Vitamin AuDi

What we like:

Styling is a great improvement over the previous car

quality

What we dislike:

Too much road noise into the cabin

The new Cabriolet benefits from greater stiffness, by up to 40 percent, while weight has been reduced at the same time. Since this is a Cabriolet, there would be inherently more chassis flex to a car with a proper roof. Audi had added more struts, and reinforced the sill to make up for the absence of the roof.

Powered by what Audi calls their B-cycle engine, which is built with better fuel economy in-mind, the engine still produces a respectable 320Nm of torque, beginning at 1,450rpm, and spreads it generally well over the rev range till 4,200rpm. While the maximum torque does taper down at this point, the turbocharged 2.0 only feels flat above 5,000rpm.

The 7-speed S tronic cog swapper also helps by changing gears quickly. In going with the fuel saving theme of the car, you can even manually enable the car to coast on most any gear, with a quick tug on the right gearshift pedal, with your foot off the throttle, which effectively gets the car to ‘clutch in’ while on the chosen gear.

Steering feel is generally good, and the 225/50R17 provides good balance between grip and comfort. We do not like however, that there is quite a bit of road noise which entered the cabin even with the roof up.

Cornering stability is good, with just a little bit of predictable understeer.

But away from all that is related to how the car performs, the Cabriolet does provide excellent ride comfort, especially for long-distance cruising.

The A5 Cabriolet goes up against the likes of the Mercedes-Benz C Class Cabriolet and the BMW 4 Series. While it is the only front-driven car among the three, it is still able to provide drivers with enough driving pleasure, while still being able to manage a respectable 17.5km/l.

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