2012 Audi A5 - Styling Review

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The A5 Coupe is elegant and striking, especially in Audi's characteristic white color. But somehow, the open-air A5 Cabriolet adds a dash of decadence to the design. If we were spending more than $40,000 on a two-door luxury car from Audi, we'd want it to be the convertible.

Running gear is shared with the A4 sedan, but you might not know it just looking at the A5; they somehow do a lot more with the same proportions, offering up a much sexier profile.

The A5's strong, deep grille the muted aggression of its front end is perfectly in line with Audi's lineup, while it grabs some of the sculptural suppleness of musclecars like the Chevy Camaro into its styling languages, especially from the rear angles. The sideview's balanced, and striking, and there's just enough detail in back to accentuate the shape, not overwhelm it, as also complemented by distinctive rear LED lighting.

Inside, the A5 has all the gravitas to match the high-design exterior. It's lavish and luxurious, with high-grade materials and plenty of small details like the finely graded instruments and the light grace notes of metallic trim on switches and buttons. The dash shapes itself add up to a little more business than we'd like, but it works well, and two-tone leather and suede seats, along with aluminum or piano-black trims, combine to a wide range of appearances that help this cabin stand apart from ordinary wood-trimmed luxury interiors.