Bruce Newton, The Sydney Morning Herald

The diesel version of the five-door coupe is the best vehicle to wear the A5 badge.

Good:
• Rides, handles and steers with the best balance of any A5
• strong performance excellent economy.

2 Minute road test:

Competitors

There’s perception and then there’s reality. Audi wants you to believe the A5 Sportback creates a whole new passenger-car niche. However, this is actually a hatchback derivative of the A4 with a sexier name and look.

PETER MCKAY – Artist’s illustration of 2013 Audi A2

The original A2 was considered a car ahead of its time, and Audi is set to bring it back – this time with cheaper steel construction.

Audi is expected to revive the A2 hatchback that became famous in the late ’90s for its aluminium construction.

An A2 has become the only obvious gap in Audi’s family of passenger cars, following this week’s launch of the A1 sub-compact car.

The A2 was Audi’s first tilt at a compact car and was sold in Europe between 1999 and 2005, though while it was highly acclaimed it never reached viable sales volumes.

Despite a light kerbweight reducing fuel consumption to as low as 3.0L/100km on one model, and some admirable green values, the A2’s aluminium construction made it too expensive to buy. Five years after production finished, Audi says the A2 is proving popular all over again.

“Many customers are returning to the A2,” said Audi’s head of development dynamics, Dr Horst Glaser. “It is very popular as a used car. It was ahead of its time but now of course everyone is talking about fuel, C02 and lightweight consumption.”

He hints the A2 is not dead and buried. “There is a missing link between the A1 and A3. Who knows?” was Dr Glaser’s enigmatic comment.

The A2, however, is understood to have already been approved for launch by 2013, though switching to steel to keep building costs down.

The second-generation A2 is expected to be offered with various drivetrains including battery-electric only, hybrid and conventional three-cylinder engines.

PETER MCKAY – Artist’s illustration: 2013 Audi Q1

A1 family will expand as Audi chases its 1.5 million annual sales target for 2015.

Audi will produce further variants of its new baby luxury car, the A1, with spin-offs expected to include a cabriolet, hot-hatch and soft-roader.

The German car maker believes the A1 will already help achieve a one million sales target for 2010, claiming it has taken more orders for the pint-sized hatch in the first four weeks than any other model in its history.

A five-door version of the Mini rival, previewed at last year’s Tokyo motor show, will be first to join the three-door A1 hatch that has just been launched in Europe, with the S1 hot-hatch already confirmed for 2011.

The S1 will be powered by the same 1.4-litre turbocharged and supercharged four-cylinder engine as used in the upcoming VW Polo GTI.

The A1 shares its platform with the baby Volkswagen. Audi’s response to a question about a convertible A1 suggests the model is in the pipeline.

“It is not planned but if acceptance of the A1 is as big as we think, a cabrio/convertible will be contemplated,” days Audi’s head of development dynamics, Dr Horst Glaser.

Lips are tight, however, about a rumoured Q1 model that would become the smallest and most affordable of Audi’s range of soft-roaders.

The company already sells the Q5 and Q7, with a Q3 model confirmed to arrive by 2011. The A1 is also packaged to take a petrol-electric hybrid drivetrain if the decision is made to go in this direction.

“Every car company has its own ideas on the future of the motor car,” says Dr Glaser. “But no one really knows the right direction for future power trains.”

Dr Glaser has ruled out a smaller and more affordable Audi we in the foreseeable future. “There is no thinking about a smaller car at the moment.”

PETER MCKAY – Drive heads to Berlin, Germany, to test the world’s smallest luxury car.

Audi’s new sub-compact hatch, the A1 – its first go at a such a small premium car – will certainly get the attention of the 2011 versions of the old inner-city yuppies.

It has the looks and features. And a desirable badge. It’s also a fun drive. The hardest questions they’ll need to ask themselves are what colour and what engine.

Turbo diesels are rightly all the rage, especially among European car makers; their appeal is a usual joyous driveability and of course their frugality at the pump.

But Drive’s choice of the two engines on offer with the A1 when it arrives early next year is definitely the petrol-sipping 1.4-litre turbocharged TFSI version.

