Audizine Review: 2010 Audi A5 2.0T quattro Cabriolet
March 8, 2010 - By Audizine Staff
I'd like to open this article with a bit of personal information: I had never ever considered owning a convertible before. Even nowadays I figured they were still a bit noisy or at least somewhat less stiff or weather resistant than their hardtop counterparts - but then I had the great pleasure of using one of Audi's newest soft-tops for a week. In that time I often found myself forgetting that I was driving a convertible at all, and this was all during one of the wettest weeks we've had here in Northern California in quite awhile. There were only two days out of seven that I was able to put the top down and enjoy all of the perks that the 2010 Audi A5 Cabriolet had to offer. It was during those other five days though that I discovered what makes the car worth the nearly 7-grand over its Coupe counterpart. I'd always thought you were simply paying extra for a car that was only fun on sunny days, and well, I was wrong.
The exact vehicle in my possession was a brand new A5 2.0 Turbo FSI quattro Tiptronic Cabriolet in Deep Sea Blue Pearl with Cinnamon Brown milano leather seats and Dark Walnut wood inlays. The A5 Cab has a base price of exactly 42 grand, but this quattro all-wheel-drive-equipped press tester (it's $2,100 more for the quattro) was loaded to the gills bringing it to $61,800. I believe the only extra option pack it didn't have was S line. I'm certainly not one to complain about fancy features and gee-whiz gizmos, but there were some extras I could personally live without, while a number of others that I feel are a must-have on a vehicle such as this.
Let's start out with the dislikes and do-withouts. While I suppose I can understand why the A5 Cab isn't available with a manual transmission (you can, however, get a stick shift in the A5 Coupe), a car of this price should by now come with the much nicer and more technologically advanced S tronic (AKA: DSG) and not the old Tiptronic slushbox. I mean, come on Audi, it's 2010! The engine too could also stand a boost in performance. We know the 2.0TFSI is capable of much more, and could be done even without sacrificing much in the way of gas mileage - which by the way is rated at 20 City and 26 Highway by the EPA. It'd be nice to see Audi's "entry level engine" making horsepower closer to the mid-200s and not the 211 at which it's currently rated. More
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Originally Posted by Sharkfin
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