Well I suppose I’d better introduce the new steed Primarily as it’s common for us all to move marque & one feels less stupid I’ll say it’s elegant and purposeful, as opposed to jaw dropping. 4 years ago, I found myself in a new lease car, during those 4 years, the reality kicked home, that I drive so few miles these days, so the “wife & I” came to a (she) biased agreement that we shall try living with one car, if it works so be it , all good and well if it doesn’t I’ll get what I want! The stipulation was it has to be an Audi, primarily as she’d be lumbered with. Quite a bit of compromising on both parts, she wanted an Audi preferably an A3, though I couldn’t commit to having one small car, initial compromise was found with a Q3 Sportback.. though with time thoughts drifted and we found ourselves up in Skye for a short break, on return we stopped in Inverness, was blinkered by an RS5 coupe and left smitten. Staying a stones throw from Audi dealership in Aberdeen, we perused the Approved used and arranged a test drive, one hell of smile inducing experience, shear raw point and shoot power, until, we swapped over, the wife couldn’t drive it, was all too much for her, with the look of fear from the growling v8, I stupidly found compassion to agree, having one such car would be pointless Whilst the RS5 is a kick out model and end of production next year, there wasn’t many wife pleasing discounts, infact it was very much take it or leave approach from dealer with no sweeteners, so it was very much a two against one argument! Moving on and putting the experience behind me we continued our search, went for lunch with friends and borrowed their 2021 Audi A5 for a couple of days. This left an unusual response from wife, next car shall be an A3 or A5 - Dahm! Realisation that I’m losing the battle & my worth! Yet another trip back round to Audi Aberdeen, test drive, discussion and walk away in the hope the dealer would come back with discounted pricing - didn’t work! - good god, we’re on first name terms, coffee mates etc! Back trawling the tinternet for amicable lease deals & stumbled across Motorlet! Picked the car, Ibis White in s-line trim, up- spec’d comfort & sound package, steering wheel, wheels and factory Towbar and agreed a relatively good price with stipulation on delivery date (March) for yet another 4 year deal. Delivery date came, with little emotion, it’s the wife’s car after all! Car arrived in the snow, fortunately the last clean of her previous Audi had the driveway cleared of snow, so first job was quick clean, almost a month past, Oem rubber mats and boot liner sourced and still not driven, though realistically as I work away Last week was a 500mile round trip to Prestwick Airport via Edinburgh, my first real drive….. A single tank of fuel served well, replenished today at a cost of £64, which fills the small. 50/55 litre tank, the car returned circa 40mpg in both counts, small tank & 40mpg was pleasing on the refill and had me clicking off the fuel pump several times My thoughts The car is vague, drives effortlessly, difficult to find the perfect seating position and certainly very different from having SUVs for the past 5/6 years Boot space is unreal swallowed overnight bags & suitcases for our short jaunt to Tenerife for a week, quirky electric boot release, with motion detector that works far better that previous offering, that had me almost impacting the underside of the car or doing the drunken shuffle with my hands full! Sadly the boot is not electric, purely release by either door switch, fob or shuffle Rear lights are intelligent Audi LED with the trailing indicators, which I think are pretty cool Along the flanks, in typical Audi fashion, I think suit the car, uncluttered and smooth, undeniable elegant but nothing special Access shall take some getting used to & likely do much for our dexterity, sit in as opposed to on! Whilst rear access is difficult, our 15 year son has youthful agility and I don’t foresee myself back there…. The slopping coupe roof is restrictive, I’m hoping this stops my son growing - win win on all counts? Whilst in the back, Audi has done cleverness with it Ambient light package, a full spectrum of colours offered in the Comfort & sound package with user defined colours in footwell and rear pods (split multicolour in front if desired) Much of the space is taken by the Bang & olufsen speaker array - no wonder it’s so cramped, will have to count the speakers - 20 speaker 755w I believe, though it does provide crystal clarity in reproduction digital sound (impressive) Up front, access still takes some getting used to! We elected against the leather seat upgrade, moreso left raging that I never checked electric memory seats, with thinking every car has them - duh! these bad boys are full manual with a pointless lumber pump, though supportive & heated, partial leather and Alacantra just doesn’t cut it! ( enough said - my biggest gripe & booboo!) though once settled and adjusted their sufficiently comfortable, just a shame the journeys finished though! Audis dash layout is simplistic, probably as it’s a mongrel hybrid design with new technology thrown on from afar! The centre iPad dash thing, touch sensitive is frustrating and induces too many finger prints, Audi have done away with the turn wheel and buttons to clean up the console - takes a lot of getting used, though I believe shortcuts can be scrolled through with the multifunction wheel - very difficult to do whilst on the hoof (when not familiar) so I guess they shall take a bit of getting used. The steering wheel was upgraded for more function, I’ve no idea how the functions work! The real Beauty is the digital dash, Audi call it virtual dash - it’s very good and after several flicks & scrolls through the steering wheel the