Audi A5 Avant long-term test

Item: Audi A5 (2024 onwards)
Rating: 3.8

2024 onwards (change model)

Parkers overall rating: 3.8 out of 53.8

Written by Keith Adams and Jake Groves Updated: 25 March 2025

Parkers Editor, Keith Adams (below), is running an Audi A5 Avant over an extended period to see if an electric car advocate can go back to running a diesel.

Audi A5 Avant long-term-test review (2025) | Parkers

Update 1: Welcome

Introducing the Audi A5 TDI Avant Edition 1

Welcome to the extended long-term review of the Audi A5 TDI Avant. If Audi’s late 2010s plans had come to fruition, it’s very likely this car wouldn’t have existed. Back then, the firm was progressing all guns blazing for an all-electric future, and as such, the A4 range would have been replaced by the A4 E-Tron.

However, electric car sales have not progressed at the rate they’d hoped, which has lead to something of a welcome reprieve for the firm’s petrol, diesel and hybrid models. The old A4 has been replaced by the new A5 – and the A4 E-Tron will be along presently – and I’m taking on the an TDI Avant as a replacement for a string of electric cars, to see why Audi’s sticking with ICE and why the customer is still king.

We’ve gone for Edition 1, which is powered by the 204hp turbodiesel shared with a myriad of Volkswagen Group products, most notably the VW Golf GTD and Skoda Kodiaq. It’s also used in the Octavia, which I know is good, as I ran a vRS for eight months throughout 2021, and really enjoyed it. At the time, I thought it might be my last diesel. How wrong I was.

What you get with an Audi A5 TDI Edition 1

As standard, our Edition 1 will cost you £58,125 on the road (at the time of writing in March 2025), which is rather more expensive than the plug-in hybrid BMW 330e Touring, which this car could find itself sharing shopping lists with. It’s based on the popular S Line with a raft of additional equipment thrown in, and is also bristling with tech – and that goes a long way to justifying that lofty cash price.

Here are the 10 stand-out features you get as standard:

Adaptive cruise control with traffic jam assist
Drive mode select
Front and rear parking sensors
Full LED Matrix beam headlights with variable light distribution
Heated and electrically-adjustable front seats
Audi Connect services with Alexa assistant
Keyless entry and stop-start system
Lane change assist
Driver fatigue warning system
Wireless charging

Rather unusually, this car’s not fitted with a raft of costly optional extras, but that’s because you’re limited to plumping for 20-inch wheels (mine has the standard 19s), and the Sound and Vision pack, which we have. In that, you get a head-up display, a Bang & Olufsen premium audio set-up, adaptive ambient lighting and high-capacity USB charging ports.

Unlike with my EVs, I’m not expecting to stress over whether it gets a decent driving range or not. In fact, I probably won’t even mention it again. I picked the car up with an estimated distance to empty figure of 590 miles, so it’s going to be nice to pound the motorway on my 190-mile commute to the office without constantly refuelling – like being back in the 1990s!

It needs to be good, though, because petrols aren’t exactly uneconomical these days – on the 70mph M6 schlep, I used to eke out 40mpg from my 280hp Skoda Superb L&K, and that was considerably faster than this Audi.

Over the coming months, I’ll get back into diesel driving and regularly using Britain’s motorways to see if it really is relevant in today’s rapidly electrifying world. I’m expecting quick performance, effortless overtaking and extended distances between refills. I’m looking forward to performing a really detailed long-term test, and to see whether there’s life left in diesel.

Update 2: Cabin, equipment and options

What’s the Audi A5 like to spend time in?

Long story short – the A5’s interior feels like a quality item, easy to live with, looks good and is lovely in the front. And overall, I like it a lot although the infotainment has the power to annoy.

The Audi A5 epitomises premium and I can completely understand why so many people aspire to own one. It looks sleek on the outside, while the interior oozes class, thanks to piano black trim, matching leather, and touch-sensitive Haptic pads. It landed on my drive having cost a few quid short of £60k, and boring colour and small wheels aside, it looks worth every bit of that.

Its closest rivals are the BMW 3 Series Touring and Mercedes-Benz C-Class Estate, both of which offer just as much prestige and tech, but boxier, more upright styling. The A5 really is a sportier proposition than both of those, though, being more like a Mercedes-Benz CLA Shooting Brake or Peugeot 508SW in concept – neither of which you can buy any longer. Interesting.

I’ve already covered 3,000 miles in the car, and overall, it’s been easy to live with, surprisingly comfortable (considering the Audi S Line reputation for a boneshaker of a ride), and the interior has been perfectly designed for drivers who are spending extended periods in the car.

