ZURICH, Switzerland--For nearly 2,500 miles, I've been winding my way through Europe in Audi's wonderful RS 5 coupe. Over mountain passes, through incredibly narrow French village roads, on broad highways, and everywhere in between, the RS 5 has taken me safely from point to point as I've traveled the Continent on Road Trip 2011. And now, with Switzerland's Lake Lucerne on my left and a plane ticket home from Zurich tomorrow, I'm having trouble coming to grips with giving this terrific car back.
For six years, I've traveled many thousands of miles of the roads of the United States and now Europe as part of my CNET Road Trip projects. This year, for the first time, I decided to split the trip up into segments, driving about half the time and taking trains the other half. And for the weeks of driving, Audi provided me with two of its cars to road-test the RS 5 for the last few weeks, and its A6 3.0 TFSI for the first eight days.
These are very different cars. The RS 5 is a fierce, compact two-door coupe, a sports car with attitude. And the A6 is a long, luxurious sedan with panache. But both had power to spare, a range of the latest accessories, and the never-ending promise of a good time on the road.
This is the RS 5 I drove on Road Trip 2011 with France's Mount Blanc in the background.