There are certain convertibles in which the sun seems to shine a little brighter, the air seems to smell a little fresher, the road seems to be a little bit more interesting, and your companion seems a little better-looking. The 2010 Audi A5 Cabriolet is that convertible.
Beautifully sleek and beautifully detailed, the A5 cabriolet delivers the top-down style you expect from a convertible without compromising the everyday utility you must have from a car that can carry four passengers. And if you want a little more car underneath you for those weekend drives to the country, the 2010 Audi S5 Cabriolet has the supercharged power to deliver.
The Convertible Question
With the 2010 Audi A5 Convertible, we have the answer to the convertible question that has been plaguing car-manufacturers as they face the 21st century. What kind of convertible should you make? A luxurious, full-size parade car, like the forthcoming 2010 Mercedes-Benz E-Class convertible? A midsize car with a hardtop that delivers practical, secure, weather-tight utility with a dimension of top-down capability, like the BMW 3 Series convertible or the Volvo C70 convertible? An affordable runabout with an affordable fabric top, like the BMW 1 Series convertible? Or a hyper-performance, no expense-spared sport coupe, like the BMW M3 convertible?
No problem, Audi responds. We'll just make them all, only we'll deliver them in just one car. And so, just as it has always done with the A4 cabriolet, Audi has transformed its A5 platform into a convertible that takes on a different personality depending on engine choice.
Here in the United States, we'll have three different alternatives. At the top of the range is the 2010 Audi S5 Cabriolet 3.0 TFSI, available with a supercharged, 333-horsepower 3.0-liter V6 that's presently matched with a six-speed automatic (a new seven-speed dual-clutch transmission is on the way). The full-service 2010 A5 Cabriolet 3.2 FSI V6 features a normally aspirated 265-hp 3.2-liter V6 with the six-speed automatic. And then the 2010 Audi A5 Cabriolet 2.0 TFSI features Audi's turbocharged 211-hp inline-4 with a six-speed automatic in the all-wheel-drive Quattro model or a continuously variable transmission (CVT) in the front-wheel-drive FrontTrak model.
So Audi pretty well has the whole convertible market covered, doesn't it?
Metal or Fabric?
Though Americans developed the hardtop convertible way back in the 1950s, it's only recently become popular in European cars. It's actually a question of security rather than all-weather practicality, because cars parked on the street in Europe have increasingly become targets of break-ins, and there aren't many secure, indoor parking garages in cities where you find buildings that date from the 18th century. And then there's the whole matter of the expense, complication and weight of a metal hardtop.
So Audi has declined to get ensnared in the hardtop trend and instead put its effort into developing a sleek, three-layer fabric top with a glass rear window. If you want even more acoustic insulation, you can order the optional top with a thick 0.6-inch foam layer in place of the standard cushioning pad, and the result is a reduction of wind noise to the relative whisper of a standard A5 coupe, Audi tells us. Of course, we're more impressed by the fact that the fabric top comes in four different exterior colors and three different headliner colors, which is part of the charm of convertible style that no boring, monochromatic hardtop convertible can deliver.
There's also a dimension of practicality to the fabric top, since it steals only 2.1 cubic feet away from the A5 cabriolet's 13.4 cubic feet of cargo capacity when it's retracted into the trunk. A typical hardtop offers 3.5 cubic feet less capacity when the top is retracted, Audi claims.
Of course, what we care about is the fact that the electrically powered hydraulic pump with its four operating cylinders brings down the top and stows it beneath the metal tonneau cover in 17 seconds and then can deploy it again in 15 seconds. You can make your choice at a stoplight easily, and it's no tragedy if traffic starts to move because the top will keep operating up to 30 mph.
