Audi RS5 Review (2017-2025)
Audi RS5 cars for sale
3.0
Expert review
Pros
Superb all-weather performance
Practical Sportback model
First-rate interior quality
Cons
Not the driver's car it could be
Turbocharged engine is short on character
Thumpy ride over poor surfaces
The CarGurus verdict
A fast, secure and handsome all-rounder, the RS5 never quite reaches the same dynamic heights as the more agile and responsive BMW M4. Its tuneless twin-turbo V6 doesn’t offer anything like the engine character of the V8s you’ll find in the Mercedes-AMG C63 Coupe and Lexus RC F, although the Audi does have enough straight-line speed to emerge from a dust up with either of those cars with its head held high.
Four-wheel drive and the stability that confers in wet weather is one of its key selling points, the other being the availability of the five-door hatchback variant, the Sportback, which brings extra practicality. The RS5 has a very good cabin, plenty of kit as standard and it’s comfortable and civilised in daily use. It’d therefore slot into most lives seamlessly, although for keen drivers, rivals from BMW and Mercedes will prove to be much more rewarding.
What is the Audi RS5?
For a short while, as rivals from BMW M and Mercedes-AMG switched to relatively characterless turbocharged engines, the Audi RS5 favoured a high-revving, normally-aspirated V8. Its competitors were sharper to drive and faster in a straight line, but at least the Audi had the BMW M4 and C63 Coupe bested when it came to engine character.
As of 2017 and the arrival of the all-new Audi RS5, that ceased to be the case. Gone was the spine-tingling 4.2-litre V8, in its place a more powerful, more fuel efficient but vastly less exciting 2.9-litre twin-turbo V6. With its USP lost to the emissions regulators, then, how does the RS5 stand out from the crowd? To put it bluntly, it doesn’t.
Actually, the RS5 does distinguish itself in a couple of ways. At the time of writing, it’s the only car in its class that’s available with four-wheel drive (quattro, as Audi calls it) and a good number of buyers will see value in that. And if a two-door RS5 coupe simply won’t be shoehorned into your everyday life, the Audi is also available as a five-door hatchback, called the Sportback, which is even more practical than four-door saloon rivals like the BMW M3.
How practical is it?
Because the RS5 is based on the Audi A5 Coupe (and, therefore, also the A4 saloon), it’s pretty practical for what it is. It isn’t quite as roomy as an A4, of course, but there’s still a decent amount of space in the front seats, while in the back, there’s room for two adults to sit side-by-side in reasonable comfort, and plenty of space for child seats.
The 410-litre boot is pretty sizeable, too, and it’s a useful, squared-off shape, which makes it easy to fit in larger bags. What’s more, the rear seats split and fold in 40/20/40 format, which means you can fold the middle section of the bench between them away, so that you can fit longer items of luggage (such as skis) in while retaining the use of both rear seats.
Go for the hatchback-style Sportback and you get a more usable-still (and larger) 465 litres of space.
What's it like to drive?
The trouble is, there’s very little about the RS5’s dynamic capability that would make an enthusiastic driver pass right by the BMW, Mercedes and Lexus dealerships and head straight for the Audi showroom instead. It doesn’t have the most communicative steering, nor the sweetest chassis balance. It isn’t the best-riding car of its type, the best sounding or even the fastest. Instead, the RS5 is a sort of all-rounder; it has no glaring weaknesses, but nor does it shine in any particular area.
That seems to be by design. Rather than create something with the poise and precision of an M4 or the sledgehammer appeal of a C63, Audi has studiously done its own thing. The result is a very fast coupe or hatchback with the security and stability of all-wheel drive. While diehard driving enthusiasts might turn their nose up at it, the RS5’s particular skill set is actually one that would appeal very strongly to the more general buyer.
The Audi is more grand tourer than sports coupe. With 444bhp, it is forceful in a straight line in a way few cars manage to be. The turbocharged V6 engine is responsive and full of energy, but it’s lacking in character. There is nothing especially exciting about the power delivery, nor any hint of musicality about the soundtrack. Meanwhile, the eight-speed automatic gearbox is very nearly as snappy as a dual-clutch, but it’s much smoother when left to shift gears itself.
Technology, equipment & infotainment
The RS5’s cabin is a huge part of the car’s appeal, because it befits a much more expensive car. The materials are all high-grade and the build quality is very good. Even the minor switchgear is top drawer.
Whether you’re buying the most basic RS5 available, the mid-range RS5 Carbon Black or the range-topping RS5 Vorsprung, your car will come fitted with Audi’s MMI infotainment system and its Virtual Cockpit digital instrument binnacle. The former is intuitive and simple to navigate thanks to the easy-to-use scroll wheel down on the transmission tunnel, while the latter allows you to configure the large digital display in front of you to show the information that’s most useful to you.
