km : Passing Lane

There’s something immediately loveable about a car that combines a coupe body, a turbocharger, all-wheel drive, and a manual transmission. A lot of credit goes to Porsche for pioneering that enthusiasm, but we mustn’t forget the work Audi did for the genre with the iconic ur quattro. Now for the first time ever, that brand with all the rings on the grille is contributing three different members to this club, the TT 2.0T, the TT-S, and this new-for-2010 A5 2.0T. It’s beautiful and efficient, but is a 2.0-liter turbo enough to keep this big coupe interesting?

Fortunately, Audi saw it fit to give the venerable turbocharged 2.0-liter that it shares with VW a slight freshening before seeing duty in the A5. It isn’t as spicy as the fully upgraded version in the TT-S, but the 2010 Audi A5 2.0T boasts 211 hp and a mighty 258 lb-ft of torque driving all four wheels. With the arrival of this new model, the A5 3.2 is no longer offered with a manual transmission, Audi’s product planners rightfully assuming that its core manual buyers will opt for the cheaper price and the turbo. The A5 2.0T, for the record, costs about $4700 less than an equally-equipped V6. Buyers shopping for a two-pedal car will need to settle for a traditional torque converter automatic six-speed until Audi decides to add its excellent seven-speed dual-clutch S-tronic transmission to the base A5.


The torquey two-liter does a fine job of launching the A5 with urgency; Audi estimates the car will run up to 60 mph in 6.4 seconds with the manual, which is 0.4 seconds quicker than the much lighter Volkswagen GTI. All praise quattro!

Still, at 3583 pounds, the A5 actually isn’t the heaviest machine to rely on the little four-cylinder’s force; it weighs about the same as a VW Passat wagon, while a VW Tiguan 4Motion and Audi’s own A4 sedan weigh 50-120 pounds more, depending on trims and transmissions. Compared to an A5 3.2, the base car’s steering feel benefits from the lighter front end, and the four-cylinder feels no coarser than the V6.

Our disappointment (you knew we’d find something) comes not from a stop, but after periods of braking or coming out of corners. In a world where 300 horsepower is the norm for most sports coupes and engineers can create torque curves that look more like rectangles, we’ve gotten lazy with our downshifts. That is, at least, until the A5 arrived. As entertaining as the car is when worked hard, it can fall flat on its face if it falls out of the meat of its power curve.


The dead spot happens beneath the point where the turbocharger builds steam, which seems to be between 2500-3000 rpm. Below 2000, don’t expect any magic at all. And buzzing around town, that means basically slowing to any speed under 20 mph requires a downshift to first gear, and anything under 35 mph will need second to get moving again. Some folks will enjoy the opportunity to always be active driving the car, others will wonder if the upgrade to the automatic transmission would really be such a sacrifice. Either way, we think it’s a small price to pay for a $36,000 car that will do 30 miles per gallon on the highway in such high style.

Be mindful with the options, though, if you’re really looking to get a hot sports coupe deal. Our test car boasted metallic paint, a Premium Plus package, navigation, and a sport package with stiffer suspension and 19-inch wheels. Add in destination, and the price tag rose from $36,000 up to just under $45,000. We could do without the $2500 navigation package, but the sport package and Premium Plus, which includes bi-xenon lamps, LED driving lights and taillights, heated seats, an iPod interface, rain-sensing wipers, plus a few other luxuries, would be hard to pass up. That would leave it floating at just about $42,000, right in the heart of a higher-powered and very competitive market. Still, that allure of a manual, all-wheel-drive turbo car with a sporty two-door body is hard to ignore.

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