Audi A5 Sportback Review 2024

Having four doors and a wide-opening rear hatchback certainly makes the Audi A5 Sportback a whole lot more practical than the A5 Coupe. It's aimed at people who want a touch of glamour in their executive car, but space too.

The sleek design and low roof reduce headroom in the back compared with the Audi A4 Saloon, but the boot is easier to access, so it's great for families with younger kids who want to travel in style, comfort and class.

A broad selection of engines means there is an Audi A5 Sportback for everyone, from the mile-munching exec to performance enthusiasts keen to exploit the four-wheel drive grip and potent acceleration of the S5 and RS5.

The beautifully finished interior, generous standard equipment and impressive on-board technology mean it really delivers on its premium image, and surprisingly low running costs ensure it'll be a pleasure to own.

If high fuel efficiency and low carbon-dioxide emissions are your top priorities, then the 35 TDI Sport is your first choice. However, we think most buyers are better off with the punchier 40 TDI engine and quattro four-wheel drive.

It's still capable of returning mid-forties economy and has a much longer cruising range thanks to its larger 58-litre fuel tank. The extra power and grunt give it an effortless feel on the motorway, and while it's not essential, the added grip and all-weather stability of the four-wheel drive system is certainly nice to have.

This is an expensive car, so for us the entry-level Sport trim represents the best value. It has almost all the equipment you could want, and essentials like sat-nav, cruise and climate control and parking sensors.

For high-performance buyers, the diesel-powered Audi S5 Sportback is a tempting option, with its tremendous pulling power and aggressive styling, thanks to a silky smooth 3.0-litre V6 engine that can return almost 40mpg. 

The Audi A5 Sportback's natural rival is the BMW 4 Series Gran Coupe. They are closely matched on price and performance, with the Audi giving a more relaxing driving experience, and the BMW feeling a bit sportier.

For a little less cash, the Volkswagen Arteon features a striking design and the same excellent engines as the Audi but it's got better rear passenger space, a massive boot, and it'll cost you quite a lot less to insure.

Meanwhile, the left-field Kia Stinger GT S has even more standard kit than the Audi, and a 3.3-litre twin-turbo V6 with 370PS under its bonnet, but costs less than the 40 TFSI S line A5. However it'll cost a packet to run.

With a similarly rakish profile, impressive performance, and high-tech cabin the Tesla Model 3 will hold a big appeal for buyers wanting to cut their environmental impact and fuel bills, as long as an electric car fits your lifestyle.

This is one area that Audi excels in and the A5 Sportback has an exceptionally high-quality cabin that goes a long way to justifying its high price. It's minimal and pared back, but there are plenty of fine details to enjoy.

Everywhere you look you'll be surrounded with sumptuous materials, softly damped switches, and precise shut lines. It oozes quality and feels more luxurious to sit in than any of its premium rivals at this price.

The cluster of climate controls is especially intricate, with heater dials that turn with a satisfyingly precise click, and a digital readout inside them to show you the exact temperature. The leather steering wheel and gear shifter feel really substantial, and everything shuts and closes with such decisive solidity that the car feels built to last.

Even entry-level cars feel super upmarket, with soft LED lighting illuminating the whole cabin theatrically at night, but upgrading does bring a few further refinements. S line trim gets brushed aluminium dashboard inserts, and leather and Alcantara seats, while Vorsprung cars have oak dash panels and multi-coloured LED lights.

Audi's infotainment system is one of the best around, both in terms of its hardware and software. In the Audi A5 Sportback it manages to marry together a lot of different gadgets into a single, cohesive system that's very intuitive.

In older versions of this car, you got a fixed 7.0-inch display mounted above the dash (controlled with a dial next to the gear selector) and the option to upgrade to an 8.3-inch screen with a faster processor and slicker graphics. All models came with decent connectivity, DAB radio, and Apple and Android smartphone mirroring.

Another optional extra was to fit a second 12.3-inch screen in place of the conventional dials. In Audi-speak this is called the 'Virtual Cockpit' but despite the gimmicky name, it's a really impressive piece of kit. It looks ultra-modern, but is functional, too, allowing the driver to see a lot of information without getting distracted.

That might all sound a bit much - especially if you're a technophobe - but the key to its success is how much easier it is to operate than, for example, the sluggish touchscreen with dated graphics in the Kia Stinger GT. 

For the later versions, Audi went even more digital. These have a 10.1-inch touchscreen display with redesigned menus and icons to make it look and function like a giant iPad Pro. Those digital instruments are now fitted as standard on every trim, and the standard feature list leaves you wanting for absolutely nothing.

All newer Audi A5 Sportbacks have a slick sat-nav with 3D mapping, a wireless phone charging pad, and online services like live traffic info and local Google Earth satellite imagery via an integrated sim-card. There are four USB ports, so everyone can consume as much social media as their eyeballs can handle.

The 'touch' part of interacting with the newer screen is very responsive, but we're not sure why Audi removed the old rotary controller and shortcut keys. Being forced to rely on prodding the screen feels like a step backwards.

The Audi A5 Sportback's dimensions stand at 4.7m long and 1.8m wide, so despite the swoopy exterior design it is barely any different in size to the Audi A4 saloon. However, the whole point of cars like the A5 Sportback is that they are more useable everyday transport than a coupe. With four doors, getting access to the back seats is certainly less of a hassle than it would be in the two-door A5.

Jump in the rear seats and legroom is really generous, but the sloping roofline means taller people will feel their heads resting on the roof liner, and the smaller side windows also leave you feeling a little hemmed in. It'll be fine for most adults, but if you have lanky teenagers, it might be worth checking they fit before you buy.

Each of the outer seats has Isofix anchor points for fitting child seats, and although the plastic covers for them are stiff to remove (and easy to lose), once they're off, fitting an iSize or Group 1/2/3 seat is no bother.

This is not the best car for carrying three in the back, though. There is a pronounced hump in the middle of the floor that eats into the footwell, and the seat itself is harder and narrower than the others. As an armrest, the middle seat is great, with an integrated storage tray and individual cupholders, but but fold the armrest part away and no one will want to sit there for long.

Keeping the cabin tidy is made easier by the large glovebox, deep door pockets, a big cubby under the front armrest, a dedicated slot for holding the key fob as you drive along, and a wireless phone charging tray.

So your passengers pay a small penalty for the rakish design, but it's in the boot that the hatchback tailgate really comes into its own. It opens electrically, giving you much better access for loading bulky items than you get in the A4 saloon. Overall capacity is the same - at 480 litres - but it's much deeper behind the rear seats.

The Audi A5 Sportback has a bit of a loading lip, but the rear bench splits 40:20:40 so you can carry longer items between two rear passengers, or fold them down flush with the boot floor. Do so and you can carry up to 1,300 litres: that's enough room for a bike with its wheels on, or bulky flat-pack furniture, as long as it's the right shape.

It offers very similar load-lugging ability to its main rivals the BMW 4 Series and Kia Stinger, but if you need a roomier car in the same style, the Volkswagen Arteon is the best in this class, with a huge boot and spacious cabin.

The Audi A5 Sportback comes with two mainstream diesel options, the 35 TDI and 40 TDI, and the most popular petrol model is the 40 TFSI. Each is paired with a slick S tronic automatic gearbox.

Power is sent to the front wheels in the 40 TFSI and 35 TDI, while the 40 TDI comes equipped with Audi's familiar quattro four-wheel drive system as standard, although it was previously available with two-wheel drive.

Despite their 2.0-litre capacities they're all strong performers, with decent in-gear acceleration and smooth power delivery, but the extra mid-range grunt of the 40 TDI makes for relaxed progress and easier overtakes.

The entry-level diesel is impressively economical, but thanks to the smooth twin-clutch gearbox and clever mild-hybrid technology, all of these engines will outperform their BMW equivalents at the fuel pumps.

At the top of the range, the S5 TDI is a performance powerhouse. Its 3.0-litre V6 engine produces 347PS and a titanic 700Nm of torque, making it extremely rapid. Yet thanks to an electric turbo and its mild-hybrid system (which runs the car's systems and cuts the engine when coasting) it's also remarkably efficient.

If you're after a wider choice of powertrains, the pre-facelift Audi A5 Sportback has got you covered. A six-speed manual gearbox was offered on the 40 TDI and 40 TFSI, and there was a quicker petrol with 245PS and quattro.

While more expensive to run, the 3.0-litre V6 models are uniformly excellent, pushing you into the back of your seat with their brawny in-gear acceleration, but they're also silky smooth and quiet when you want to relax.

The Audi A5 Sportback is a very civilised way to cover long distances, especially with a petrol engine under its bonnet. The 40 TFSI is incredibly hushed, particularly at lower speeds, but can be a little gruff if worked particularly hard.

That's not to say the diesels are noisy, quite the opposite, in fact. Audi makes some of the smoothest four-cylinder diesels, and then the only time you'll really hear them at all in the cabin is during hard acceleration.

