2017 Audi A5 vs BMW 5 Series

What's the difference?

The A5 Cabriolet is quite the boulevardier. It's been quite a while since I've driven such a calm car and its effect on me - apart from the sunburn - was marked. It's not a car you feel the need to rush in, and with the top down on a nice drive it's almost unbeatable, partly because you can take tolerant people with you.

Not all superheroes wear capes, and we're proud to report the 530e does its bit for green motoring without feeling the need to shout about it. And with no price or specification penalty, it's easier being green than ever before, and the pricing of this BMW really puts the cat amongst the canaries.

The new A5 is a more shapely machine than the design classic it replaces, with Audi's new-found fondness for the clamshell-style bonnet and what the company calls the 'Tornado line' along its flanks. It's still sharp and stands apart from the less well-resolved German competition.

Curiously, this isn't as good looking as any of the current A5s or even the Cabriolet it replaces. The higher rear end which has to accommodate the roof gear throws the visual balance out of the profile. Even with 18-inch wheels, it looks a little top-heavy (19s would go a way towards fixing that). If you walk around, though, and really get down low and in front, it does look pretty good, and it's even not bad with the roof up. 

Inside is virtually identical to the Coupe's cabin, which is to say very good indeed. Audi continues to lead the way with classy interiors, with judicious use of finishes and horizontal lines to produce a calm, measured passengers space. Materials are excellent - if it looks like metal, it is - with lovely soft leather and only one or two plastic panels that feel scratchy (but we had to go looking for them).

Crucially, there's nothing weird about the way the 530e looks. While some green cars look like they've been designed by one of the kids from 3rd Rock from the Sun, the 530e looks much the same as the rest of the range, save a few tiny but telltale giveaways - like the e-drive badging outside, and what looks like a bonus fuel flap tucked in behind a front wheel that houses the whole plug-in bit.

And we really, really like it. It's elegant and statesman-like from every angle, and looked especially important in the deep-blue colour of our test vehicle. It's not over-designed, with body creases used sparingly, and the occasional glint of polished silver that rings the windows and the grille adds a final sense of shininess to an understated design. 

Inside, there's more going on than you might normally find in a BMW. The hugely complicated digital display screen now includes everything from battery charge, power usage to the usual assortment of speedometers and petrol readouts. 

It doesn't feel overdone or crazily festooned, but there's more at play here than in your usual BMW.

The dash is busy, too, with a wide screen emerging from a centre stack that also houses a CD player and a digital aircon setup, which in turn sits above a complex centre console from which you can alter driving settings, control the multimedia or cycle through electric modes. It doesn't feel overdone or crazily festooned, but there's more at play here than in your usual BMW.

Elsewhere inside, the seats are beautifully designed, with a quilted leather highlight through the middle, while the gloss-black strip that lines the dash hides a dual strip of ambient interior lights that also runs across all four doors.

Being a convertible, sacrifices must be made, and not the Humphrey Appleby type. While Audi will tell you that it's a four-seater, it's really a 2+2. Which is, you know, okay, and means that the +2s will be fine for short journeys if they have a bit of limb flexibility.

Front-seat occupants enjoy a pair of cupholders and deep door pockets that will take bottles at a pinch. Those front seats are very comfortable and for an "entry" level, very comfortable and much better-looking than the basic seats in an A4. The seatbelt presenters, which proffer your safety strap when you get in the front seats, are a nice touch, too - so nice a touch, the lady of the house felt compelled to thank them every time.

Rear-seat passengers, while missing out on head and leg room (well, headroom with the top up, at least) have their own temperature controls and air vents, two cupholders and a slot under the armrest where a phone can go.

The boot is a surprising 380 litres and you can thank the choice of soft-top rather than a hard lid for that.

As the world's motoring tastes shrink faster than a lap-banded Clive Palmer, it's easy to forget the joys of the full-size sedan, but the space for passengers and luggage in the 5 Series will have you questioning your downsizing ways.

Upfront, there's plenty of room between front-seat riders, who will also share two smallish cup holders, along with room in each front door for bottles. There's also a dedicated wireless charge pad (which, because of its tight design, is crazy difficult to actually remove your phone from), but you'll also get two USB points and a power outlet that's hidden in the sizeable centre storage bin as standard fit.

Backseat riders get heaps of space, both in width and in leg room behind the front seats. And there's twin air-con temp controls and twin power outlets, too. But middle-seat passengers will be forced to sit with their legs on either side of the raised tunnel, which will definitely impact on comfort.

The boot's still sizeable, despite shrinking slightly to house the battery/fuel tank setup

Best to ditch the fifth passenger, then, and deploy the pull-down seat divider, which also houses two cup holders. Finally, there are three ISOFIX attachment points, one for each seat in the back.

The boot's still sizeable, despite shrinking slightly to house the battery/fuel tank setup (the tank has been moved further back to accomodate the batteries), and can be adjusted to be a flat load area if you'd like, offering up to 410 litres with the rear seats in place.

The 530e commands a 530i-equalling $108,900 price tag, which is genuinely impressive when you consider all the extra bits and pieces that go into make a plug-in hybrid. That money buys you a well-equipped car, and only those allergic to money need reach for the options list.

As standard, you'll find leather-wrapped - and heated in the front - sports seats, 19-inch alloy wheels and a 10.25-inch touchscreen that pairs with a really very good 16-speaker Haman Kardon stereo. Wireless Apple CarPlay is available, but it'll cost you an extra $500. To be honest, though, we didn't miss it.

