New Audi A5 Avant TDI 2024 review: A4's replacement is practical and efficient

Verdict

As a replacement for both the A4 and A5, the all-new Audi A5 Avant makes a lot of sense, especially in TDI diesel guise. It’s practical and spacious, comes with an efficient mild-hybrid powertrain, and is arguably better looking than the saloon with which it shares its new PPC platform. It’s also chock-full of excellent new tech, and feels unusually well made. Well worth a look if you can afford the premium price.

Whenever a car manufacturer like Audi goes the extra mile and produces a brand new platform – as it has with the A5 – it is invariably the workhorse models at the lower end of the range that benefit the most, and which represent the best value within that range.

How so? Because the lesser models come with all the fundamentals that underpin the more expensive versions – same new chassis, same new interior, same improved packaging and refreshing new design – but without the price tag to match. And in the case of the new A5 Avant TDI, the starting price of £48,850 appears to be extremely competitive, relative to its mainstream competition from all the other premium car brands.

The version we’ve tested here is the more expensive Edition 1. It costs a whopping £56,050, true, but other than its lowered sports chassis and better-specified interior, it’s essentially the same car as the entry-level TDI that costs just £48k.

For this you get the same 201bhp/400Nm 2.0-litre diesel engine, sending power to the front wheels via Audi’s excellent seven-speed S-tronic gearbox. This can propel the TDI to 62mph in a claimed 7.7 seconds and to a top speed of 150mph. Go for the more expensive but identically-powered quattro (which costs £50,375 in base form or £57,525 for the Edition 1) and the 0-62mph time drops to 6.9sec while top speed remains pegged at 150mph.

The Edition 1 gets Audi’s sport suspension, sits 20mm lower, and comes with 20-inch wheels as standard. All models benefit from the A5’s new LED lights, but the Edition 1 also boasts OLED rear lights with eight different lighting signatures and look very flash from behind when indicating.

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Of somewhat greater significance is the excellent new cabin of the A5 Avant, and the well-shaped load area that is surely fundamental to this car’s core appeal. There are three seats in the rear, plus there’s a good, if not quite luxuriant amount of head and legroom when a six-foot passenger sits behind a six-foot driver. 

The load area is well designed and is nice and square in shape. It has a competitive capacity of 448 litres with the rear seats up, rising to 1,396 litres with them folded. The tailgate is electric in all versions while the load height is 640mm. There’s no lip as such to heave luggage over – a key plus in an estate car like this.

There are three trim levels for the TDI Avant; Sport, S line and Edition 1. All versions get the same basic cabin and dashboard design with the same strong equipment levels – and sports front seats – appearing across the range. The Edition 1 then gets a full suite of extras including electric adjustment for the leather sports seats plus a third 10.9-inch TFT screen in front of the passenger. 

It also comes with Audi’s new Sound and Vision pack as standard (a £2,495 option in the Sport and S line models) which brings a superb B&O sound system with speakers in the headrests.

All models come with the new A5’s wraparound 14.5-inch OLED touchscreen as standard, with AI-powered navigation and infotainment that learns your habits and subtly adjusts the car’s set-up to suit whatever it believes is your style, be that for lighting or even navigation preferences. Also standard across the range is adaptive cruise, park assist, lane assist and a reversing camera, while the Edition 1 gets massage seats, a panoramic sunroof and Audi’s brilliant new head-up display that’s optional on the Sport and S line.

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On the road the TDI feels refined and brisk, lively but never fast. Its engine produces enough torque in the mid-range to satisfy but rarely elate, while the steering, suspension, brakes and fine automatic gearbox provide a good platform from which to enjoy the car’s main feature: its cabin.

The TDI is not a car that enthusiasts will rush towards but it does more than enough dynamically to provide plenty of enjoyment to whoever is behind the wheel. It’s impressively refined rather than outright fun to drive, with an emphasis on ride quality not on-limit chassis precision, which is just the way it should be in a car of this type. Wind and road noise are also kept to a minimum on the move, the most audible noises being a distant hum from the engine and a faint rumble from the Edition 1’s 20-inch tyres.

And because of its mild-hybrid powertrain, which features a tiny battery at the back, your TDI makes no noise at all on start-up, running on electricity alone for the first few hundred yards or, more to the point, when parking. It means you can start-up and move away in near-silence, something your neighbours will thank you for eventually.

Even so, the A5 TDI still produces 138g/km, which is clean for a diesel but in a totally different ballpark to an EV or PHEV. However, it also returns a claimed 53.3mpg on the combined cycle which gives a theoretical range of over 700 miles. That’s somewhat better than any electric car is capable of and is, alongside its new cabin and well-packaged load area, perhaps the main reason to consider this car.

Until the full hybrid appears next year, the TDI Avant is, for us, the pick of a strong new range of A5s.