Today I drove the new RS5 for 6 hours and 250 miles on one of my canyon loops. No surprises. It was largely as expected. A few highlights:
Let's take the elephant in the room first and talk about the powertrain. The good news is I didn't hate the transmission, but it also was nothing special. It's good enough that I could live with it, but not at the level of the S-tronic of the old RS5. The most important thing is that it is responsive. It shifts when you tell it to. The upshifts are pretty much instant, but not as crisp as with the S-tronic. The downshifts are sometimes delayed going into a corner, but it didn't bother me, because by the time I needed to accelerate the lower gear was engaged. Overall not a bad transmission. I kept running out of revs, though and regularly bumped into the rev limiter or the transmission refused to downshift. The 6400 rpm redline would take some getting used to. The engine was pretty good, too. Definitely not as visceral and exciting as the 4.2 V8, though, but the good news is that it barely has any turbo lag. There's a little bit of lag from a stop, but otherwise it's pretty responsive just not all that exciting. I didn't mind the sound actually. It kinda sounds good and the exhaust bangs and pops. It's all just a bit muted. That's an overall theme of the car. It feels a bit isolated and muted.
Disappointing was the sport differential tuning. It's significantly tamed. The car lacks the aggressive rear axle push and playfulness into corners that the old one has. I had to check several times to make sure it was actually in dynamic mode. Initially I was like "Hello! Is this thing on?". On the plus side you can feel the weight loss. The driving dynamics were overall quite a blast in the canyons. Instead of oversteer the car wants to 4-wheel drift. I was pretty much going sideways with all 4 tires drifting every other corner. Definitely fun, too!
The DRC suspension is an adjustable suspension done right. I can't emphasize this enough. Most adjustable suspensions, which includes the magnetic ride on the TT-RS and R8 as well as all the other offerings of Audi and cars like the M4 and C63 S kinda suck. They are either too stiff in Comfort mode and almost undriveable in Dynamic mode or nothing special in Dynamic mode and strangely floaty in Comfort mode. The DRC suspension in the new RS5 has an excellent range. Comfort mode is about like Dynamic mode of an A4/5. You can still feel the road, but bumps etc. are absorbed nicely w/o making the whole car float. Dynamic mode gives amazing body control, but you have to go fast, otherwise it's very bouncy. Flying through the canyons at 70, 80 mph was amazing. The suspension has just the right amount of body control, but in the slower parts I found myself putting it in Auto mode, as otherwise the ride became jarring. Therefore I found myself changing the Drive Select mode constantly whereas in my RS5 I don't have to do that. This highlighted the disappointing fact that Audi Sport didn't put the Drive Select button along with the engine start/stop button on the steering wheel like the other new RS models and the R8. I ended up configuring the asterisks button to change the Drive Select mode. Not quite as cool and not practical if you'd rather use it for another commonly used function. I configured the Individual mode with everything in Auto, except for Engine sound and sport differential in Dynamic and I kept going between Dynamic mode and Individual mode.
Other things worth mention. I'm now mostly in agreement with the recent threads about the RS5 not being worth it, unless you have access to roads to enjoy it or go to the track. For normal driving you are hard pressed to know that you are sitting in an RS. Just driving around town and on the highway coming from my RS5 which reminds you from the moment you start the engine that you are driving something else, it felt like I just stepped down to an S5. Honestly, if somebody had blindfolded me I would have thought it was an S5 at first. So, if all you do is commute to work and other mundane driving, you'll be wasting your money. You'll be driving a way overpriced A5 essentially.
No auto start/stop, yey! And the car is actually driveable in D. It doesn't feel castrated like the S models do. However, other than the lighter weight of the engine I fail to see the benefits. Fuel economy isn't better. I averaged about 16/17 mpg for the whole 250 mile trip with going full bore in the canyons. I average the same with my V8 RS5. I guess very long road trips and city driving will be different, but for me, the loss of driving sensation I get from the V8 has not much upside. The tank is still too small. I do this same loop on one tank in the R8, but with my RS5 and the new RS5 I come in on fumes to the only gas station en route once off the highway and have to fill up to make it home.
Overall it was a good day, but it didn't make me wanna sell mine and put in an order for the B9 RS5. I still find the interior an ergonomic disappointed and nothing special overall and the car just isn't very exciting in general. The looks also left me cold. Even in person I don't find the design very good looking and the fake vents all around are just cheesy. Not sure what to do next. I drove the C 63 S Coupe but didn't like it. Horrible transmission. I have to drive the facelift, though. The 9-speed MCT seems to be better. I drove an M4 and liked it a lot. The power delivery of the I6 is almost indistinguishable from a naturally aspirated engine and the DCT like the S-tronic is a step above the ZF8 in the RS5, but I'm just kinda done with BMW as a brand.
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Originally Posted by doady22
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