Motors North

Make

ANY AC AIXAM ALFA ROMEO ASIA ASTON MARTIN AUBURN AUDI AUSTIN BENTLEY BMW BRISTOL BUGATTI CADILLAC CATERHAM CHEVROLET CHRYSLER CITROEN COLEMAN MILNE DAEWOO DAIHATSU DAIMLER DATSUN DAX DE TOMASO DODGE FERRARI FIAT FORD FSO GINETTA GMC HILLMAN HOLDEN HONDA HUMMER HYUNDAI INFINITI ISUZU JAGUAR JEEP JENSEN KIA KOENIGSEGG LADA LAMBORGHINI LANCIA LAND ROVER LEXUS LIGIER LINCOLN LOTUS MARCOS MASERATI MAYBACH MAZDA MCLAREN MERCEDES-BENZ MERCURY MG MICROCAR MINI MITSUBISHI MITSUOKA MORGAN MORRIS NISSAN NOBLE OPEL PAGANI PANTHER PERODUA PEUGEOT PILGRIM PLYMOUTH PONTIAC PORSCHE PROTON RELIANT RENAULT RILEY ROLLS-ROYCE ROVER SAAB SEAT SINGER SKODA SMART SSANGYONG SUBARU SUNBEAM SUZUKI TALBOT TATA TOYOTA TRIUMPH TVR ULTIMA VAUXHALL VOLKSWAGEN VOLVO WESTFIELD WOLSELEY YUGO

Model

ANY

Area

ANY Badenoch and Strathspey Caithness Inverness Inverness Area and Loch Ness Lochaber Moray Nairn and District Ross and Cromarty Sutherland Other

Price From

0 500 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000 9000 10000 20000 30000 40000 50000 60000 70000 80000 90000 100000

Price To

500 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000 9000 10000 20000 30000 40000 50000 60000 70000 80000 90000 100000

Your Local Newspaper

Inverness Courier Highland News
North Star Lochaber News Northern Scot
Ross-shire Journal Caithness Courier
John O Groat Journal Northern Times
Forres Gazette Banffshire Journal
Strathspey and Badenoch Herald

Copyright SPP Group

our test drives or view them all

Audi A5 Cabriolet 2.0 TDI S-line manual

IF you want to look good and enjoy the open air, try Audi’s new A5 Cabriolet.

Here’s an elegant and comfortable four-seater with a thermally protected and soundproofed electric folding hood that will give the best of both worlds – snug in the rain and snow, airy when the sun returns.

But I don’t envy your task in choosing which model might suit you best.

Audi over-complicates its range. Excluding the mighty S5 quattro, there are 26 versions of the A5 Cabriolet before you start choosing transmissions – that’s too many.

You can have various combinations in Standard, SE and S line trim. There’s a trio of TDI turbodiesel engines – a 168bhp four-potter and a pair of 2.7- or 3.0-litre V6s offering 187bhp or 237bhp.

On the petrol front there’s two four-cylinders – a 1.8-litre with 158bhp and a two-litre with 208bhp – in addition to a 261bhp 3.2-litre V6 or the mighty £42,160 supercharged three-litre V6 S5 quattro with 328bhp.

Quattro is offered as an option with the 2.0- and 3.2-litre TFSI petrols, and comes as standard with the three-litre TDI and S5.

Prices start from a relatively modest £27,530 for a 158bhp 1.8 TFSI petrol in Standard trim and, excluding the S5, reach £41,265 for an S line 3.0 TDI quattro S tronic.

The test car fell somewhere in the middle of the vast range – and is one of the stars. My two-litre TDI S line holds the A5 middle ground.

With a lusty 168bhp and a 17.5 per cent VAT inclusive price tag, it costs £34,565 in showroom trim.

But the well-equipped test car came with some additional equipment that pushed the on-the-road price to just over £39,000.

It’s expensive, but is an easy and powerful front drive combination that averages an impressive 49.6mpg on the official combined cycle.

As a four-seat diesel drophead, it’s one of the best in the two-litre market – but you shouldn’t dismiss the equally impressive 208bhp two-litre TFSI that will stretch a gallon of petrol to 42.2mpg and costs from £30,445 in Standard trim.

Smooth petrol power suits a car in this sector – but Audi’s TDI diesel line-up is superb.

If it was my money, I’d be tempted to go for petrol. But I have a soft spot for Audi oil burners, and the modest capacity two-litre heart of my test car generated a far from modest 168bhp and massive pulling power.

The latest generation TDIs are "soft" sounding turbodiesels. Traditional compression ignition "knock" has been almost banished at idle, and the only growl you’ll get is under hard acceleration when a peak rev snarl just adds to the car’s appeal.

From the moment the automatic seat belt handler graciously passes you the belt over your shoulder and removes the need to stretch to the B-pillar, you know you’re in for a comfortable drive.

This is a seriously well-assembled four-seater. Unlike the smaller A3 Cabriolet there is genuine space in the back for two adults to be seated comfortably, although with the roof down and side windows up there’s heavy wind buffet for the rear occupants above 40mph. The front remains buffet-free until nearer 60mph.

Not that open air driving was much of an option during my Christmas test period!

The heavy snow that swept through Moray turned my cabriolet into something of an enigma – great technology but, for most of my time with the car, a little restricted with nine inches of snow on its thermal top.

Nor did the car’s 40 section tyres, low ground clearance and high-powered turbodiesel do it any favours.

While my wife’s 2.0 TDI A3 Sportback trundled happily through the white stuff, the A5 slithered to a stop.

Too much torque through the front wheels and a low-slung underbelly dragging in the snow was enough to limit its use.

Well, let’s be honest – a sporty cabriolet in the kind of winter snow we had is hardly a sensible combination.

But when I did manage to dig the car out and head west before Arctic winds dumped tons of the stuff on Moray, the car proved its worth.

Combine six-stage heated front leather seats, a superb heating and ventilation system, incredible thermal protection under that thick foldaway fabric roof, and the A5’s firm but comfortable ride quality, and it delivers perfect GT style.

It’s not the sharpest cabrio on the block. A long wheelbase, nose heaviness and front-wheel-drive give the car a stodgy feel through corners. It’s a pity, but not damning. You get used to Cabrio’s feel.

Faster bends with power induce mild oversteer, but this is a car with a finely-turned suspension that can handle the lusty 350 Newton metres of torque that floods in from 1750rpm.

With the standard six-speed manual transmission, it’s a touring delight that sails up the steepest Highland incline – although I’m disappointed Audi doesn’t have an automatic option with the two-litre oil burner.

Dropping the powered hood takes just 15 seconds – it retracts in 17 seconds. It’s an elegant ballet watching the mechanism fold the roof and pack it neatly into the forward end of the boot.

With the roof in place there’s a useful 750 litres of luggage space – but the bulky hood takes up 430 litres when stowed and cuts capacity to just over 300 litres.

One point of dash design disappointed me – the positioning of front fog lamp and rear guard light warning icons.

Placing them to the left of the main lighting switch is sensible, but hiding them behind the steering wheel column means you can’t see them easily from the wheel.

It’s too easy to leave them on by accident, and that’s breaking the law. Like the main beam warning icon, they should be displayed on the main dials.

But Audi’s sophisticated MMI and computer controlled switchgear is the best on the market. The MMI central control console is intuitive and easy to use once you learn its functions.

The average newcomer should be familiar with its functionality after a few days when switching radio channels, navigation, map zooming and car set-up programmes are easy to operate.

But it can be beaten. If you try to punch in commands for, let’s say, the heated seats and ventilation system too quickly after start up, the system is – like any computer – slow to react.

I found it was best to let the main frame boot up for 15 seconds before inputting any changes.

Like many new Audis, the A5 Cabriolet comes with greener credentials than previous models. It’s all part of the global drive to satisfy Kyoto and Copenhagen.

One of the standard environmental additions is stop and start – an allegedly emission-saving device that irritates me.

Thankfully there’s a handy “off” switch that disables the system so I don’t have to listen constantly to the diesel firing up after a momentary stop.

I have my doubts about the effectiveness of stop/start on all cars – unless you live in a city where you are constantly stopping and starting or stuck in jams: in which case, should you bother having a car?

But that doesn’t dim my enthusiasm for the A5 Cabrio – a perfect four-seat open top GT.

Rating: 8/10

FINAL THOUGHT: A refined and accomplished four-seat cabriolet that is as sung as the A5 tin-top coupé, even in sub-zero temperatures. The individual rear seats are far more comfortable than with the smaller A3 Cabriolet, and the A5 looks a lot more elegant. Diesels are superb, but in a car like this the petrols are worth considering.

Audi A5 Cabriolet 2.0 TDI S-line manual

• Price: £34,565
• Capacity: 1968cc
• Power: 168bhp
• 0-62mph: 8.4 seconds
• Maximum speed: 140mph
• Economy: Combined 49.6mpg; Urban 40.4mpg
• CO2 emissions: 148g/km
• ESP: Standard
• Insurance: Group 14