Audi A5 Ultra TDI first drive

A little bit of temptation for your company car list. The Audi A5 TDI Ultra sits alongside the A4 and A6 Ultras as the desirable two-door inclusion in Audi’s new range of fleet-targetted, low-emissions economy diesels.

It’s offered in front-drive form only, with one gearbox, one set of wheels and in one trim level – all of which is uncharacteristically straightforward for a German premium car maker. It also means you can’t inadvertently add £100 to your annual benefit-in-kind tax bill by ticking the wrong box on your order form – which is nice.

Mercifully, every A5 Ultra that Audi sells will be rated at 109g/km of CO2, and save a 40-per cent income tax paying fleet driver £370-a-year in BIK relative to an identically priced BMW 420d.

Replacing Audi’s range of ‘TDIe’-branded low-CO2 specials, the Audi A4, A5 and A6 Ultras use longer ratios for the higher intermediate gears than regular TDIs.

More crucially, their engines benefit from new high-pressure fuel injection and exhaust gas recirculation systems that make a peak 161bhp available over a wider band of revs than before, as well as making more torque – 295lb ft versus 280 – all from as low as 1750rpm.

Audi charges an identical list price for the A5 Ultra as a standard 2.0 TDI SE. Economy and emissions are improved from a combined cycle 61.4mpg in the regular 174bhp car to 67.3-, and from 120g/km to 109-. Meantime, the 0-62mph acceleration claim suffers to the tune of one solitary tenth of a second.

Considering that this is about as plain and ordinary as an Audi A5 can get, it’s a classy, plush, handsome and very creditable car.

Seven years young now, it’s weathered its time very well indeed. To these eyes, and importantly for a traditional coupe, the A5 is still attractive – all the more so because of the purity of its classic coupe look – and remains even more impressive to admire inside the cabin.

The latest Mercedes C-class may have raised the bar on material quality and richness – but then the latest C-class isn’t available as a two-door yet. And by comparison, the A5’s mix of satin and chrome-finished trims, matt and gloss black plastics, soft and smooth mouldings and chunky, solid switchgear is far from outclassed.

The standard seats could perhaps be a touch less flat and short-squabbed, and the pedals are slightly offset to the right. Still, as a place in which to simply spend time, you’d pick this over a new 4-series as well as Mercedes’ old-soldier C-class Coupe.

Audi also clearly still better understands how to produce mechanical refinement from a four-cylinder diesel engine than either BMW or Mercedes-Benz. The ‘Ultra’ TDi engine starts with a distant shimmy through the body, but is smooth and well isolated at all other times.

Responsive enough, too – assuming you’re in the right gear. The taller gearing in the top half of the manual ‘box makes 4th gear the one for overtaking on country roads, and 6th best left for quiet motorways.

Pick too high a ratio and you can catch the engine off-boost, before the turbo spools up at just under 2000rpm. But it takes very little time to get used to picking the right cog, and when you do, the engine delivers plenty of thrust right when you ask for it, and will spin beyond 4000rpm quietly and willingly enough when the need arises.