Let’s face facts, Audi is not bringing back the A4 Avant wagon, but starting this Spring, you can have an Audi hatchback sedan, based on a coupe, based on a sedan. That’s right the A5/S5 Sportback is coming to the America.
For years we have been denied the lovely A5 Sportback, essentially the little brother to the wonderful A7 Sportback. Then BMW decided to sell something called the 4-series Gran Coupe, and Audi figured they want in on the action.
You get everything you love about the super swanky A5/S5 coupes with the added practicality of two more doors and a hatchback. The A5 Sportback gets the same 252 horsepower turbo four found in the A4/A5 mated to a seven-speed DSG. The S5 Sportback retains the 354 horsepower turbocharged six-cylinder motor paired with an eight-speed automatic from the S5 coupe.
No word as of now as to whether or not the Sportback models will be offered with a manual gearbox. Audi will offer three-pedal options on the A4 and A5 models so it sounds promising, but it’s important to remember that BMW does not offer a manual on the four-cylinder 430i Gran Coupe, despite having the option on both the 330i sedan and 430i two-door. So here is hoping that Audi bucks the trend.
Audi’s quattro AWD system is standard across the Sportback range and the interior comes with all the new whiz-bang goodies you expect like Virtual Cockpit.
But that hatchback though.
Pricing has not been released, but you can expect the Sportbacks to arrive at your local Audi dealer sometime in the Spring of 2017.