acadia

if you want performance by a bhugatti, that's a stupid statement, sure I remember it's an audi, and Audi which can be outpaced by a camry, lame. I love Audi, blind faith is stupidity.

Hobbes

Perhaps the question shouldn't be why can't the Audi beat a Camry, but why can a Camry match the Audi? Why would Toyota put such a quick engine in a car that is otherwise ill-equipped for speed? The suspension and handling aren't upgraded to handle more spirited driving, and the target audience could care less about racing from light to light.

I think it is perfectly reasonable for the A-5 to have a 0-60 time of 5.8 seconds. The fact that there is some oddball configuration out there that can match it is hardly a knock on Audi. It's not like there are tons of family sedans out there beating the A5 off the line. You buy a car for the whole package, not by checking off boxes of where it ranks in every performance category.

Like I said, the Camry doesn't beat the A5 anyway, it matches it, and only in straight-line acceleration. The Subaru WRX can beat the A5 also (as can other lower-priced cars), but that doesn't mean I want one. I want the car that is the best all-around package for my needs, and I know I never considered a Camry in my deliberations.

There is nothing wrong with wanting more power in the A5 (I'd like some more myself), but getting mad because the Camry can match it is silly.

acadia

WRX, isn't a sedan, and they are known for the performance. It'snot an oddball configuration for the camry, it's pretty straight forward, it just shouldn't happen, hence why I said, for the price they are asking for the A5 they could have put in 3.0t engine, the A6 3.0t starts at 50,200 with quattro (45,500 without quattro but that's front wheel drive yuck), the A5 3.2 starts 48,800. My point is 3.0t could be had in that car, and would eliminate this discussion.

US lineup should be 3.0t, 4.2, 4.0t or 4.2tt.

Don't care for 2.0t in the lineup, it's like a sheep in wolfes clothing.

Hobbes

The A5 3.2 starts at $44,000, not $48,800. I can't imagine Audi could keep the car in it's intended price range if it put the 3.0T in it.

acadia

I just looked at the the pricing for 2010, it's 48,800 for '10 quattro 3.2 A5.

If they can build the A6 3.0t with quattro for 50,200 (The A6 being more expensive because well it's larger), they can put the 3.0t in the A5 for same price or slightly more than 48,800. Also, you can get A6 3.0t without quattro for 45,500 starting, so, I don't think the issue is the cost of the engine.

mikeinaustin

don't know where you are looking at prices, but it is 44,000 for a5 3.2 premium+ (the base model). now if you add the prestige package you get to 48,800 (but really you have to add destination fee so that gets you to 49,625).

regardless, the a5 is underpowered, its as simple as that. i would assume people are buying it for interior/exterior looks and not performance. for the same price a bmw 335i (or 335d) greatly outperforms the a5 (until your hpfp fails on the bmw that is). unfortunatly, the interior of those cars is poor and the exterior is as common as common gets. you could, for very close to the same price as the a5, get the new 2010 mb e350 coupe. having driven both the a5 and the e350 coupe, the e350 outpeforms the a5, but just by a bit, noticible but not substantial. the interior is nice, but the exterior, well, i hate the back hump over the rear wheel (but others may like it).

chupiechow

OMG that is so funny and true! I couldn't have said it better myself.
I guess that's why there are so many BMW's on the road too!

Hobbes

The 335 isn't really the same price. A similarly-optioned 335 coupe would have cost about $4700 more than my A5 when I was shopping - $2800 if I didn't get xDrive. I still was tempted by the 335, but I couldn't stand the interior.

mikeinaustin

depends on when you shopped, bmw does something that i haven't seen audi do, they "give" packages away for free. earlier this summer xdrive was free, even earlier the premium package was free, etc. of course the downside to these offers is that they usually will not apply to orders.

here in the states, we only get the 335d sedan, so i guess you have to compare that to the a4. in europe you can get a 335d coupe. the torque on that car (sedan or coupe) blows most cars off the road. if they had a 335d coupe here in the states, i would look very seriously at that car, ugly interior and all. while 135i/335i/535i high pressure fuel pumps have been dying left and right, i have not heard of a single case of a 335d hpfp failing.

dseag2

The A5 being "underpowered" is all relative. Our G37 Coupe cost almost $10k less and can spank it 0-60 and through the corners, but the A5 is much more car in every other department and I would much prefer to drive it. I don't even compare the two. There are also any other number of cars I could have purchased for equal or less money (IS350, 135i as examples) that are as fast if not faster, but that's not the point. Yes, I did buy it for exterior/interior looks, but I would not have considered it if it didn't have decent performance. Again, it's all relative.