Audi S5 B9 Sportback - 3.0 V6 Turbo

[joropug]

Thought I would start a thread for my latest purchase, a 2017 Audi S5 Sportback (B9).

A few weeks ago, I was in our local Audi dealership for a service on my Wife’s Q3 and spotted they had a rather nice Audi S5 in stock and had a look around. I have been looking to get a new car for a while and had done my research, the S5 seemed like the optimum car for me. A luxurious car, that is also practical with a huge hatchback and 5 doors. 3.0 Turbo engine and a ZF8 gearbox certainly attracted me too.

The car they had in was a really high specification, low owners, full history, low mileage, but…had a high price. It was outside of my already majorly creeping budget. I had a decent drive in it anyway and was blown away – it literally ticked every box for me, powerful, laden with tech, all wheel drive, smooth gearbox, awesome sound. I wanted one!

My car went up for sale that day whilst I furiously tried to work out how to afford it without over stretching – I decided that it was too much and I should look elsewhere.

Fast forward a few weeks, in my daily search of Autotrader I realised it had just dropped in price by 10%! It was overpriced before, but it was a very high spec and nothing else compared to it at its new price. I phoned up and left a deposit right away and have recently picked it up.

It’s a 2017 model, Sportback in Navarra blue with Rotor Grey interior.

The S5 is well equipped as standard but I had look through the original brochures and it certainly had a few extra quid well spent on it:

Engine/Drivetrain:
3.0 V6 TFSI Quattro – 354PS
8 Speed Automatic (ZF8)
‘S’ Sport Suspension

Exterior:
Navarra Blue Metallic
Red Brake Callipers
19” Cavo Alloy Wheels
Rear privacy glass
Folding door mirrors with auto-dimming and memory function

Interior:
Rotor Grey Super Sport seats in Fine Nappa leather
Memory Drivers Seat
Heated front seats
Massage front seats with adjustable bolsters
Carbon Atlas trim set
Flat-bottomed steering wheel

Comfort and Sound Pack which includes:
Bang & Olufsen 3D Sound System (755w, 20 speakers with illuminated door speakers)
Advanced Key / comfort access
Power tailgate with kick function to open
Rear view camera

Light and Vision Pack which includes:
Audi Virtual Cockpit
Extended LED Interior Lighting – Multi-Coloured
Matrix LED headlights
Dynamic front and rear indicators
LED Rear lights

I am a happy man, its on another level of performance compared to my previous cars and to have all of the modern toys like virtual cockpit, apple car play and the LED interior pack I feel like a kid in a sweet shop.

Performance is fantastic, the power delivery is very smooth and due to it being 8 speed it is rarely in a position to lag. I love the exhaust sound especially on the manual downshifts – Big grins.

The drive modes are very useful, I drive out of my area in comfort, quietly (except the loud start up) and then switch to Individual which is in my case set to comfort, but with the exhaust valves opened. Dynamic mode raises the idle RPM and is another animal altogether for when you wish to press on.

Anyway more to follow but here are some pictures, hoping to snap some more this weekend.

Never had this treatment before….

Edited by joropug on Saturday 15th October 11:06

[Nickbrapp]

Very classy, I love that blue colour and this generation of A5 is one of the best looking cars on the market, great engine set up too.

Any plans?

[joropug]

Nickbrapp said:

Very classy, I love that blue colour and this generation of A5 is one of the best looking cars on the market, great engine set up too.

Any plans?

Cheers - It certainly does look the part, such nice lines and i think the Sportback even more so than the coupe.

Its under warranty for a year so nothing on the performance front, I'm struggling to think of anything it is crying out for to be honest- I have even come to like the Chrome on it of which there is plenty. Perhaps a black honeycomb grill at some point.

One thing I am a little disappointed with is the B&O Stereo. It has an independent subwoofer controller set to max, but it's not that bassy. Turning the bass of the speakers up makes the interior rattle too much. I've found a bit of a middle ground and biased it towards the back and it's definitely improved. I might however look at some dynamat installation in the future and replace the centre speaker - apparently quite a common mod.

[village24]

Lovely car OP.

I find your comments re the lag interesting, I often drive my brothers S5 and I find the engine and gearbox to be rather lazy, I find it does have lots of lag and that the powerband is quite narrow. Can definitely see why the rs5 is a twin turbo.

That being said, I find it a lovely place to sit and it does what all S cars do which is offer the best of both worlds.

[Summit_Detailing]

Lovely choice in a great colour

I like the silver trim as it shows off the glass profile...but I appreciate I am probably in the minority.

Shame the dealer didn't clean the exhaust tips!

Cheers,

Chris

[Fusion777]

Lovely! Great condition. Was looking yesterday and seems you can pick these up in coupe form from £25k now (probably not in as good condition/spec as yours), which doesn't seem too bad given the performance and quality on offer.

[RammyMP]

That’s the car I should have bought instead of the diesel Q5 I did buy!

Lovely car!

[joropug]

village24 said:

Lovely car OP.

I find your comments re the lag interesting, I often drive my brothers S5 and I find the engine and gearbox to be rather lazy, I find it does have lots of lag and that the powerband is quite narrow. Can definitely see why the rs5 is a twin turbo.

That being said, I find it a lovely place to sit and it does what all S cars do which is offer the best of both worlds.

I think when its in the right gear, it's pretty responsive - The trick is to tell the car right away if you want to downshift either by using the paddles or stabbing the throttle, gets it teed up quicker.