Due in large part to the A1’s low weight – 1040kg – the 90kW turbo TFSI petrol engine (which powers the base model Golf locally) is lively enough – and economical, too.

Audi claims its weight is the lowest in the segment. The petrol A1’s claimed zero-100km/h time is a reasonable 8.9 seconds.

That’s hardly rocket-like but it’s handy enough. More importantly, maybe, is the engine’s pleasant drive characteristics, pulling willingly from around 1500 revs (this is a petrol four-cylinder, remember), with peak torque on tap between 1500 and 4000rpm.

It also comes with commendable noise suppression and refinement. We tried the six-speed manual and the seven-speed ‘S-tronic’ dual-clutch automated manual versions and consumption with both was a thrifty 7.4 litres/100km in a mix of 120km/h autobahn driving and heavy city traffic snarls.

The A1 TFSI is pleasantly quiet at 120km/h, too, when the engine is turning over at just 2500rpm in top. On the other hand, the 1.6 TDI turbo diesel feels surprisingly indolent low in the rev band, and doesn’t get percolating until around 1700rpm. It’s also noisy at low speed, though less so at cruising pace.

Its economy is up there with the best in the market. In real-world traffic conditions on a rural and city peak sampling of a five-speed manual TDI, Drive returned 4.2L/100km.

The largely straight and smooth tarmac roads in and around Berlin this week hardly provided definitive answers to the questions Drive was asking about the A1’s ride and handling.

We managed to find a few patchy pieces of road and some cobblestones that suggested that the A1’s ride is nowhere near as punishing on kidneys and teeth fillings as the Mini.

The question of whether the A1 offers premium-level comfort along with sporty handling needs to be determined closer to home in more familiar road conditions.

In the few winding bits we encountered, the little Audi changed direction purposefully with no loss of composure.

Body roll was minimal through the corners and there was no sign of the tendency of some front-wheel-drive cars to understeer or ‘push’.

The electronic limited slip diff, which is part of the ESP (stability control) system, does a fine job of computer-managing any nasty tendencies out of its handling behaviour.

The electro-hydraulic steering is also quite direct. Choosing manual or the S-tronic dual-clutch gearbox is another buyer conundrum.

Manual is more fun; the S-tronic is getting better and better, even in slow-speed situations where in the past it was sometimes bothersome.

The interior seems about A3 size, with good head room. Rear seat passengers can be accommodated with a little compromise.

The sports seats, with adjustable ride height and lumbar, are terrific, with excellent support and comfort. It has a handy functional side, too, with a versatile split-fold rear seat that can be folded flat to open 920 litres of cargo space.

The boot has a lid that can be positioned at two levels, depending on requirements. Beneath the lid is the battery, put there for improved weight distribution.

There is no spare, not even a space-saver. The A1 runs on 15-inch alloys for the Attraction trim level, 16s for the Ambition. 17-inch alloy wheels are optional.

If you’re after a sportier A1, an S1 model is coming next year.

STEVE COLQUHOUN – 2010 Audi RS5.

Thanks to an angry volcano, I’m part of an extremely exclusive group to have driven Audi’s newest performance hero, the RS5.

The car’s international launch was disrupted by the huge cloud of volcanic ash creeping across continental Europe.  Most of the journalists who actually made it to the launch scrambled to get home by whatever means at their disposal. Hundreds more, due to fly in from around the world, phoned in their apologies.

That left a select group to sample some V8 magic at full, glorious noise around the Ascari racetrack in the Spanish coastal hinterland.

First impressions are that it’s a lively little bugger, to use the technical terminology. It needs to be, though, with the likes of BMW’s mighty M3 coupe and the brutally powerful Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG sedan in its cross-hairs.

It’s off to a flying start under the bonnet, having nicked the brilliant 4.2-litre, naturally aspirated V8 engine from the Audi R8. For the RS5, Audi tickled out an extra 22kW to bring power to a mighty 331kW that’s available just shy of its stratospheric 8500rpm redline. Torque is unchanged but more than adequate at 430Nm from 4000 to 6000rpm.

Audi concedes forced induction is the way of the future because of the outstanding power-to-economy ratio of turbocharged engines, but took the traditional path with the RS5 and it’s a better car for it.

