What: Audi’s all new midsize coupe

What’s new: Everything; the Audi A5 marks Audi’s return to the midsize-coupe segment

What’s hot: Body as sleek as Heidi Klum’s, Iron Man headlights, intelligent and demure interior

What’s not: Fast curves don’t quite match the drive, extras are extra

Base price: $41,200

Hollywood is amusing from the behind the wheel of the new Audi A5. Ka-thunk the door behind you and all that is loud and colorful is immediately hushed, but still — like a silent picture show.

On normally bustling Sunset Boulevard, traffic and pedestrians seem to tiptoe by — though more than a few heads turn as the A5 passes. Pull into the parking lot of Trader Joe’s and eyebrows rise, elbows nudge ribs, fingers point. Keep the windows up, you’ll often be greeted by mouths forming appreciative smiles and soundless coos. Quite a feat in car savvy LA-LA-land.

The reason? The eyes have it. The A5’s has headlight styling first seen on Iron Man’s ride, Audi’s flagship R8. Thin LED strips mounted just below the headlamps give off a cool, white glow, through sun or smog, day or night. Hit the turn signal, and the corresponding LED strip shuts off as the blinker comes on. It’s a mesmerizing bit of design often noted by car cognoscenti and ignoranti alike.

The A5 has a body that matches those eyes as well. Not since the Audi 80 has the company had a two-door in the midsize category. What Audi’s managed to pull off with its return to the segment is a rare feat among production cars. The A5 manages to look better as a production car than the Nuvolari concept upon which it was based.

R8 aside, no Audi in recent memory has been this evocative or curvalicious. Even the architectural TT, with all its careful arcs and radii, seems more a product of the protractor than the pen. Not so with the A5: Its full-length character line displays an artful freehand that flies in the face of all slab-sided A-series forebears.

The mark of well-designed car is whether such styling functions smoothly in the real world. Simply open the door of the A5 for the answer. Unlike most modern coupes, the A5 has surprisingly short doors. They make for easy ingress and egress in tight spaces, yet create no visual awkwardness in the overall proportions.

Inside, Audi carries on its tradition of classy, understated interiors. High-quality matte-black plastics are broken up with brushed-metallic accents and contrasted with pale-cream leather in our test vehicle. Some may find these treatments dark and severe, but there is no debating the quality feel of all the switches and knobs and the overall high level of execution.

So what’s not to love? The drive, unfortunately. On the road, the Audi is smooth and quiet, an excellent boulevard cruiser and freeway commuter, but that is to be expected.

When the roads start curving, disappointment sets in. The vehicle holds the road well, due to the quattro AWD system, but there is little feedback and none of the sharpness the vehicle’s swoopy looks imply. The AWD system tries valiantly to remain invisible, but when push comes to shove, the A5 defaults to understeer characteristics of a front-driver.

The car darts well enough just off center; but then the steering goes strangely light and numb. On the whole, the A5’s active steering system takes some getting used to. At low speeds, it feels too light — almost feminine. As speeds ramp up, so does steering effort — but it gets too heavy too quickly; by 40 mph, it feels like the power steering died. At cruising speed, this heft feels most balanced, but then chassis tuning goes away. Quick inputs send the A5 rolling more than expected.

Thrust is good, but unremarkable. Audi’s 3.2L direct-injection V-6 won’t raise hackles like BMW’s turbocharged, 3.0L or squash your guts like Infiniti’s 3.7L. The lack of a stirring soundtrack is part of the problem: At wide-open throttle, the 265-hp A5 doesn’t whoosh like the BMW or howl like the Infiniti — it just goes. Both of those vehicles also come with slicker-feeling transmissions than the Audi’s six-speed auto. Even though it has paddle-shifters, the A5 really needs the crispness of its homemarket S-Tronic dual-clutch system to go up against the G37’s new seven-speed.

These are but small counterpoints, invisible to the silent admirers on the corner of Sunset and Vine. Those looking for an eye-catching, comfortable daily driver can’t go wrong with the new Audi A5. Only those who demand a sublime driving experience on top of high style would need to cross shop Bavaria, Japan, or Ingolstadt’s own S5.

[source:MotorTrend]

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