function is found, shame it can’t be reversed or scrolled back easily. The dash does offer several layouts - which are pretty cool! The most annoying thing, from a list of many annoyances is a 40000lumens green led light on the roof binnacle, fires blinding light beam straight to the retina, it probably doesn’t though in the early hours of this morning I just couldn’t unsee it! - fortunately I’ve an abundance of insulating tape that I shall use to mask and shield my eyes! stupid Germans - I believe it’s for the SOS button to inform the sim cards active! Otherwise The drive is vague, though notable sharp and confident inspiring in the corners, given that I’m getting on in age and the newness of car, I’m reluctant to kick its ar5e just yet, though do notice little body roll in the sweeping corners and sharper drive having been used to SUVs ( no surprise their!) Road noise is very well suppressed given the doors are pillarless and can be easily cancelled out by the 20 speakers, purposely placed Im sure to negate re-engineering door seals to prevent buffeting. Suspension is composed if not a bit rough, typically Audi harshness in town but composed on the open road, the wheel Package compliments the car shod with Bridgestones, likely responsible for the slight harshness in drive… They are a pig to clean, but look their best when cleaned, access to wheel barrel is tight, though a good excuse to get a new set of wheel brushes! I’m sure the pinnacle of the car has to be front lighting, We were fortunate to arrive back in Prestwick at 00:30 this morning and drove through the small hours, encountering low fog banks, whilst the car has High beam Assist it’s fascinating watching the individual light beams dance, for oncoming traffic high beam remains but deviates left, on approaching the light pattern skirts around, in the fog they seems to ping & bounce, very impressive and certainly kept me awake and amused when absolutely shattered whilst the wife and child slept, seemed almost speed/voice sensitive as they danced whenever the wife woke….. Oh there is, the undeniable Audi smell, whilst we’ve had 3 new Audis, there’s something about the effort the designers place on their interior smell, on both previous cars, when returned, they still had the Audi smell, almost as I’ve you could get in blindfolded and know it’s an Audi! I have found a moment and googled the effort Audi put into the interior smell - impressive! Anyways, longwinded, probably overdue, but as we’ve had it month, I’ve only just driven! The wife seems content….. a bigger car that she shall have to get used to, the biggest change being the move from manual to automatic - which to most, would seem trivial, not my wife! Whilst it shall never have the power or desire of the intended RS5, I’m sure it shall work for us! I’ve had my Porsche plan put on hold but approved and timer set to 4years with no false promise, it shall be a new car in 4 years or an approved used within these 4 years - shall see how single car ownership works! Oh the towbar remains unused as I cycle from home to the hills until the need arises for bigger mountains, though perhaps this weekend!
A great intro and write up, thanks for sharing. Although Mrs W’s Audi is only an A1, I am hearing a few similar comments from yourself. I can’t get excited about the A1, however, it does a great job for what it is. Here is white, nicely metallic in the right light, and is also a pig to clean! Hope you bond with the car over the next few years, and good luck on keeping that four year promise….
Good luck with the new car. The A5 is a good looking motor car. I've been driving my fathers Audi A4 Allroad 3.0 V6 a lot recently and whilst a beautifully capable and put together car there is something about the way it drives that just puts me off it. I find the steering vague and ride harsh together with a sluggish autobox in comparison to the ZF 8 speed. Shame as it is likely to come up for sale later this year and with less than 20000 miles on the clock on a 2016 car it would be perfect for us. Some idiot did not tick the heated seats button when configured either!!
Great review, Sean. Thanks for taking the time to write it up. It’s a good looking car for sure but I agree with you, elegant rather than sporty looking per se. I’m not really an Audi man either, but I can appreciate their looks and certainly their cabins. I just couldn’t imagine owning one. Good luck with seeing out the next four years! If you can’t wait that long, I’ll hopefully be able to give you a good steer on whether a used Macan GTS is worth chasing down.
Well ownership wouldn’t be complete without an update Picture reveals the reality, now “we’re” down to one car, together, we cannot amass typical mileage! I’d suggest, between two bikes, my recreational mileage is more But nevertheless, it never disappoints, in that it starts, stops and goes, all the whilst returning a reasonably respectful circa 30.0mpg Have I mentioned, I don’t particularly like this car, but the wife does!
I think its risk normalisation After prolonged periods of sitting idle and nothing happens, it becomes complacent and falls into a false sense of safety Must be the start of AI - Foolish car!
We did consider an Ingolstadt machine when we realised that BMW was going to (foolishly in my opinion) discontinue 3litre diesels for the UK market. We couldn't find a model that ticked enough boxes for our needs at a price we were happy with. Walked around a couple of showrooms both in the UK and Germany and although they are well built reliable cars, nothing really 'grabbed us' or shouted "Buy me." But the main thing for you is that Mrs @snrbrtsn likes it. Hopefully it'll grow on you.
I saw the title A5, and thought this could be interesting - a piece on one of my favourite roads. Ah well.