Acceleration is immediate, swift and linear, dispatching the 0-100km/h sprint in 4.6 seconds, and largely without guilt. A combined fuel consumption figure of 10.8 litres per 100km is outstanding for a V8-powered sports car, and undercuts its less-powerful R8 brother by a sizeable 2.3L/100km.

It’s teamed exclusively to a seven-speed dual clutch auto. This style of gearbox in other cars can tend to feel a bit busy, thunking up and down the box endlessly in suburban stop-start driving in the quest for fuel economy. Not so the intuitive RS5 unit, called S Tronic, that’s freakishly good at understanding your driving style and predicting what you’ll do next.

There’s always the steering wheel-mount paddle shifters if you’re the DIY type, and shift patterns can further be tuned to comfort (soft), dynamic (sporty), auto (variable) or individually tailored specifications. Dynamic mode is particularly aurally satisfying, allowing the engine to rev all the way around to its limit with a banshee howl, and greeting downshifts with a delightful crackle.

Audi has worked on the steering, and it’s indisputably more precise, responsive and confidence-inspiring than the A5 coupe on which the RS5 is based.

The RS5 joins a select few Audi performance models to bear the “RS” moniker, which loosely translates to stand for “racing sport”. To boost its track credentials Audi has developed a launch control system – stomp both the accelerator and the brake pedal simultaneously and when the car holds the tacho needle at 5500rpm, step off the brake for a perfect traction-controlled launch.

A racing-style spoiler recessed into the boot-lid is automatically raised at 120km/h and stows again when speed drops below 80km/h.

The piece de resistance, though, is an Audi-developed self-locking crown gear differential that works with the “quattro” all-wheel-drive system to hold a 60:40 rear-front split until traction is lost, when it can send up to 85 per cent of power to the rear wheels or 70 per cent to the front.

There’s also a torque vectoring system that detects when an unloaded inside wheel is about to break into wheelspin and gently applies an individual brake . The result is a confidence-boosting all-paw safety net that’s usually several steps ahead of you in arresting any loss of traction.

It comes with a penalty when compared to its BMW and Benz rivals, though, with the added weight of the all-wheel-drive system blunting a little bit of the RS5’s impressive power delivery.

Other minor niggles are a back seats that is so cramped it is almost uninhabitable, front seats you have to shift yourself on the base model, a mile-long options list and a sticker price that’s likely to be well north of $150,000 by the time it lands here later this year.

The new Audi A4 TDIe aims to mix luxury and sportiness with fuel efficiency.

Compromise is typically the name of the game for car buyers hankering after space and real-world fuel efficiency combined with a dose of sporty performance. Two outa three ain’t bad, right?

Now Audi says you can have it all with the greenest version yet of its A4 mid-size sedan, dubbed the 2.0 TDIe.

We’re testing the theory on the type of road trip that holidaying families might find themselves on: kicking off by wading through Adelaide’s morning peak hour and ending around seven hours and more than 500km later in outback Broken Hill.

The designated route is deficient of the type of roads that showcase sporting virtue, but no matter. Today’s trip is mostly about fuel; specifically, how much – or little – we’re going to use.

Along the way we’ll reinforce our opinion of the A4’s worth as an open-road tourer that pampers up to four occupants in comfortable and classy surroundings. We’ll arrive in the rural mining centre feeling fresh, courtesy of comfy and supportive leather seats and a generous equipment specification that includes cruise control, climate control, a 10-speaker audio system that includes full iPod integration, and automatic headlights and wipers.

The first order of the day is to get acquainted with the 2.0 TDIe’s headline act, a stop/start system that can shut off the engine when the car comes to a halt, saving fuel that is normally burnt when the car is idling. Adelaide’s brief but heavy peak hour provides ample opportunity, with plenty of traffic around to regularly hamper our progress.

Bring the A4 to a halt, slot the six-speed manual gearbox into neutral and remove your foot from the clutch. In most cases the engine switches itself off with a tiny but perceptible shudder, and sits idle and silent until the clutch is depressed. Then it springs back to life with a quick cough, and is typically ready for action before you can slot first gear and move your right foot from the brake to depress the accelerator.

