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2017 Audi S5 First Drive

Let's start with the obvious elephant in the room: The new 2017 Audi S5 looks mostly like the model it replaces. Is that a bad thing? We headed to Portugal to test out the S5 on that country's serpentine back roads, and to see if there's something more substantive behind its evolved exterior. Only compared to the decidedly more evocative Mercedes-AMG C43 Coupe does the svelte S5 come across as a little frumpy. It takes parking the new S5 next to the old one to spot the details. A tweaked profile. A more pronounced belt line. A power-dome hood. Narrower A-pillars. The new S5 is different, but the same, in that grand Audi tradition. Underhood, the differences are again evolutionary. The original S5 featured a 4.2-liter, naturally aspirated V8. A few years back, that was replaced by a supercharged 3.0-liter V6, which in turn has been supplanted in the 2017 S5 by a turbocharged 3.0-liter V6. The turbo, a twin-scroll unit nestled between the cylinder banks, helps the direct-injection engine make a healthy 354 horsepower and 369 pound-feet of torque. That power, 21 hp and 44 lb-ft more than its predecessor, is channelled through Quattro all-wheel drive. The newly developed V6 mates exclusively to a conventional eight-speed automatic, which seems like a step backward. Last year's S5 offered either a six-speed manual or a seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox. We pressed Audi and got the answer we expected: Demand for the stick was nonexistent outside the United States (go America!) and the dual-clutch couldn't handle the 44 pound-foot increase in torque. Curiously, the A5 on which the S5 is based trades last year's eight-speed autobox for a seven-speed dual-clutch. It sounds like someone at Audi put the wrong transmission in each car, but in reality the S5's torquey engine is well-suited to the refined eight-speed. Kick the throttle, get into boost, and all four drive wheels scrabble for traction, especially on the wet pavement we encountered outside of Porto, Portugal. Punch the S5 to pass on a tight two-lane road and the sport exhaust roars with the kind of guttural growl we want to hear in a sporty coupe. It positively scoots. Though its Volkswagen MLB 2 platform is new, the S5 rides and handles like a more refined version of its predecessor. Considerably less road rumble penetrates the cabin, and the S5 strikes a pleasant balance between grand-touring plush and sports-car firm.

Electric turbos promise big performance and efficiency gains in the near future

An electric turbo system boosts efficiency between 15 and 20 percent, according to Audi.
Turbochargers, like acoustic guitars, use moving air to create magic. And electric turbochargers, like electric guitars, provide the ability to amp up that magic to amazing new levels.

Audi and Mercedes both outsell BMW in January

There won't be any celebrations in Munich this month, as BMW was outsold by arch-nemeses Audi and Mercedes-Benz. The Bavarian company finished behind Audi in January, which took the top spot for the first time since June of last year, Bloomberg reports. Ingolstadt rode high on a 10-percent bump in sales, while Mercedes saw a larger 14 percent increase. BMW, meanwhile, only saw a modest 6.3-percent sales increase last month, thanks in large part to its struggles in China. The company's sales there increased at about half the rate of its chief competitors, with a 7.9-percent jump to Mercedes and Audi's roughly 15-percent increases. Perhaps more worrying for BMW, though, is that this could become something of a trend for the company. According to Bloomberg, issues with Chinese dealers who cancelled orders over sales targets and bonuses combined with what the publication calls aging models, could spell bad news for the German marque. "This looks like a pretty significant decline in growth compared to Mercedes and Audi," Bankhaus Metzler analyst Juergen Pieper told Bloomberg. "I think this will continue during the next few months." News Source: BloombergImage Credit: Matthias Schrader / AP Earnings/Financials Audi BMW Mercedes-Benz