Audi New Model A5/S5 Avant Experience

[ClassicMac]

Having had an S4 Avant 10 years from new (B8), I was waiting for Audi to get over its diesel S4 period, so welcomed the launch of the new S5 Avant.  I found a dealer willing to sell me one of the first available cars (they had one more arriving than they were required to hold by Audi for showroom/demo) - and took delivery in November '24.  If I had just placed an order for one I was told it would be delivered in April/May '25.  It is the fully loaded ‘Launch Edition’.

I have now done 4,500 miles, so possibly the most experience of this model in the UK.

My overall impression is of a car that is highly loaded with clever features, but the software development is far from complete!  There are many software issues and, so far, I have seen little interest from dealers or Audi in sorting them.  Many are annoying and reduce the use of features (I have turned them off), but one stopped the car totally.  Here are a few examples:-

• -          The ‘speed nanny’ (beeps when you exceed the speed limit) very often gets the speed limit wrong.  It miss-reads signs or misses them altogether and seems to work both from map information and camera recognition of signs.  For example, on a 70 limit dual carriageway (non-motorway) it most often thinks the limit is 60, then passing under a bridge it will change its idea of the speed limit to 30 mph.  I turn it off every time I start the car (useful to be able to programme a steering wheel button to do this).

• -          The ‘cross traffic’ detection when reversing will suddenly apply the brakes to stop the car if it thinks there is cross traffic (so sudden it feels like you hit something).  It took me a while to work out what was causing the braking.  There was no cross traffic.  It thinks my hedge, my wife’s parked car, my daughters gate, etc. are cross traffic!!  When I took delivery, the salesman commented that it suddenly braked when he backed it into the showroom … I have switched this feature off.

• -          Driving past an exit slip road on the inside lane of a dual carriageway it gets confused by the white line marking (hatches etc.) and applies the brakes – not what you want at 70mph.

• -          The infotainment system’s behaviour seems inconsistent (there  may be a logic, but I haven’t found it!).

• -          The worst case was when I parked one day then came back to the car – it unlocked, but then was totally dead, nothing on the displays, it would not start, the brakes could not be released, nor the steering lock and I couldn’t open the rear door or lock the car again.  It took Audi recovery 3 days to recover the car to the local Audi dealer and 2 days for the dealer to fix.  It was apparently a ‘known’ software problem and fixed with an update – I was not notified of any recall.  Needless to say the update did not fix the other issues.

  Other non-software thoughts?

• -          The car is significantly bigger than the B8 A4/S4 with less room inside, feels more like an A6/S6 to drive.  Disappointing.

• -          Storage space is more limited – there is no room for a spare wheel and the emergency tyre re-inflation kit does not fit the dedicated space under the floor.  The first aid kit has no home, so these things rattle about the luggage space.

• -          Performance is of course good, but the supercharger (combined with gearbox set-up) of my old car gave better rev/torque characteristics than the new one.  

• -          The hybrid operation/performance is good and well refined.

• -          The 20 inch wheels on my car give relatively poor ride – take the 19 inch if you can.

• -          In my personal view the styling is poor, messy and more bling than I prefer.

What would I recommend? 

It is a good, but not exceptionally good car – but I would suggest giving Audi another year to finish the development … so don’t buy yet.

[Magnet]

Many thanks indeed Andrew. It’s great that you have been prepared to share your experiences for the benefit of others. 
Oh, of course welcome, and please keep in touch. 
Many thanks and kind regards,

Gareth.