In this regard, the Audi A5 Sportback beats its main competitor hands down. The BMW 420d Gran Coupe is nowhere near as muted as the 40 TDI: its engine clatters at low speed and is a constant in the background.

The twin-clutch S tronic gearbox is - for the most part - as smooth as the engines, making imperceptible changes and keeping the revs low. The only issue is its tall final ratio, which has been tuned for fast German autobahns instead of English motorways, so at 70mph it's constantly trying to change down into sixth gear.

On Sport models, the rolling refinement is exceptional, with virtually no wind- or road noise worth mentioning. If you opt for a sportier trim with larger wheels, however, tyre roar at higher speeds becomes quite intrusive.

The Audi A5 Sportback shares many of its parts with the A4 saloon, which got the maximum five-star rating from Euro NCAP when it was crash tested in 2015. However, its individual category scores aren't so impressive.

Both the Arteon and Kia Stinger perform slightly better for adult occupant protection, and will do less harm to any pedestrians you might accidentally hit, while also faring better in the safety assistance appraisal, too.

Fundamentally, though, the Audi A5 Sportback is a very safe car to travel in, with stability control, six airbags, hill hold assistant to get you up steeper junctions, seat belt monitors, front- and rear parking sensors, and a reversing camera.

Audi doesn't stop at the bare minimum, though, with cruise control (including a speed limiter) and Pre-sense City also fitted to every model. The latter is an autonomous emergency braking system, which can scan the road ahead and (below 52mph) will warn you, then hit the brakes if the car senses an impending impact.

There are plenty of optional active systems, too, for those who want as much assistance with their driving as possible. Most are part of an exhaustive safety bundle called the Driver Assistance Pack. You can't add this to entry-level Sport models, and it's expensive, but includes some very clever semi-autonomous technology. 

Our favourite is called Traffic-jam Assist, which works with the Adaptive Cruise Control and Active Lane Assist to follow a set speed and distance to the car in front, braking, accelerating and steering for you when the road is clogged with traffic. It works up to speeds of 40mph and really takes the stress out of commuting.

The Audi brand received a middling score in the HonestJohn.co.uk Satisfaction Index, coming in 16th out of 29 manufacturers. Of the established premium manufacturers, that puts it ahead of only Mercedes-Benz, and behind all the rest.

On older A5 models, excessive oil consumption is an issue that seems to have come up regularly on petrol engines, with some owners reporting new pistons rings required to fix it.

The swoopy styling and higher specification level of the Audi A5 Sportback make it pricier to insure than an A4 saloon. The most affordable to cover is the pre-facelift 1.4-litre TFSI in SE trim, which is rated group 24.

The far more popular 2.0-litre petrol and diesel versions start in group 30 for the least powerful 35 TDI, going right up to Group 40 for the 245PS four-wheel drive 45 TFSI. Those ratings sit several bands higher than the Volkswagen Arteon fitted with identical engines, and it'll be more expensive than the equally powerful Kia Stinger, too.

Most versions of the Audi A5 Sportback cost more than £40,000 when they were brand new, so are subject to 'luxury car' surcharge on their road tax. Cars that come under that limit must pay a flat rate of £190 a year, but those over it will need to stump up an additional £410 for five years between years two and six of the car's life. That's a big jump for the sake of one trim level. If you want to know what any given used example will cost you in that regard, a quick internet search with the registration of the car will reveal all.

Buying an Audi A5 Sportback is expensive, but Audi does throw in an impressively long list of equipment. Early cars came in SE, Sport and S line flavours, but all feel suitably upmarket, with heated artificial leather seats, cruise and climate control, a powered tailgate and all-round parking sensors fitted as standard on every car.

Audi refreshed the A5 Sportback in 2019, and the newer models look even sportier than before and are stuffed with even more technology as standard. 'Entry-level' Audi A5 Sportback Sport models have bright LED headlights, sat-nav, and the brand's slick 'Virtual Cockpit' 12.3-inch digital dials, keyless go and a sharp set of 18-inch alloy wheels.

That trim has everything you could possibly need, so upgrading to the other trims is about sprucing up the styling more than anything else. Audi A5 Sportback S line cars have 19-inch alloys, a sporty body kit, and fancier LED lights.

Audi A5 Sportback Edition 1 adds lots of stealthy black exterior and interior trim pieces, electric adjustment for the front seats, softer leather, and laser headlights, while the flagship Vorsprung models include almost every optional extra.