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This is the home of automobile road tests in South Africa. We drive South African cars, SUVs and LCVs under South African conditions. It also just happens that most of the vehicles we drive are world cars as well, so what you read here probably applies to the models you can get at home.

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We drive the Audi A5 2,0 FSi turbo Quattro S tronic coupé

Pics by audipress@motorpics

A grand tourer for the long and winding road

Published in The Witness Motoring on Wednesday August 11, 2010

Talk of trans-continental grand touring machinery and your thoughts turn to Ferrari, Lamborghini and Aston Martin, right? Well, Audi would like you to step outside that box for a minute and consider a smaller, cheaper and greener alternative, its A5 coupé Quattro fitted with the Ingolstadt firm’s 2,0 litre FSi turbomotor and seven-speed S tronic twin-clutch gear shifter.

Before you bust a rib laughing, stop and think for a minute. Is it a two-door coupé? Check. Is it smoothly sexy to look at, yet with just a hint of brutality? Check.  Is the interior impeccably finished and beautifully appointed? Check. Is it almost unnecessarily luxurious with, for example, climate control in the rear that will only serve to transport children (shudder) or your matching Louis Vuitton luggage? Check. Does it accelerate to 100 clicks in fewer than eight seconds, have prodigious torque (350 Nm, just like a Mercedes E350), hold legal speeds up steep hills in top gear effortlessly and provide all the roll-on acceleration you will ever need? Tick four more boxes, please. It also straightens winding country roads and makes you feel like a naughty teenager again.

On my favourite piece of twisty Midlands Macadam, the car sat firmly, steered exactly where it was pointed and cornered well… You know the expression your dad used to use; “corners like it’s on rails”? Forget rails, because we all know that trains fall off those things; this Audi runs in tailor-made grooves.

Standard equipment for those who don’t really need all the bells and whistles, includes 17-inch alloy wheels, climate control, a boot lid that opens with the push of a button on the smart key, a civilised fingertip control for the parking brake, an eight-speaker music system with minijack auxiliary input and snugly cuddling leather seats with six-way mechanical adjustment. It also has park assist, three-way response tuning and all the usual boring electronic stopping and handling kit.

The options list offers even more high-tech features. An adaptive lighting system combines xenon headlights with dynamic cornering light technology, while deluxe climate control divides the interior into three separate temperature zones. An extra-large panoramic sunroof floods the interior with light and Audi’s advanced parking system uses a rearview camera to display the space behind the car. Two conventional sport suspensions are on offer as well.

Just a word on these; the standard system works very well. It’s confidently firm when the Comfort setting is selected, riding pleasantly with the kind of handling you would expect of an Audi in day-to-day use – decent but not boy-racer, if you get my drift. In Dynamic mode gears are held onto a bit longer, with “5” or “6” showing on the screen if it’s selected while cruising gently at 120 in seventh, for example and the suspension firms up a bit while steering response quickens.

This is not to say that the ride becomes unnecessarily harsh over a grooved concrete roadway for instance. I just don’t believe that anything harder would be comfortable to live with over time, unless you planned to use the car for racing perhaps.

Audi offers a variety of specialised seating options in addition to the standard units that mould to and support your body. These include firm sport seats, electronically adjustable bucket seats and seat heating. Climate-controlled comfort seats represent the highlight of the seat options: Small fans and an automatic heating element provide a level of comfort comparable to that of a luxury sedan.

Optional infotainment systems include a high-level DVD navigation system and Symphony audio. This Bang & Olufsen sound system features 14 surround-sound speakers and 505 watts of music output. A Bluetooth car phone connector and an intelligent interface called AMI (Audi Music Interface) that pulls the menu information from an iPod and puts it on the screen, rounds out infotainment offerings.

Optional supporting systems make driving the A5 even more sophisticated. Upon request Audi can equip the coupé with high-tech adaptive cruise control, Audi side assist and Audi lane assist. These systems regulate distance to the car in front and help the driver when it comes to changing and maintaining lanes. 

I reckon this kind of thing may belong in “executive” versions of other makes of European car that your father might buy for example, rather than in a driver’s machine like the A5, but that’s just me. I believe that if you are truly driving a car, you should be capable of seeing where you’re going, nicht war? Anyway, the list of options could run up quite a bill if you let it, but you would still be far off big-GT money even with all the kit mentioned.

Typically VW-family, the boot is long, wide and fairly deep, measuring 380 litres and swallowing a fair quantity of luggage or sports equipment. It expands to 750 litres when the 40/60 split rear seat backs are folded flat, so there is plenty of packing space, whether the two of you plan to be away for a long weekend or a short month. It’s all part of the grand touring lifestyle.

Offering the A5 coupé as an alternative to some of the big-ticket names in transcontinental touring may be a little presumptuous, but when it comes to South African long roads to the Reef or the Winelands for two, it is certainly worth a serious look.

The numbers

Basic price: R455 000

Engine: 1 984 cc DOHC inline four cylinder, petrol, turbocharged

Power: 155 kW at 4 300 to 6 000 rpm

Torque: 350 Nm at 1 500 to 4 200 rpm

Zero to 100 km/h: 7,9 seconds (claimed)

Maximum: governed to 250 km/h

Real world fuel consumption over 320 km: about 10,6 l/100 km

Tank: 65 litres

Maintenance plan: 5 years/100 000 km

 

 

What We Do

This is a one-man show, which means that road test cars entrusted to me are driven only by me. Some reviewers hand test cars over to their partners to use as day-to-day transport and barely experience them for themselves.

What this means to you is that every car reviewed is given my own personal evaluation and receives my own seat of the pants judgement - no second hand input here.

Every car goes through real world testing; on city streets littered with potholes, speed bumps and rumble strips, on freeways and if its profile demands, dirt roads as well.

I am based in Pietermaritzburg, KZN, South Africa. This is the central hub of the KZN Midlands farming community; the place farmers go to to buy their supplies and equipment, truck their goods to market, send their kids to school and go to kick back and relax. 

So occasionally a cow, a goat or a horse may add a little local colour by finding its way into the story or one of the pictures. It's all part of the ambience!

 

Comments?

Want to ask a question, comment or just tell me you thoroughly disagree with what I say? That's your privilege, because if everybody agreed on everything, the world would be a boring place. All I ask is that you remain calm, so please blow off a little steam before venting too vigorously. Contact me here

 

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