Audi A5 Cabriolet 2.0 TDI S line review
by David Finlay (15 March 2010)
It's a while since I've had an Audi of any sort sitting outside the house, and I must admit there is something rather uplifting about it. I wouldn't go so far as to say that Audi is my favourite manufacturer above all others, but opening the front door and finding an Audi sitting there is somehow better than opening the front door and not finding an Audi sitting there.
This is not because Audis look dramatic. On the contrary, their designs are very restrained - the A5 Cabriolet which I promise I'll get round to talking about very soon whispers rather than declaims its status, which I find rather satisfying. And Audis which have not been ruined by having low-profile tyres fitted to them are generally very pleasant to drive, even if they happen not to be especially quick.
That last point is particularly relevant to the open-topped A5. Last year I drove the 2.0 TFSI petrol turbo version, and in a subsequent road test questioned the advisability of fitting a 208bhp engine to a car which, unless it had four-wheel drive, did not seem able to take it. The 2.0 TDI turbo diesel reviewed here has 40bhp less, and a similar question arises. 168bhp is still on the high side for an A5 Cabriolet which drives only through the front wheels.
Nothing particularly dangerous or alarming happens if you start pushing hard, but it doesn't take long to take the car well away from its comfort zone. Both the ride and the handling deteriorate quickly, and you soon learn to take things easy.
That doesn't mean you necessarily have to dawdle. The Volkswagen Group's 2.0 TDI engine is one of the best in the business, and it develops enough power for relaxed but purposeful driving without any great effort on the part of the driver (far more so than the 2.0 TFSI does, certainly). I can quite imagine that you could buy an A5 Cabriolet of this type now and sell it in two or three years' time without ever having used more than an inch of the accelerator pedal travel, and not once consider it to be a slow car.
Other features of the car have been dealt with before but may as well be mentioned again here. Although it has four seats, it is quite out of the question to fit four adults into them, though I doubt that many Cabriolet owners would ever be minded to try.
The roof - only a fabric job, following Audi tradition, but a high-quality one at that - does a fine job of keeping extraneous noise out of the cabin when it's in place, and when it's folded down there is a fresh-air feeling which does not extend to an impression that you are experiencing a hurricane (unless of course you actually are).
Less happily, the footrest is placed so far away that even I, an unnecessarily tall person, find it hard to reach, a problem common to all A5s and indeed the A4s on which they are based.
If I could get over that, and if I wanted an A5 Cabriolet at all, I believe I would choose one with this engine, since it's economical - nearly 50mpg on the combined cycle, for heaven's sake - and at least as powerful as it usefully can be in this application. If you're on a budget you don't have to buy the exact model reviewed here, since there are also standard and SE models with lower, but probably sufficient, amounts of standard equipment.
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