It’s arguably not the best time to announce a range of stylish, quality convertibles. No one’s buying anything, and winter is here. But that hasn’t stopped Audi, who today revealed details of the S5 and A5 Convertibles.
Audi get so much right (and so little wrong) these days. There hasn’t been a real dog in the range for a long time (the closest they came was probably the A2, but even that had its redeeming features, even if it was so light the car used to rock when you had the wipers on!), and the A5/S5 is arguably the best looking Audi there is. Swooping; stylish; beautifully proportioned, it has real presence and beauty. And its not a bad drive, either.
The stylish new Audi A5 Cabriolet for 2009
So have they wrecked the car by chopping the top off? Not a bit of it. It looks every bit as good as the coupe (at least in the pictures, although we’ll have to wait until Geneva to see it in the flesh) and sensibly Audi has opted for a folding cloth roof. Trick metal roofs are great, especially in a 2-seater, but in a car with pretensions of carrying more than 2 people at a time, the folding cloth roof is the right way to go. It actually leaves a decent sized boot when folded – over 11cu-ft – so you can even get your summer picnic safely stowed and still take friends!
You get a decent choice of engines at launch, and the S5 gets the supercharged 3.0 V6 we mentioned last week (which won’t go in to the coupe for a year) The range starts out with the 1.8 TFSI and also offers a pair of diesels – the 2.7 and 3.0. As usual with Audis you can pretty much pick and choose on 2WD or 4WD, as well as a choice of 3 gearboxes – the 7-speed S-Tronic double clutch, full auto or a 6-speed manual. Expect more engines in time – probably a 2.0 and 3.2 petrol.
Looks like Audi has done it again. Great looking car.
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