AUDI A5
Image. The Audi A5 Cabriolet is all about image. In a range filled with niche models, from two-door coupes to five-door Sportbacks to coupe crossovers, a convertible is still the best way to get noticed. After all, remember the fuss about a certain Princess Diana eschewing something British for an Audi Cabriolet, a young William and Harry catching the breeze in the rear seats, back in 1994?
The A5’s actually from the same lineage as that Audi 80-based Cabriolet from the 1990s, and if you squint a bit there are even some visual similarities, from the stocky and handsome proportions, to the way the modern A5 carries over the silver-painted windscreen surround, just as the 80 Cabriolet did.
Like that earlier cabrio, the A5 is also a car for cruising rather than carving corners. It’s not that the A5 is a bad handler – far from it, in fact. But the first generation, 2009-2016 car, which is the one you’ll find most commonly in our budget in both pre- and post-2012 facelift forms, prioritises rock-solid stability, abundant grip, and refinement over agile handling and driver feedback.
At the same time, Audi’s sport-orientated trim levels and fashionably large alloy wheels mean it doesn’t ride quite like the cruiser you’re expecting, though it also doesn’t shimmy and wobble anything like as much as open cars used to. In fact, all but the most neglected of A5 Cabriolets should still feel pretty solid, both structurally and in terms of their fixtures and fittings. In
