BBT

Took delivery of my S5 yesterday. Daytona gray, silver pearl leather, stainless steel trim (with piano black shift surround), tech, nav, B&O, manual transmission.

The car is simply amazing. Surpassed my expectations and it's worth waiting for. My daily driver before this was a 2005 S4 and I realize that the B6 platform was probably year 2001/2002 technology, but the improvements in the B8 platform are very substantial and fantastic. Some quick comments:

Manual shifting -- the shifter has a fairly short throw distance and it's quick and easy to shift. Very smooth and just great. The height of the shift **** is just fine for me (I heard someone complain it was too high). The clutch travel is great and keeping the clutch fully depressed at a traffic light seems less tiring than some other manuals I've owned/driven. I like that. In summary, it's perfect.

Steering -- awesome. I really like the servotronic steering and it does tighten up at freeway speeds. Yes the steering is light at low speeds and in a parking lot but I actually think that is great thing. How much road feel/feedback do you need when you're going under 25 mph? It makes maneuvering the car less work and personally I really like it. Not sure why so many people have complained about it. The controls on the wheel are perfectly placed.

Handling -- for me, the right balance of comfort and stiffness. A LOT less body lean/roll going through the curves than the B6 S4 and handles the rough roads very well. Not bone jarring, but still feels tight. Anyone who drives this car and claims the handling is "numb" is simply full of ****.

Rear backup camera -- works perfectly. a great feature, worth it.

Engine noise -- wow, so much nicer than the S4. The S4 had that nice v8 whine but the S5 has a real growl and the car sounds like a monster.

Overall, Audi has hit a home run with the B8 platform. This S5 cost me about 5 grand more than the S4 but it feels like a much much more expensive car. The interior design is top notch and the overall car has the sum of the parts feel, elegant, sporty, aggressive, and just an absolute pleasure to drive.

Quattrings

Sounds like a great color combo - excellent review.

audittblu2

quatt any new videos/pics? Cmon

BBT

probably how you felt when you picked it up in Germany. Must have been great for you to have autobahn like roads to drive on.

Actually I see why you put 20's on there. I'm surprised that the 19's don't look larger in real life. I like the stock design though so will keep those for now. Will post a few photos after I detail it this weekend.

audittblu2

congrats

BBT

thanks much. for everyone waiting, it's worth it...

DeutschlandATL

Can't wait to see the pics of the Daytona Grey. Sounds great, enjoy!

BayS4

and daytona looks good on it. My sales person there called me to tell me that a silver interior had arrived. It's what I ordered but i've never seen the color in person and was worried that it would be to much like a cream color some have said it is.(by the way in my opinion it's not cream at all, i didn't see it in daylight though, only in the garage) Anyway I'm glad I was able to see it in person. Out of respect to who ever the car belonged to I didn't sit in it though. Although when I left I was thinking and figured several techs and sales people would sit in it while being PDI'd or to admire the Silver interior.

Didn't even realize it was Daytona until i looked on the sticker and saw a MSRP of over $60k.

BBT

Well I'm glad you got to see the interior. I think for customer ordered cars they're not supposed to let people even get inside it except for the PDI and detailing.

The pearl silver actually is a nice contrast to the dark gray Daytona. I could have gone black or silver but wanted something different for a change. I had black leather in a TT, then black and silver alcantara in an S4 and wanted all leather in this one. When you look through the rear window from outside you can see the silver headrests and it looks pretty good.

The seats are not really beige at all -- if you hold a white piece of paper over the seat you can see they are a very very light gray. When my wife first saw them she thought they were white. Beige has a little yellow in it and these definitely don't.

They're super comfortable and they feel great. I'm going to give them a wipe every time I wash the car to help avoid any color transfer from jeans, and any dirt, etc. Time will tell how they wear. After 5 years the black leather in my TT looked cracked and terrible, and that was after applying conditioner every year. So now I just assume all car interiors will wear and get dirty over time and not going to worry about it.

Anyway what exterior color did you order? Meteor? I think it would work well that too.

Quattrings

pics that I really like. Problem is I got home and downloaded and found that I had the setting to B&W. Arghhh! Still looks cool though.

I was thinking of posting them sometime to get some opinions.