). The damped sports suspension of our UK test car (lowered by 20mm) struggled with the constant assault of bumps and ruts, but gamely took the edge off throughout. The A5 prefers cruising speed, ticking off motorway miles serenely.

The A5's grown up manners stem from that damping, which stops it from lolloping from side to side through turns. But it doesn't matter if it's a tight hairpin or a fast, sweeping corner, the car doesn’t egg you on – it's streets behind a 3 Series or Giulia in that respect.

What are the engines like?

The 2.0-litre TFSI petrol engine on the A5 is an all-new unit from Audi, with two states of tune (148bhp and 201bhp). It gets on with its work with discretion, but that comes at the cost of personality. You'll forgive it.

It benefits from fancy turbo tech that apparently benefits fuel economy and emissions, and offers plenty of overtaking shove in its more powerful form. Officially it’ll breach 40mpg in both petrols, and on paper there's no penalty for choosing the boxier Avant.

The diesel gets Audi’s ‘MHEV Plus’ tech that basically makes for extended start stop and some brief periods of electric running, and it shaves off 10g/km CO2 for 149g/km. This engine is less smooth and refined than past Audi diesels, but it’s fine on the motorway. Audi's WLTP promise is 56.5mpg: we saw mid-40s on a stop-start B-road run, so we'd expect you to do better.

Tell me about that plug-in hybrid.

It gets the most powerful tune of the 2.0-litre TFSI petrol at 248bhp, which combines with a 141bhp e-motor for a total output of 295bhp.

The 25.9kWh battery (with a usable capacity of 20.7kWh) is officially rated at 61 miles of e-range, but the standard caveat applies to real world driving. You can drive in EV mode until your charge runs out, but far more sensible is the Hybrid mode that carefully juggles the juice depending on things like your satnav route, hills and whether you’ve got the accelerator pedal pressed to the floor or not.

The plug-in offers a perky turn of speed, but is equally happy relaxing in Efficiency mode. The brake blending is impressive – Audi’s using a trick system on the car that combines hefty regen with hydraulics that are ‘decoupled’ from the brake pedal.

There’s actually a 362bhp version in Germany, but Audi doesn’t think Brits can handle the power. Kidding. It’s more to do with the fact company car buyers will flock to the lower-powered version and its cheaper tax rating, like ants on a discarded ice lolly.