It’s possible to deactivate the system by pressing a button in the centre console, but with a system that works this well, why bother? Other irregular activities will also cause it to shut down – stalling, for instance. To re-boot the system, though, you need to reactivate the dash-mounted key with two presses, rather than simply stabbing the more conveniently located engine starter button on the console. It’s a small blight on an otherwise well-devised design.

There’s also an automatic over-ride function that will prioritise the car’s needs – maintaining the climate control temperature or feeding other demands on the electrical system – by restarting the stopped engine if needed.

Hand-in-glove with the stop-start system is another cornerstone technology, Audi’s “Driver Efficiency Program”. It has the dual role of informing the driver what the car is doing, and telling them how to drive more efficiently. Opening a window while the climate control is working earns a rebuke, while holding a gear for too long also prompts a suggestion that you should be paying more attention to the gearshift indicator.

You can also view your instant and average fuel consumption on the same screen, quickly teaching you where you use most fuel. It becomes an involving challenge to try to undercut the average by moderating bursts of acceleration and coasting more frequently to squeeze more distance from the fuel tank.

Another handy gauge shows how much your ancillary functions – such as climate control – are contributing to fuel use, although it requires some mathematical nous to recalculate the litres-per-hour readout into the standard litres-per-100km measure.

Other fuel-saving technogies are not as obvious, but still apparent in day-to-day driving. Aerodynamic measures including a 15mm-lower ride height courtesy of sports-tuned suspension help the A4 to scythe more efficiently through the air and generate better balance and handling, but also produce a less forgiving ride with small-to-medium road acne transferred faithfully through the cabin. Low rolling-resistance tyres generate significant tyre noise on coarse-chip surfaces, but gear ratios reconfigured for fuel economy do little to dampen the A4’s enthusiastic response to requests for acceleration. Brake energy recovery and regeneration is seamless and unnoticeable.

At the heart of it all is Audi’s 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo diesel (or TDI, in Audi-speak) engine. With just 100kW of power but 320Nm of torque it’s flexible and willing, with equal enthusiasm for overtaking on the open road as for diving into a gap in traffic. The six-speed manual is relatively easy to use with a nice, positive clutch action but the lack of an automatic option – for which Audi is still working on a stop/start system – won’t overjoy some prospective customers.

So does it all make a difference to consumption? Or is it all metaphoric smoke and mirrors? Officially, the A4 2.0 TDIe gets a combined consumption figure of 4.8 litres per 100km, one litre per 100km better than the A4 2.0 TDI on which it is based.

In peak hour traffic, where cars normally drink the most, we saw around 3.0L/100km courtesy of frequent engine shutdowns, rising to 3.9L/100km by the time we reached the city limits as speed rose and traffic lights thinned. A couple more hours of highway driving nudged the average to 4.9L/100km by our lunch stop in the Clare Valley.

With trip computers reset we again hit the highway after lunch and with the stop/start system rendered redundant, consumption settled around the high fives, showing 5.7L/100km as we rolled into Broken Hill. Above the official average it may be, but we’d also rate it an above-average result relative to the comfort, space and ambience we’d enjoyed over the day.

Priced from $49,900 (plus on-road and dealer costs), the Audi A4 2.0 TDIe is the new starting point in the A4 range and undercuts its diesel-powered BMW and Mercedes-Benz competitors by more than $10,000 on price, and at least 0.6L/100km on official consumption.

Audi says it wants to woo hybrid drivers looking for more performance and sportiness. Although we’re yet to be convinced that the A4’s firmer ride will impress the conservative petrol-electric crowd, the A4 2.0 TDIe still ticks a lot of boxes.

JEZ SPINKS

New A1 will be sporty and customisable … just like BMW’s iconic British hatch.

Audi has revealed the production version of its new Mini rival.

The A1 will become the smallest Audi on the market when it reaches Australia in late 2010, with the German car maker saying it will feature multiple customisation options and sporty driving characteristics just like BMW’s iconic hatch.

Audi says the three-door A1 is targeted at younger buyers and will feature a high level of individualisation. The company, however, has also warned the hatchback is not going to be cheap for a small car, with pricing expected to follow the Mini with a starting point in the low-$30,000 bracket.