Summit_Detailing said:

Lovely choice in a great colour

I like the silver trim as it shows off the glass profile...but I appreciate I am probably in the minority.

Shame the dealer didn't clean the exhaust tips!

Cheers,

Chris

I am warming to the chrome too - It breaks it up a bit. May change my mind in the future but we shall see. Yes I did notice the exhausts! Forums suggest one pipe on each side gets coked up more than the other too due to the valve which seems to annoy people more than it should.

Fusion777 said:

Lovely! Great condition. Was looking yesterday and seems you can pick these up in coupe form from £25k now (probably not in as good condition/spec as yours), which doesn't seem too bad given the performance and quality on offer.

Yes pretty much the cheapest they get at the moment is 23-24k for a non cat model on higher miles with lower spec. Cazoo seemed to have a lot but it was like speaking to an AI when enquiring about the service history, literally zero clue.

I actually was fine with a coupe if it was right, I test drove one in another Main Dealer that was at the time that was £28,900 - It was a touch scruffy in places but they assured me it would be sorted. I phoned to leave a deposit but before doing so did a HPI, dealer lied about the number of owners (4 previous, not 2 total) and 'Full Audi History, because it needs it to reach our forecourt' turned out to be 1 Audi service in 2018, a 3 year gap, and a random garage invoice.

I think the best value/spec is around £30k at the moment - Unless it's not a long term purchase, in which case the cheap (not cheap) ones might be a better choice for a quick flip. What's also worth noting is at £25k, you are looking at almost like for like age and mileage against an S3.....

RammyMP said:

That’s the car I should have bought instead of the diesel Q5 I did buy!

Lovely car!

Sure the Q5 is lovely anyhow, thanks! We have a MK1 Facelifted Q3 S-Line alongside this, Audi household now it seems.

[Nelka]

I’ve had virtually the same car for just under a year now & absolutely love it. As a family car that also keeps me entertained, it’s fantastic.

Things to watch out for/check - the air box gets full (like REALLY full) of leaves. Whip off the lid & give it a hoover. The rear lower spring mounts are prone to splitting. I just replaced my near side one at 27k miles. Some info on page 4 of my thread below.

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

Enjoy the car!

[joropug]

Nelka said:

I’ve had virtually the same car for just under a year now & absolutely love it. As a family car that also keeps me entertained, it’s fantastic.

Things to watch out for/check - the air box gets full (like REALLY full) of leaves. Whip off the lid & give it a hoover. The rear lower spring mounts are prone to splitting. I just replaced my near side one at 27k miles. Some info on page 4 of my thread below.

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

Enjoy the car!

Nice one that’s first on the list to check then ! Mine is on 32k.

Yours is theoretically the same as mine on the outside but something looks different. I have only seen mine dry once so far though!

[CarlosSainz100]

Bit weird innit

[mholt1995]

This is LOVELY.

A Navarra Blue S5 Sportback has been on the bucket list ever since seeing Michael C Hall's character driving one in "Safe"



Have driven a diesel A5 Sportback and found it very pleasant!

[joropug]

mholt1995 said:

This is LOVELY.

A Navarra Blue S5 Sportback has been on the bucket list ever since seeing Michael C Hall's character driving one in "Safe"



Have driven a diesel A5 Sportback and found it very pleasant!

I had forgotten about that! Was a big Dexter fan so watched it when it first came out.

Have hit lots of traffic since buying it so was at around 24mpg average but got 34ish today on a longer run which is not bad at all.

[Funk]

That's a very lovely-looking motor..! Nice one joropug.

[joropug]

CarlosSainz100 said:

Bit weird innit

Man moth?

Funk said:

That's a very lovely-looking motor..! Nice one joropug.

Cheers mate - well chuffed.

Under the bonnet, one finds the engine:

[ValuableWhistle]

you've gotta ave' your critics

[joropug]

ValuableWhistle said:

you've gotta ave' your critics

Well, let’s see Wendy’s little car when it comes out

[8IKERDAVE]

Very nice indeed! I have the same car albeit the B8.5 a year older and completely different shape. But you know...the same

I love mine, did a stage 1 on it earlier in the year which really woke it up. They're a completely 'do all' car. This has been used as my daily, to ferry the family to Germany for 2 weeks, lugging stuff around for work and an evening blast car for me when I fancy it. Not sure about yours but mine suffers from the standard Audi numb steering feel and sometimes in comfort mode I'd like it to downchange a bit quicker. Other than that, very little to complain about.

[joropug]

8IKERDAVE said:

Very nice indeed! I have the same car albeit the B8.5 a year older and completely different shape. But you know...the same

I love mine, did a stage 1 on it earlier in the year which really woke it up. They're a completely 'do all' car. This has been used as my daily, to ferry the family to Germany for 2 weeks, lugging stuff around for work and an evening blast car for me when I fancy it. Not sure about yours but mine suffers from the standard Audi numb steering feel and sometimes in comfort mode I'd like it to downchange a bit quicker. Other than that, very little to complain about.

ah nice got a thread?

I'd imagine performance is pretty similar, the main difference would be the gearbox. I like the B8.5 too, in fact I like all of the 5 iterations!

Interesting that the B9.5 is a diesel.

[Funk]

I'm more than a little envious. Makes the replacement for my 8-series (which I'm picking up on Weds) seem rather lacklustre in comparison...!

To be fair I bet yours was a few quid more than I've spent though.