Living with an Audi S5 Avant: is the RS5 really worth over £20,000 more than this? 

This is our Audi S5 Avant, a sporty estate car which head of social media Will Davis has been living with for around six months. Until now, it was the hottest version of the A5 you could buy, but now the new Audi RS5 is here to pick up that mantle.

It uses a similar engine to the S5, but with a plug-in hybrid system to boost the power. The thing is though, it costs an additional £23,500. So is it worth the extra? Let’s compare them to find out.

New Audi RS5 Avant vs Audi S5 Avant: prices and deals

The Audi S5 Avant starts from £67,805, but you can save an average of over £5,400 on one through Carwow at the time of writing. Leasing prices start from £755 per month over three years and 30,000 miles with a £9,353 up-front payment, and you can pick up a used example from 2024 for as little as £50,000.

On the other hand, an Audi RS5 Avant starts from £91,300, and it’s so new that there are no discounts available on it yet. There are also no used examples on offer yet, and lease prices start from around £1,350 per month with a £16,500 up-front payment over three years and 30,000 miles.

So whichever way you slice it, the RS5 is a lot more expensive. However, the plug-in hybrid tech could work in your favour if you’re a company car driver.

Assuming you’re a 40% tax payer, the Audi S5 Avant will cost you £830 per month in BiK tax. Because the plug-in hybrid RS5 has lower emissions, it’ll cost you £303 per month.

New Audi RS5 Avant vs Audi S5 Avant: engine and performance

Performance gains are probably the biggest reason you’ll want to upgrade from the S5 to the RS5, and you certainly get a healthy dose of extra power.

The Audi S5 Avant uses a 3.0-litre turbocharged V6 engine with 367hp and 550Nm of torque. This is sent to all four wheels via a seven-speed automatic gearbox, and the car weighs 1,965kg.

You get a 2.9-litre twin-turbocharged V6 engine in the RS5, and it’s paired with an electric motor to make 639hp and 825Nm of torque. This also drives all four wheels, but the car weighs almost 2,400kg.

The S5 Avant will do 0-60mph in 4.5 seconds, while the RS5 Avant takes just 3.6 seconds. When we drag raced these cars for the Carwow YouTube channel, the S5 completed the standing quarter-mile in 12.8 seconds and the RS5 took 11.8 seconds.

So in a game of Top Trumps, the RS5 wins by quite some margin. You’ll have to decide whether it’s worth paying the extra £23,500 in a country hamstrung by potholed roads and a 70mph maximum speed limit.

New Audi RS5 Avant vs Audi S5 Avant: design and interior

There’s no confusing these two cars when they’re parked next to each other, because the RS5 looks far more aggressive than the S5.

It’s a full four centimetres wider for starters thanks to the flared wheel arches, and the front grille is also way bigger. There are more vents, more scoops and bigger wings to really assert dominance over the S5 – it looks even more extreme than a BMW M3.

The S5 takes a far more subtle approach when it comes to styling – if you didn’t know what to look for, it could be a standard A5 Avant. The quad tailpipes are the main giveaway, but it does also have a slightly deeper bodykit than the A5.

Inside, the RS5 gets some additional red accents, carbon fibre trim and some additional buttons on the steering wheel, but other than that it looks pretty much the same as the S5. Both cars get a trio of screens across the dashboard, sporty bucket seats and roomy back seats.

New Audi RS5 Avant vs Audi S5 Avant: suspension and driving

The Audi RS5 comes with a much more advanced suspension setup than the S5, including fancy twin-valve shock absorbers which allow for a wider spread between comfort and sporty handling. It also has a clever rear differential which can split the power between both rear wheels in a fraction of a second, making it feel more agile.

You also get a quicker steering rack in the RS5 so it turns faster, and the distance between the wheels is wider as well which makes it feel more planted. You really notice all these changes when you push the car hard, because it’s surprisingly agile for such a heavy thing.

The S5 Avant does still get plenty of upgrades over the standard A5, including lowered sports suspension and an electronic torque vectoring system which uses the brakes to help the car turn tighter. It’s good fun, and we’ve found it to be more comfortable than the RS5, but it’s not as good in the corners as its more hardcore counterpart.

That said, if you’re looking for the best-driving performance estate car, the BMW M3 is a better choice. It’s way lighter than the RS5, and it feels much more agile through the corners.

Final verdict: which car should you buy?

There’s no doubt that the new Audi RS5 is better than our S5 in pretty much every regard, but it doesn’t feel quite special enough to justify the extra £23,500. If we were looking to spend this sort of money on the ultimate performance estate car, we’d choose a BMW M3 Touring instead. That said, if you’re a company car driver looking for lower running costs, the new Audi RS5 Avant makes a lot of sense.

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