You'll also find adaptive LED headlights, a huge head-up display (so big, in fact, that it impedes vision when climbing steep hills), dynamic dampers, an auto opening/closing boot and a self-parking system, along with BMW's suite of self-driving tech - but we'll come back to that under the Safety sub-heading.

The 2.0 TFSI sees the computer turn up the volume to 185kW and 370Nm. These figures find the road via Audi's version of the Volkswagen seven-speed twin-clutch transmission, and all four wheels.

A 0-100km/h run will pass in a claimed 6.3 seconds. 

Drift around in pure EV mode and you'll be relying on the 530e's 83kW and 250Nm electric motor, which will provide what BMW refers to as "between 28 and 32 real-world kilometres".

Run out of range, or simply use too much throttle, and the 2.0-litre petrol engine comes into play, adding 135kW and 320Nm to the mix. All up, that's 185kW and 420Nm - respectable numbers by any measure, and enough to match the petrol-powered 530i's zero to 100km/h sprint of 6.2 seconds.

That power is fed through an eight-speed automatic transmission before being sent exclusively to the rear wheels, where it belongs.

Audi's claimed figure for the quattro is 6.7L/100km and 154g/km for the CO2 output. I didn't quite manage that - I got 9.1L/100km in a mix of city and highway driving, a fairly solid miss.

As with most cars fitted with this engine, the stop-start cuts in and you coast from 6km/h down to zero without engine assistance. 

Like a Facebook relationship status, it's complicated. The 530e will sip a claimed combined 2.3 litres per hundred kilometres on the claimed/combined cycle, which is amazing for a car this size. Better still, it seems genuinely achievable - at the vehicle's launch, our own Richard Berry recorded a stunning 2.0 litres per hundred kilometres on a short test route.

But that's with a full load of battery charge on board. For our week with the 530e we were unable to actually plug it in (living in Sydney, I can't afford a garage), so once the initial battery charge had been used we were back to mostly petrol power. Unlike some other plug-in hybrids we've driven, we found it very difficult to recharge the battery to any meaningful level using regenerative braking, so once we were flat we stayed flat. If we had plugged it in, it would have been a two-hour recharge using a specialised wall unit, or about four hours using a normal plug.

As a result, though, our fuel use was closer to 7.0 litres per hundred kilometres after some considerable real-world testing.

If it's serene progress you're after, the A5 Cabriolet is the car for you. This is possibly the smoothest, quietest four-seat (ahem) convertible on the planet until you're spending really big money.

Everything about it is quiet - on a top-down evening cruise at about 70km/h and the wind deflector in place (thereby ensuring an empty rear seat), the lady of the house and I were able to conduct a whispered conversation as though the back seat was occupied and we didn't want the occupant to hear. It was quite startling when we remembered the roof was off.

Roof up it's almost as quiet as the coupe and feels almost as stiff, too. There's no rubbing or sqeaking where the roof meets the header rail and it seals shut nice and tight. Wind noise is lower than plenty of fixed head cars we drive on a regular basis.

Over the shoulder vision isn't too flash, however, with a wide, dark C-pillar when the roof is up. Roof down, though, the world is all there for you to see.

Despite having a decent amount of power, this isn't meant as a car to get you excited. The suspension is fairly easygoing, the steering light and easy, and the ride plush. It will move when you ask it - and it will move quickly - so in that way it's an all-rounder, it just won't tear up the tarmac. Which is fine, that's not what it's for.

There's so much to like about the way the 530e sets about saving the world, and that's mostly because it doesn't shout about it, either to the driver or the outside world.

It's very much an underpants inside its pants superhero, which makes us like it even more. Set off in EV mode, and the 530e will drift silently away from the curb, burning battery power over fuel for as many as 30(ish) kilometres. But equally important, the shift from green to gas is largely imperceptible, with the petrol engine joining in willingly when you ask it to - usual via a prod of your right foot.

It is so effortlessly smooth that you need to really pay attention to notice the eight-speed 'box changing gears at city speeds, and it's commendably quiet, whichever drive mode you're in.

Downsides? Well, it doesn't feel quite as sharp as it's conventional-engined siblings. The batteries add around 230kg in weight, which never helps, and it all feels a little softer and a little less dynamic, even with Sport mode engaged. BMW assures us the adaptive suspension setup and tune is identical, but the 530e feels noticeably softer when you tackle a twisting back road. And that encourages you to use your right foot a little more, which in turn negates the whole electric thing in the first place.

One of the great joys of BMWs has always been their ability to transform from cosseting comfort to rear-drive rocket when you want them to, and you can't help but notice the 530e isn't quite up to that challenge. But if your intentions are mostly city- and freeway-based, then this plug-in BMW is almost indiscernible from its petrol-powered sibling.

You'll want for little here, with front, front-side and full curtain airbags joining parking sensors, a surround-view camera and a self-parking system.

You can also expect active cruise control, lane control assist with lane keep assist (so it will stay between the lane markings for you), AEB and cross-traffic warning. And all of that means that, technically, the 530e can drive for you. That is, of course, if you don't mind driving like a dick - in full-autonomous mode it will swerve from lane marking to lane marking like it's playing bumper bowling.

Audi offers a three-year/unlimited kilometre warranty with roadside assist. Servicing is every 12 months or 15,000km. You can purchase a three-year/45,000km service plan for $1670, which works out at $556 per year.

Like the rest of the 5 Series range, the 530e falls under BMW's three-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty. There are no set service intervals, either, with BMW using what it calls 'condition-based' servicing. In other words, the car will tell you when it requires a trip to the service centre.

The batteries are covered by a separate warranty covering six years or 100,000km.