AUDI S5 AVANT

New look, new platform, new powertrain tech, new four-wheel drive system and even new naming for Audi's compact executive estate

This is the new Audi S5 Avant, and that's neither a typo nor the promise of some sort of coupé-based shooting brake.

As you might have noticed, Audi is shaking up its naming structure so that all the odd-numbered cars have combustion engines while all the even-numbered cars have batteries and electric motors.

After being known as the 80 for 25 years and the A4 for 20, Audi's compact executive saloon/estate now prefers to be known as the A5; and as per tradition, there's a faster version, with S for sporty.

I'm focusing on the S5 Avant first, because it's the most interesting of the bunch, then looking at the A5 saloon on p27.

In some ways, the S5 Avant is reassuringly familiar, because here stands a compact estate car with a petrol V6 engine.

Beruhigung durch Tradition, or something. Actually, that's not fair, because there are plenty of changes from the old S4 Avant.

First off, this car isn't actually all that compact any more. It has grown 67mm in length and 13mm in width, making it very similar to an early-2000s A6. It remains manageable, but I can't help but wonder where the bloat will stop.

We can't even blame an all-new platform, because while it has a

new name (Premium Platform Combustion, or PPC), it's really an evolution of what went before.

The A5 remains slightly unusual among similarly sized Volkswagen Group cars (like the Skoda Superb and VW Passat) in carrying its engine lengthways rather than transversely. That layout enables it to have that V6, send most of its power to the rear wheels if the situation calls for it and ride on more sophisticated suspension (four-link front, fivelink rear) than an MQB-based car.

The most interesting development is in the powertrain.

The 3.0-litre V6 is fundamentally a familiar one, but it's now a hybrid.