Audi A5

Start with what the Audi A5 is: a 2-door coupé / 2-door convertible / 4-door liftback sedan (car) / sedan with Petrol engine, built from 2007, in the decade of stability control, dual-clutch gearboxes and the first serious hybrids. What it meant takes a little longer. The shape is credited to Walter de Silva / Satoshi Wada (2003) / Achim Badstübner (facelift) / Markus Gleitz (Sportback).

How it came about

The Audi A5 is a series of compact executive and grand touring coupé cars produced by the German automobile manufacturer Audi since June 2007. The A5 range also includes the coupe, cabriolet, and "Sportback"—a five-door liftback with a fastback roofline—derived from the Audi A4 saloon and estate models.

Under Audi's internal platform numbering convention, the A5 is a member of the B-platform series of vehicles, sharing its platform designation with the A4 saloon and Avant. The first generation A5 (Type 8T) belongs to the B8 family, while the second-generation model (Type 8W6) is based on the B9. Both generations are derived from the Volkswagen MLB (Modular Longitudinal Matrix) architecture.

The hardware

The engine is Petrol engine; other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. On the scales it comes to 1500 kg. Drive goes through a 6-speed manual, / 6-speed Tiptronic automatic / 7-speed S tronic dual-clutch automatic / 8-speed Tiptronic automatic / Multitronic CVT. The wheelbase is Coupé & Cabriolet: 2751 mm / Sportback: 2811 mm. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.

Family and rivals

In the Audi line-up the Audi A5 has a clear place: it replaced the Audi Coupé#B3 / Audi Coupé (B3) (A5 Coupe) / Audi A4#8H / Audi A4 Cabriolet (8H) (A5 Cabriolet); the factory was Ingolstadt. The cars a buyer would have weighed it against include the Nissan GT-R, the Volkswagen Tiguan, the Hyundai i30. Its Audi stablemates include the Audi 200 and the Audi 225.

Owning one today

Buying one now means $13,300–$65,000 for a typical example, and running it — fuel and maintenance at its age — costs about $3,255–$6,660 a year. Insurance sits around $1,490–$3,420 a year. The figures are class-level estimates from the federal record, with the formula on the methodology page; the model-year pages carry complaints, recalls and repair costs year by year.