The optional Sound and Vision pack is worth specifying. The head-up display is excellent, and has a neat lane-changing assistance system that warns you of cars potentially in your blindspot. The sound quality from the Bang & Olufsen set-up is also impressive, delivering lots of bass and clarity in the mid range – so it’ll do big sounds without being overwhelmed by thumping low frequency rumble. Be warned: the door trims can get rattly when you’re really enjoying yourself, which is unexpected and disappointing in a £60k car.

Infotainment and tech

I think this car may have achieved screen overload. The 11.9-inch infotainment set-up is presented in a slim landscape-format ahead of the driver, and combines with a driver display that looks good, and is something of a departure for Audi. In addition, there’s a 10.9-inch touch display ahead of the passenger. Considering there’s so much acrage up front, it all looks pretty good – but so far, none of my tech-loving passengers have felt inclined to use that supplementary screen.

It’s very clear, sharp and easy to undertand, and the only criticisms are that the on-screen controls are actually quite small, and as a consequence, it’s not as easy to use as it might be. Also, the controls on the homepage are Haptic, and require quite a stab to operated. Thankfully, this doesn’t prove to be the case when using Android Auto. Finally, there’s a design flaw shared with many other Volkswagen Group cars – the screen is mounted so high that it means the fresh air vents are pushed lower down into the cabin, so getting cold air to your face generally means chilling your hands, too.

Mention also for the way that it integrates with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. It’s a quick and seamless process. The Audi Connect services that come with it seem quite basic, but traffic mapping is good. As for the rest of it, I’ll run through that in a later update. I’ve found some issues along the way, though – sometimes the car ‘forgets’ the phone, and it’ll need reconnecting, which – rightly – is impossible to do on the move. Annoying.

Update 3: 5,000 miles on – we’ve had issues

Tyre troubles, and an engine light take off the shine

Long story short – the A5’s been back to Audi for an update to fix an engine light, and we *almost* lost a tyre on a cold and lonely evening.

Here I am, 5,000 miles in and I can report on how effective Audi’s roadside assist service is. I can’t blame the car for getting a puncture – more how badly councils seem to maintain roads these days – and actually, as it transpired the Tyre Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) worked as it should have.

After a late finish at the office, and looking forward to a long quiet drive home, I’m 50 miles in, the TPMS lights up, and the car flashes a warning. I’m tired, and am tempted to ignore the problem. However, as I roll into a village a minute or so later, all of the car’s warning systems start to kick in – and it’s at this point, I stop, jump out and take a look. Yes, the nearside rear tyre has significantly deflated, and I can’t proceed.

Of course it doesn’t have a spare, and I couldn’t find the emergency repair kit, so instead call Audi Roadside Assist. In reality, that’s just the AA, and although as I found on the night, it can mean you’re left waiting for quite some time. But the good news is that once the patrolman did turn up, he was able to make a temporary repair to the tyre – it had picked up a screw – and have me on my way quite quickly.

It’s a salutary tale, because had I ignored that warning I’d have written off the tyre. And also, I really do wish cars like this came with a spare wheel.

The engine light was an unwelcome surprise, though. Again, I’d been driving late, and had been dropping off some wheels I’d sold to an MX-5 owner in Yorkshire, and the car almost had a failure to proceed. I’d pulled up outside his house, put it in park and unloaded. However, jumping in to leave once the deal is concluded, the parking brake refuses to disengage.

Initially, it’s a case of not moving forwards once in drive, and almost immediately the dash lights up like a Christmas tree while chiming its disapproval. I pull the handbrake switch a couple of times, and nothing happens – which immediately has me wondering if I’m going to need to make another call to Audi Assist. Before panicking, I get back out of the car, lock it, leave it 10 seconds, and jump back in.

This time, the parking brake releases, and I can enjoy another late night drive home. However, from this point on, the engine light’s on, and it’s going to need sorting. As it happens, a quick call to Audi gets that resolved: ‘There was a service campaign on car which we have carried out, it has updated various ECUs which has cleared the fault,’ I was told. Once again, good service helps salvage a bad situation.

That doesn’t explain why the brakes did what they did, and I can’t pretend that my confidence in the car hasn’t been a little dented. Given that CJ Hubbard has also been suffering from similar ghosts in the machine in his Skoda Kodiaq, as has Ted Welford in his Cupra Tavascan – and it’s hard not to escape the conclusion we’re seeing a pattern forming.