The four-seat interior will offer connections for Bluetooth and portable music players such as iPhones, as well as infotainment and multimedia systems based on those used in the company’s more expensive luxury vehicles.

Different seat colours are one of the options buyers will have to individualise the A1’s interior, while contrasting paint for the car’s roof arches will also be available.

The contrasting roof arches featured on the 2007 Metroproject quattro concept that closely previewed the A1, which is based on the same underpinnings as the forthcoming Volkswagen Polo.

The production A1 hatchback retains the arched shape and short overhangs of the concept, and is easily identified as an Audi by design cues such as the dominant grille, LED daytime running lights and sharply styled head- and tail-lights.

At 3950mm in length, the A1 is 251mm longer than a Mini Cooper hatch. It should also be more practical, with more boot space (267 v 160 litres).

The A1 is also set to be Audi’s most fuel efficient model, launching with four four-cylinder engines featuring both turbocharging and direct injection and ranging in consumption from 3.8 to 5.4 litres per 100km.

Engines include two 1.6-litre turbo diesels with 66kW and 77kW of power respectively, and two turbo petrols comprising 63kW 1.2-litre and 90kW 1.4-litre.

A seven-speed dual-clutch automated manual will be a cost alternative to the standard manual gearbox.

Stop-start and regenerative brakes will contribute to efficiency, while the 1.2-litre engine also benefits from a new temperature management system.

Five-door and convertible versions of the A1 are expected to follow the three-door, as well as S1 and RS1 performance versions.

Autonomous TTS coupe to compete at 2010 Pikes Peak – driver not included.

A remote control car that can drive itself will take part in one of the world’s most challenging – and treacherous – motor races.

Using advanced electronics and a sophisticated internet link the driverless Audi TT is set to compete as a technological showcase in motorsport races next year, including America’s renowned Pikes Peak Hill Climb.

The Autonomous Audi is currently controlled by a computer fitted inside its boot, and from 2010 will run using Java real-time programming updates received via telemetry from up to 32km away.

The German car maker says the aim is for such cars to communicate with a network aerial towers – to send and receive telemetry signals – in a similar manner to mobile phone aerials.

Audi, however, is pre-empting a backlash from motorists by stressing that the Autonomous Audi TTS Coupe is not designed to dispense with drivers in the future.

It says the vehicle “is intended to explore the best capabilities of current and future driver assistance technologies to help Audi enhance the experience behind the steering wheel for future driver generations”.

The executive director of Audi parent company Volkswagen’s Electronics Research Laboratory, which is working on the project in tandem with the US’s Stanford University, says the Autonomous TTS’s technology could help to give motorists the reflexes of a skilled motorsport driver to avoid accidents.

“We believe that developing a car that can perform as well and respond as rapidly as a professional driver, like a race or rally driver, will eventually be able to drive its way around incidents in a way that a ‘normal’ driver couldn’t.

“While a less experienced driver may freeze or make the wrong ‘correction’, the Autonomous TTS would be able to take over or guide the driver to escape from a critical situation. It could also compensate if a driver is inattentive to conditions or distracted, but of course it won’t prevent all accidents.”

The Autonomous TT is based on the TTS coupe that is powered by a 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine.

2009 Audi Eora & Espire concepts

A competition intended to show the cars of tomorrow has come up with designs both sleek and hideous.

Remember the time-travelling DeLorean DMC-12 that featured in the Back to the Future movies?

Well, imagine it’s just pulled up in your driveway and the film’s wild-haired scientist, Emmett Brown, has offered to take you on a trip 21 years into the future.

You step inside and with a snap of the gullwing doors and a surge of the flux capacitor you arrive in the year 2030. What do the streets and cars look like? What are young people now driving?

Some of the world’s top automotive designers have tried to answer those very questions (without the use of a time machine) and have come up with some seriously out-there answers.

The LA Auto Show, which this year is being held from December 4, features an annual design challenge in which leading brands are asked to submit visions for how the vehicles of the future will look.

This year the American design divisions of companies including General Motors, Toyota and Nissan were given the theme Youthmobile and asked to create renderings of vehicles that young people would be driving 21 years from now.

At the outset they were reminded of the key role cars played in young people’s lives today and were likely to play in 2030. Vehicles provide freedom and the ability to socialise and they’re also an important means of self-expression.

