What does Audi’s S subbrand mean to you? As someone who daily drove an original C4-generation Audi S6 for a decade, it’s a big and burly sports sedan with more performance than a lot of sports cars of its day. All-wheel-drive traction, boost for days, and a manual transmission are the name of the game. In the last 34 years, Audi’s S has come a long way from where it began, and it’s no longer as in-your-face with the performance aspect, preferring to stick with understated luxury and grand touring highway-mile-eating quiet. Is that better? I guess it depends on your priorities.
After 34 years on sale as Audi’s compact flagship sports sedan, the S4 is dead, replaced by a new larger-in-every-dimension grand touring sedan, the 2025 S5. The brand has killed off its enthusiast-oriented machines, and there are no longer any coupes, convertibles, or sports cars of any kind. And before you ask, we’re not getting the wagon either, so shut your mouth and eat your slop little piggies — though the new S5 does have a liftback rear instead of a sedan trunk, effectively replacing the old S5 Sportback too.
Full disclosure: Audi flew me to Nice, France, put me up in a nice hotel, and supplied me with good food and wine so I could drive the 2025 S5.
Much as the original Audi S4 did in 1991, the new S5 is setting the stage for a revamped and hopefully revitalized four-rings brand. The traditional naming convention we’re used to, in practice by Audi for 30 years, has been thrown out the window. Going forward, odd numbers are for cars with internal combustion engines, while even numbers will be fully electric models. The A5 and S5 will sort of replace the A4 and S4, but the new platform is a size larger, splitting the difference between A4 and A6 in the old Audi lineup. Audi’s new A5 won’t compete directly with the BMW 3 Series or Mercedes C-Class as it typically has, but it’s not quite as large as the 5 Series or E-Class, either. Audi is taking a page out of the Cadillac playbook and running with something more CT4-sized. It’s bigger, is what I’m saying.
The car is based on a Audi’s new Premium Performance Combustion (PPC) architecture, but in reality it’s a heavily revamped revision of the existing MLB Evo platform used by the outgoing A4 and A5. The engine is still longitudinal and mounted ahead of the front axle, and it’s the same turbocharged 3.0-liter V6 with 349 horsepower that was used by the old S5. It still uses Quattro all-wheel drive, too. But because the car is bigger, it’s actually a tick slower from 0 to 60 mph, with a 4.5-second run up from 4.4 seconds in the outgoing S4. Audi doesn’t yet have an official weight for the S5, but the old S4 was 3,800 pounds, so you can bet it’ll be a chunky 4,000 plus.
Aside from being slightly larger and riding on lightly revised platform, the S5 is more or less a revamp of the old cars it size-up replaces. The driving experience will be familiar to anyone who has driven the prior S4, though larger, and the chassis itself is said to be significantly stiffer than the outgoing model for improved steering feel. This also allows the suspension to do its work to better effect, giving the car’s various drive modes more effect in the changes to suspension damping. The Comfort mode has a noticeably softer feel, and Sport mode will have you feeling a pea through 27 mattresses. But what is truly new here? Not much. Ze Germans have optimized ze experience, why would anything need to be changed?
Visually, I think the car is attractive. It teeters on being a bit lackluster, with its new upright grille and almost Ford-like aesthetic, but Audi manages to pull it off in a business suit kind of way. It’s very adult without faux sporty adornments or in-your-face design other brands would leap to include. In a world of BMW 340i M Sports, be an Audi S5.
The new car’s interior is a jump forward in terms of technology and rear seat comfort. Most of the car’s newfound length was added for rear seat legroom, likely in an appeal to the Chinese market. Before it would have been a bit cramped for a full-sized adult to sit in the back seat, but now it is entirely possible. I’m 6-foot-2 on a bad day, and I was able to fit in the back seat reasonably comfortably with the front seat adjusted to my seating position (an hour across town would be fine, but a several-hour road trip would get annoying).
Audi went all-in on screens for the new S5. In addition to the massive Virtual Cockpit screen behind the steering wheel, you get a curved panoramic 14.5-inch MMI center screen. If you want to, you can option in a third 10.9-inch screen for the passenger as well. The passenger screen can’t operate with Apple CarPlay, but it can download apps and be used independently, meaning your passenger can watch Netflix or YouTube. Some trick new privacy technology means the driver can’t see the passenger screen once the car is moving, unless it’s just set to show the navigation maps. You can see it crystal clear when the car is stopped, but once the car gets moving again the screen becomes a black void in the driver’s peripheral, though the passenger can still see it quite clearly.
A revised head up display is crystal clear and adds a level of comfort to the drive. Even for someone who is all torso like me, there was enough adjustability for me to be able to see it clearly. Audi also added some Microsoft AI bullshit to the car, allowing ChatGPT to answer questions for you while you’re driving. I tried to interact with it a few times, but like almost every voice command system I’ve ever used I quickly found it annoying and stopped asking.
The thing about the Audi S5 I still can’t stop thinking about weeks removed from the driving experience is the seats. Audi has always built some pretty good seats in my estimation, but these new sporty comfort seats are the perfect blend. This is the first time I’ve experienced a well-bolstered sport seat that didn’t beat the shit out of me, or put another way, the first time I’ve experienced a comfortable seat that felt like it would hold me in place through twisty roads. The massage functions were barely noticeable however, I would have liked a bit more pressure.
The Bang & Olufsen audio system in the S5 is killer. I’m not much of an audiophile, but it was crisp and clear no matter what was going on outside or what speeds I was traveling. New for the S5, B&O put a pair of speakers in each front headrest. The driver’s headrest transmits all of the instructions from the car’s navigation system directly, giving the driver exactly what they need to know without annoying everyone in the car.
Compared to the BMW M cars and Mercedes-AMG models that will beat you up for looking at them wrong, the new Audi S5 is a comfortable all-uses kind of car. It won’t win any track days, but it’ll eat up a mountain road with relative ease, and without causing seasickness in your passengers. Audi calls this a Grand Touring Sedan, and I guess that describes it well enough, though a true Grand Tourer would probably have more power these days.
This car is definitely a nice place to spend time, and it’s reasonably quick, but the passion and excitement is gone from S. If you want something comfortable with reasonable fuel mileage, you’ll want the coming A5. If you want something to stir your soul, you’ll likely have to wait until the RS5 arrives, whenever that may be. The S5 is left in some purgatory in between. It isn’t frugal, it isn’t inexpensive, and it isn’t a speed demon. The buyer for an S5 will be found somewhere in the middle ground. If you want reasonably quick and comfortable, and don’t want to shell out for all the speed and aggression of an RS, maybe the S5 is going to fit your bill.
Also, here’s a cute dog I saw in France:
