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288 – When is a hatchback not a hatchback?

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10 September 2009

Audi A5 Sportback

Audi A5 Sportback: coupe silhouette; hatchback practicality

…When it’s a Sportback

A GOOD question: when is a five-door hatchback not a hatchback? When it’s a Sportback says Audi. In much the same way that an estate is an Avant in Audi language; or, if it’s BMW-speak, a hatchback is a GT and an estate is a Touring.

It’s a sign of premium quality; a cut above; avoiding the more prosaic for something more suggestive.

So it is with the the Audi A5 Sportback, a five-door model to add to the Coupe and Cabriolet in the A5 range.

Meanwhile, the boys over at Saab must be wondering how they got it all so wrong. Once Saab had this territory to themselves with the 9000 five-door hatchback – now (sadly) long-since abandoned. So it’s some irony that Saab is introducing the new 9-5 saloon, spiritual successor to the hatchback 9000, at the same time that Audi is introducing the new Sportback.

I was fortunate enough to have dinner last night with Henry Williams, Audi’s product manager for the A5 Sportback.

I asked him what it was all about – this five-door practicality lark – a model style previously eschewed by the premium German car makers.

“Looking at research, people are coming out of the traditional saloon. They want something different – a coupe or a cabriolet – they don’t want to conform to the saloon stereotype anymore,” explained Henry.

“It’s one of the key reasons why people move away from Audi. It’s not that they don’t like the brand; they simply want something different.”

And that something different is the A5 Sportback. Henry describes it as a car with the feel of a coupe but with the benefit of five-door practicality.

And it might well be exactly what business car buyers are looking for. A dose of roll-your-sleeves-up commonsense to add to the statement of style. In fact, Henry expects many of the buyers to come from its A4 range – a model already very popular with business buyers – and the price point is certainly sure to attract them: the 2.0 TFSI model is priced from

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Ralph Morton

Ralph Morton

Ralph Morton is an award-winning journalist and the founder of Business Car Manager (now renamed Business Motoring). Ralph writes extensively about the car and van leasing industry as well as wider fleet and company car issues. A former editor of What Car?, Ralph is a vastly experienced writer and editor and has been writing about the automotive sector for over 35 years.

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