The designers were asked to consider the impact growing up with mobile phones, online communities and webcams would have on consumers two decades from now.

“Automotive designers have always been fascinated with the next generation of drivers,” the director of the Design Los Angeles segment of the motor show, Chuck Pelly, says.

“This year’s design challenge has provided them with the opportunity to use their creative talents to revisit the concept of ‘the car’ with new eyes, using the hottest technologies to both explore and fulfil the needs of young people.”

The submissions from the brands varied widely, although there were common themes. Electric vehicles, cars that were able to morph their shape and cars that leant themselves to clever youth marketing were recurrent motifs.

So too were vehicles that allowed connectivity to social networking sites. A winner will be picked by a panel of experts during the show and while it’s unlikely any will ever go into production, they at least show where designers believe we’re heading.

So what did the individual companies pitch? Honda sees increased interaction between cars and humans in 2030.

“Emerging technologies, such as genetic integration and advanced adaptive polymers, will shatter the current paradigm of what is now considered ‘personally’ unique,” it says in its pitch.

The company proposes shape-shifting vehicles that could modify their size and wheelbase depending on the constraints of the environment around them.

Nissan sees a rosy 2030 in which electricity has replaced petrol as the main propellant for cars and US highways have been electrified to create an ultra-efficient, high-speed network called the GRID.

The company’s electric offering is the crab-like V2G and it suggests consumers would be able to buy access to the electricity grid in the same way they subscribe to mobile phone plans.

General Motors sees a blurring of the lines between gaming, learning to drive and driving. It proposes cars that could drive themselves to destinations when a passenger puts an address into the on-board sat-nav device.

Young passengers would be encouraged to compete with the sat-nav on a driving simulator. When their skills developed they would be allowed control of some features. Advanced drivers would be able to modify vehicles for increased power.

Mazda envisions a 2030 where personalisation and customisation of cars is all-important.

It sees young people designing their own vehicles online based around a platform called Souga, with the company then fulfilling these requirements.

It paints a future where it costs young people just $US2000 to buy the physical car.

Digital communication and information devices, it predicts, will be integrated into fashion apparel, eliminating the need to include these systems in cars.

Toyota’s offering for 2030 takes into account that education levels are rising in the US and young consumers are increasingly well educated and proactive.

It proposes LINK, “an affordable, customisable, mass-transit vehicle for students with high social-networking demands and continuously evolving preferences”.

These small personal vehicles would be kept at central hubs. They would allow users to tap into social networking sites, trade music and compare class schedules.

Finally, Audi went beyond the brief and created two concept cars’ a performance vehicle and an affordable, entry-level car. Both blend lightweight metals and composite materials and feature wheels without hubs.

The company says its low-profiled eSpira would be a “technological tour-de-force” performance car. An advanced logic system would allow drivers to steer the vehicle with body movements and gestures, making motoring a more organic experience.

Perhaps a more realistic option for (typically impoverished) young motorists is the company’s eOra, which it envisages would share the logic control system with the eSpira but be more of a city car with a small footprint and good agility.

V2G
Maker Nissan
Features The company envisages a 2030 in which national highways are electrified (like a dodgem track) to provide power to electric cars.Young consumers would buy access to the system in the way they buy mobile phone credits today.

Hero
Maker General Motors
Features This is a selectively self-driving car that allows new drivers to assume full control only after they have proved themselves on on-board driving simulators. As driving skill increases, so do power options.

Helix
Maker Honda
Features Honda proposes vehicles that can morph to suit their environment. In built-up city areas the vehicle has a small footprint, whereas on the open road it has a larger,more stable platform capable of high speed.

Souga
Maker Mazda
Features Young people are able to design their dream cars online and have them built on the Souga platform. One example is the minimal, lightweight sports coupe (pictured above).

LINK
Maker Toyota
Features Toyota proposes a network of small motorised vehicles, which would be kept at central hubs and personalised by young users.Access to social networking sites is a given.

eOra and eSpira
Name Ora commuter vehicle and eSpira performance car.
Maker Audi.
Features Both incorporate on-board computers that allow them to be driven using subtle body movements and gestures.