Audi A5 Cabriolet
Handsome Audi A5 Cabriolet combines smart looks and impressive power
The drop-top Audi A5 Cabriolet is a thoroughly desirable package that ticks every key box. Powerful, practical and beautifully crafted, it does everything a four-seater convertible should. But the rather flat-footed driving experience lets it down here. Although the 3.0 TDI engine has plenty of power, the steering and ride fall short of what buyers expect for this money.
The Audi A5 Cabriolet sums up why Audi remains one of the world’s most desirable brands. It may look a simple package from the outside, with everything where you would expect it to be, but every tiny detail has been carefully designed and engineered. Where the Mercedes entertains the eye with elaborate curves and dramatic details, the A5 delivers a more honed shape that looks elegant from every angle.
It’s also very impressive inside, with top-notch materials and an immaculate finish. From the chunky three-spoke steering wheel to the excellent and easy-to-use MMI satellite navigation and entertainment system, the A5 has a wonderfully coherent interior design that’s very easy to live with.
Cabin space is generous as well, and although the rear seats have a rather upright backrest, the seatbacks split and fold down to give a decent load area. Better still, you get the same 380-litre luggage capacity whether the hood is up or down.
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Cash £23,200The Audi’s roof mechanism works well and comes with a handy ‘global lift’ button that allows you to raise and lower all four windows at the same time. Audi also includes neck-level heating vents as standard on the S line SE model – a feature that Mercedes charges extra for.
On the downside, there’s no E-Class-style pop-up wind deflector in the windscreen rail. To limit buffeting, you need to wrangle a metal-and-mesh wind deflector into place behind the front seats. Not only does this rob you of the two back seats, it also does a less effective job than the Mercedes system.
In our sound tests, the A5 was 10dB louder at head height than the E-Class, at 85dB.
One area where the Audi does eclipse the Mercedes, however, is performance. With two more cylinders and an extra 41bhp over its rival, the A5 was 1.5 seconds faster from 0-60mph, posting a time of 6.3 seconds. The seven-speed S tronic transmission is smooth and perfectly matched to the engine, too.Yet despite being the faster, punchier choice here, it’s not the more engaging to drive. Both cars tip the scales at precisely 1,845kg, but the Audi carries more of its weight up front. As a result, the steering doesn’t have the same fluid feel as the E-Class’, and it seems far less comfortable flicking from corner to corner. Selecting Dynamic mode from the £220 optional Drive Select system helps stiffen the £300 adaptive dampers to resist body roll, but there’s no hiding from the fact that the Mercedes feels like the better balanced of the two cars.
The Audi also plays second fiddle for running costs. It’s more expensive to buy in the first place, while higher CO2 emissions mean higher tax bills. However, we managed better economy than in the E-Class, returning 35.0mpg in the A5 to the Mercedes’ 31.6mpg.
