Audi A5 Sportback

Report by Charis Whitcombe

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Audi is on a mission to expand its range and - recession or not - they're sticking to their guns. The A5 Sportback is the latest in a long line of new models, and it's a cunning solution to the coupé-hatchback dilemma. Take the company car market. Imagine you're a thrusting young executive who wants the flash of a coupé but your company's fleet manager insists on the solid practicality of four doors. What do you do? You could resign and switch jobs to a company with a more relaxed attitude or - assuming you're successful enough to warrant a £25,000-plus company car - you could go for a five-door coupé: the A5 Sportback. The beauty of this car (in more ways than one) is that it has the requisite four doors but also revels in the sporting lines of coupé.

It's a quandary that many private car buyers face, too. You're at an age, maybe, where you think practical thoughts about back seats and bootspace but you're not willing to admit defeat and buy a nice sensible saloon.

Not only does the A5 Sportback look the business, it ticks all the practical boxes, too. For starters, it has stupendous bootspace: with the rear seats in place, the Sportback has almost equivalent luggage space (480 litres) to an A4 saloon. When the seats are dropped, it has even more (980 litres). To prove just how much room there is in the back (and that a huge weight over the rear wheels doesn't make the car undriveable), Audi packed a load of journalists aboard the Channel Tunnel, in a fleet of new A5 Sportbacks, and sent us off to the French hypermarkets for a spot of Christmas shopping. It was a brave thing to do.

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