2017 Audi A5 vs 2020

What's the difference?

With last year's release of the new A4 on a brand-new platform, we braced ourselves for a stream of new cars based on the elegant sedan. And so it has happened - S4, A4 Avant, A4 Allroad, A5 Sportback, A5 Coupe and now the A5 Cabriolet. All that's left is the RS4 and the metamorphosis is complete.

The A5 Cabriolet is a relaunch of sorts - the drop-top hasn't been with us for a while, leaving us in the clutches of BMW's 4 Series (with its hard-shell convertible roof) and Mercedes' C-Class Cabriolet (soft top). Audi reckons just 10 per cent of A5s will be the Cabriolet, leaving the lion's share to the two-door coupe and five-door hatch - but we're a fickle bunch and might suddenly decide we like them more than that.

Richard Anthony Berry is my full name, and it’s never caused me any grief. Well, there was that time in high school when Andrew Grace discovered that my name could be shortened to Dick Berry and, like some sort out-of-control nuclear ribbing  reaction, the news spread through the entire school population.

But apart from that, and the life-long, fruit-related digs, my name has never caused me any issues (plus, each summer I can enjoy saying "Yep, I'm brown as a Berry".) The same probably can’t be said for the A5 Sportback 45 TFSI quattro S tronic S Line, which came to live with the Berry family.

Yup, the A5 Sportback 45 TFSI quattro S tronic S Line has an overly fussy name, so what exactly is the car that’s hiding behind all those made-up words?

For the sake of this review I’m going to shorten the name to A5 Sportback 45 TFSI – kind of like Dick Berry, only not as hilarious.