2008 Audi S5
By Steve Schutz, MD
This is a great call-in car. Imagine you’re sound asleep at 2 am and the phone rings, and you know after three sentences you’re going to the hospital right now. It’s an acute MI, upper GI bleed, or a cervix that’s fixed and dilated, and there’s no way you can handle it over the phone. As you fumble in the dark for your clothes, you silently curse your career choice.
Sounds familiar, I’m sure. As a busy Gastroenterologist I get those phone calls too, and hate them. But what if this time there’s an Audi S5 in the garage? Wouldn’t that be a lot better? Take it from me, the answer is “Yes!” because by the time you pull into the hospital parking lot, you’ll feel energized and ready to do what you do. The S5 is that good.
It’s certainly fast. A 4.2 liter direct injection V8 borrowed from the S4 sedan provides 354 horsepower, enough for an inspiring 4.9 second zero-tosixty MPH time. And all that power enables you to zip through small holes in traffic or pass effortlessly on the highway.
Equipped with either a six-speed manual or sixspeed double clutch DSG automatic, the S5 shifts crisply. I drove the manual version but have written about the DSG before. It’s the best sporty automatic I’ve driven, and no one else has one that’s as good.
With gasoline pushing four dollars a gallon, it’s worth noting that the athletic S5 gets just 14 mpg city/21 mpg highway. Pretty lousy, I know, but while those are SUV numbers, no truck can make you smile like the S5 can. (For the record, the BMW M3 gets exactly the same mileage.)
Audi's famed Quattro all-wheel drive system is standard on all S5s, but it’s been tweaked to enhance dry weather handling with a new 60-40 percent rear-front bias. Obviously, Quattro adds weight, compromising at-the-limit handling slightly, but it’s worth it in my opinion because of the extra traction you get in a thunderstorm or other slippery conditions.
You won’t feel like you’re compromising when you look at the S5, though. This is a gorgeous car from any angle, and it garnered more stares than anything I’ve driven since the Dodge Challenger. Masculine and confident are the adjectives I think of when I look at Audi’s newest car.
The trademark Audi “shield” grille is less prominent than it is on other models – probably because the S5 is about three inches wider than the current S4 – and new headlight housings feature a chain of way-cool LED running lights. But the S5 looks best from the side, thanks to subtle bulges that adorn the fenders, hood, and trunk and contrast with the flat roofline.
The interior is typical Audi, which is to say, top-shelf. The materials, buttons, and knobs are all a pleasure to touch and use, and the gauges soothe with whites and reds that are as easy to see in bright sunshine as they are at night. The seats are supportive but comfortable, and even the rear two seats are OK for normal size adults.
Buyers can pick from a range of interior color combinations, including Alcantara and leather in black or silver black, or cloth and leather in deep red, glove brown, or black. Stainless steel, aluminum, walnut, or carbon fiber-ish accents can also be selected. My tester had red cloth and leather to go with aluminum trim, and boy, did it stand out. If this was my car I’d select something more subdued, but I’m glad Audi permits whimsical color combinations. Stylish European men favor blue blazers with linings in yellow or pink, and my gray test car’s bright red interior is the automotive equivalent of that.
I’m becoming less enamored with the multi-mode interface (MMI), though. While much less cryptic than BMW’s dreaded iDrive, the MMI still frustrates when compared with Lexus’ intuitive touch screen system. Presumably Germany’s penchant for cleanliness cannot abide the inevitable smudged fingerprints that result from such a setup, but I don’t see these PClike interfaces as long-term solutions to dashboard clutter.
The Audi S5 comes standard with every luxury feature you’d expect in a $50,000 car plus adaptive high-intensity headlamps, attractive 19-inch alloy wheels, and a panoramic moonroof. For reasons that escape me, the moonroof only pops open from the rear, and does not slide open.
Options include a delicious 14- speaker Bang & Olufsen premium audio system, “Advanced Key” keyless entry and start, and GPS navigation. The navigation system includes a wonderful backup camera with an amazingly clear picture. As I’ve written before, every car and truck should have this (potentially lifesaving feature.
No physician likes to go to the hospital in the middle of the night, but the right car can take a lot of the sting out of a painful trip. Thanks to luxury galore, a sonorous V8, and lots of power, the Audi S5 is that kind of vehicle. In fact, it’s about as good a “call in” car as you’ll find.
