Audi A5 Cabrio (2009 - ) - Test drive

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Fri 29 May 2009 16:54
Test drive - boxsterboy
Mrs BB fancies updating her 6 year/80,000 mile Merc CLK 240 cabrio. She wants a new or nearly-new 'proper' 4-seat cabriolet that needs to have room for the shopping in the boot with the roof down. Which rules out a BMW 3-series, and leaves just another CLK or an Audi A5 as the only choices(?). We obviously know the CLK and so we booked a test drive in an A5 (2.0 TFSI) manual.

Now I haven't driven an Audi for years, so it was all-new to me.

Good bits: Very smooth 4-cylinder engine, good build and materials, roomy, good boot, reasonable performance, stiff body, good price.

Bad bits: High waistline makes it hard to judge extremities and hard for junior BBs to look out of from the rear. I found the dashboard strangely 'dated' in design and layout. But the biggest problem is that the pedals are seriously off-set to the right, such that I could never drive a manual and walk afterwards. Are all modern Audis this bad? With auto therefore being essential you get a choice of a CVT box (no thanks - sounds like the clutch is slipping and Audi CVTs don't have the best of reputations) or a DSG with quattro (don't really need/want the added expense of quattro). A 2wd DSG would be great, but ... not available.

Overall: The bad bits outweigh the good bits for us, so I'm out.

Which leaves ... another CLK - we drove a newer CLK200 Kompressor, but it was (unsurprisingly) very similar to our current car, and not worth changing for at a cost-to-change of £20k!. The new E-class coupe cabriolet isn't out till next March and will be too expensive. They had a new E-class coupe in the showroom and it looked a fair bit bigger than the CLK.

The only other potential on the horizon is the new Lexus IS convertible, but I suspect the rear legroom wil be designed with the home market in mind - time will tell!

I suspect the Eon/308/Focuses will also be too small - is there anything else we've missed?
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Fri 29 May 2009 17:05
Test drive - daveyjp
"A 2wd DSG would be great, but ... not available" - yet!

In usual Audi style they have only released the A5 cabrio with 2 engine choices. Give it 12 months and there will be a much wider choice.

BTW I also have problems driving Audi manuals.
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