Our Holiday Automotive All Stars

We believe the beautiful S5 is Audi's design masterpiece. But this curvaceous coupe is about more than just good looks. It's also the first car to employ Audi's Modular Longitudinal Platform, which moves the front axle forward to improve weight distribution. This helps immensely in ridding the car of the nose-heavy handling that has afflicted past Audis.

The S5's performance is outstanding. The engine pulls strongly from anywhere on the tach. And except for the rock-star R8, this is Audi's best handling production car. It's even better than the mighty RS4 - by a wide margin. The brakes have excellent feel and benefit from Audi's well-known four-wheel-drive stability.

Interestingly positioned between BMW 335i and M3 in both performance and price, the S5 is not cheap, but it is a lot of car for the money. It's a great option for anyone put off by the ubiquity of BMW's coupes.

Check out our Audi S5 video Quick Test.