Audi RS5 running costs
Inevitably, a car with the straight-line performance of the RS5 is going to cost more than a conventional family saloon to keep on the road. Audi says you’ll see around 30mpg on the combined cycle, although if you tap into the car’s 444bhp with any regularity, that mpg figure will fall into the low 20s.
Depending on model and trim level, the RS5 sits in insurance groups 42 to 47. That’s out of 50, which gives some idea of how much this car will cost to insure compared to a typical family car (the less powerful and far less sporty A5 Coupe sits in groups 28 to 36, for instance). The high performance tyres that an RS5 will need to put its power down to the road will cost in the region of £500 for a full set.
Meanwhile, vehicle excise duty, or road tax, will be charged at a premium rate of £465 for the first year and £145 every year after that. The earliest RS5s of this generation are now more than three years old, which means they’re eligible for Audi’s fixed-price servicing plan. An interim service at a main dealer will cost £360 and a major service £700. Audi recommends annual servicing for those owners who mostly drive in town, while for those who mostly drive on the motorway, routine maintenance every other year should suffice, unless you cover more than 18,600 miles over those two years.
As well as fixed-price servicing, Audi also offers replacements parts and certain maintenance work at a set price. A new set of front wiper blades, for instance, costs £45. Meanwhile, an air-con service is priced at £149 and a brake fluid change at £90.
Audi RS5 reliability
Surveys of vehicle owners tend to find Audi performs rather less well in terms of reliability than you might expect of a premium German manufacturer. Oddly enough, that’s also true of BMW and Mercedes-Benz, and more often than not Audi ranks slightly higher than its immediate rivals.
The RS5 doesn’t have any commonly occurring faults that prospective owners should mindful of, although those might begin to emerge as early cars slip out of their warranties and begin to pile on the miles. The standard Audi warranty runs for three years or 60,000 miles, whichever comes sooner, and that’s fairly typical for this sort of car. Buyers can pay to extend the cover, though, choosing from four years/75,000 miles or five years/90,000 miles, and those extended warranties are transferable between owners.
High-performance machines such as the RS5 inevitably live harder lives than conventional cars because of the way they tend to be driven. They are designed to be used in that way, however. In fact, only the greedier way in which such cars chew through consumables like tyres, brake pads and engine oil should betray the tougher lives they lead.
Given they way these cars are often used, adhering very closely to the manufacturer’s maintenance schedule is more important than ever. If you’re considering a second hand RS5, you’ll want to know it’s been looked after meticulously.
- Audi no longer makes a convertible version of the RS5, but there is one other body style you can opt for if you need more practicality. It’s called the Sportback, and it’s basically an elongated version of the Coupe with two extra doors and an extra seat in the back. More importantly, you also get a larger boot with hatchback access so that you can fit larger, bulkier items in more easily, which makes the RS5 Sportback a great choice if you’re in need of a fast family car.
- If even the Sportback model isnt practical enough for you, Audi could still have you covered with another of its RS models. The RS4 is only offered as an estate but it shares its underpinnings, drivetrain and cabin with its RS5 cousins. Again, the RS4 is no ride-and-handling masterpiece, but transposing all of the RS5’s day-to-day and all-weather qualities onto a car with a roomy estate body does make a good deal of sense.
- Despite the RS5’s very clear all-rounder remit, its ride quality is only acceptable. Most of the time and on the majority of road surfaces there is enough compliance in the dampers to iron out the tarmac below, but when you come across less well-maintained asphalt, the chassis runs out of ideas. Rather than glide serenely across rougher ground, the RS5 tends to thump and whack its way along somewhat ungracefully.
- If you want the best all-rounder: The RS5 Sportback is every bit as quick and as grippy as the two-door variant, but it’s also the most usable. That makes it a better all-rounder, particularly if you regularly carry rear-seat passengers and need that extra level of practicality. It even has a slightly bigger boot than the coupe.
- If you want the driver’s favourite: Due to be replaced imminently, the BMW M4 is still the sharpest and most agile car of its type. It’s much lighter than the RS5 and simpler, too, being rear-wheel drive only. It also has a somewhat unsatisfying twin-turbo six-cylinder engine, but in terms of chassis balance and response through the steering wheel, it’s in a different league to the Audi.
- If you want to be the horsepower king: With more than 500bhp, the Mercedes-AMG C63 S is substantially more powerful than any of its rivals. That power comes from a 4.0-litre V8 with two turbos, an engine that manages to be tuneful and dramatic despite its turbocharging. The C63 is great to drive, too.
- If you want to be the throwback: In many ways the Lexus RC F feels like a very modern and ultra sophisticated car. However, it’s the only car in its class that still favours a normally-aspirated engine, and that lends it a huge dose of very desirable old-school appeal. In fact, its 5.0-litre V8 is a showstopper.
