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We all know that one student who blazed through school without really trying.
Whether it was sports, academics, or a mix of the two, there's always that one person who manages to do everything just about perfectly, and embarrass everyone else in the process.
Whoever was in charge of developing the 2019 Audi RS5 Sportback Must have been one of those people.
There are two general opinions about the RS5.
One is that it's a really, really good sports car.
The other is that it's a really, really good sports car but it's so good that it leaves the whole experience feeling a little sanitized.
Now I was originally pretty firmly in the former camp but after a week with this high horsepower hatchback well, I'm leaning towards the ladder.
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Just about every piece of wrinkled laundry I throw it this tub manages to come out the other side pressed and folded.
Let's take the power train for example.
This sports a 2.9 liter twin-turbo V6 making 444 horsepower and 443 pound feet of torque.
It's by all accounts a fantastic motor.
The turbo torque arrives nice and low in the revs.
So no matter what gear you're in, forward motion is always available.
And speaking of the transmission, there doesn't appear to be a bad shift anywhere in its programming.
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The suspension is the same.
My tester packs the optional $3,350 Dynamic Package, which adds a two-mode suspension system that can go from soft to stiff as the mood demands.
Man's, and again, it's just so, so perfect you put it in comfort.
The bride is nice and compliant despite the fact that you're riding on upsized 20 inch wheels.
It doesn't even transfer the usual sports cars amount of movement into the cabin when you say go over a pothole, but then you put it in dynamic in the things is flat as a pancake.
I mean it doesn't get unsettled ever, at least in any sort of road legal situation.
There's no dramatics to it.
No weak spot anywhere.
You just push pedal goes in, wheel turns, car comes out the other side unscathed.
The $5800 Dynamic Plus package adds front carbon ceramic brakes.
So maybe there's a problem there, right?
Maybe they squeak when they're cold and you're trying to stop at low speeds.
Maybe you can't even stop that well at low speeds cuz they're really hard to modulate.
[SOUND] no, this thing is outstanding.
It will clamp down like the robot from Futurama, and you will stop smoothly every single time.
It's so annoying.
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But the V6 even sounds good, which to be fair, is a byproduct to the sport exhaust on the dynamic package that I tested.
Just a house, but I don't even really like the sound of the U sixes in general.
And then again, this only really sounds good from the outside because on the inside there's this sound actor thing which digitalizes the induction noise from the engine turns it into ones and zeros and beads in the cabin.
I think it's trying a little too hard to emulate the B8 that was in the outgoing.
Generation, but then again now it's an overachiever that's trying to over overachieve.
Go figure.
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If there's no fault to find in the way it drives, maybe my horrible taste can suss out a problem with the way it looks.
Nope.
I think it looks great, even in red which isn't usually my hang.
The front end is suitably aggressive, and the rear end finishes at this nice round bit above the hatchback.
The 20-inch optional wheels fill the wells perfectly.
And hell, even the optional carbon fiber doesn't go too hard in the paint.
Even the addition of a second full row doesn't shake the RS 5 Sportback.
It's only 89 pounds heavier than the coop 89.
Surprise surprise I don't have any complaints about the interior either.
My testers $1500 Napa leather package produces gorgeous seats and supple touch points for the driver and passenger Does the stylishly sloped hatchback eaten the rear seat space?
Nope.
There is plenty of head and leg room.
doesn't mess with visibility.
Nope.
Is it hard up for cargo space?
Again?
The answer is no.
And again, there's not so much carbon fiber in here that it looks gauche.
The only real complain is that it's a very corporate interior.
Any Audi of this design generation has just about the same get up and with maybe some changes in the vent dashboard design, but that's about it.
It's very nice.
Don't get me wrong, but I do wish there was more room to kinda change up the style of it.
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Now the one thing the RFID might have going against it is that it uses the old Gen MMI infotainment system.
But guess what?
It's a great system.
It's responsive.
It has a bunch of stuff standard.
Instead of using a touchscreen which can be distracting, there's a dial that doubles as a handwriting recognition pad.
The 8.3 inch screen is more than sufficiently size to get a bunch of stuff standard like Apple Car Play, Android Auto, embedded navigation, and you even get Virtual Cockpit standard which replaces your gauge cluster with a configurable 12.3 inch display.
And if somehow that isn't enough, guess what?
You get two USB ports and the rear standard.
Safety will kind of cost you though.
Automatic breaking is standard but my tester packs the 30 $700 RS driver assistance package which adds pretty much all the good Ada as you need.
Full speed adaptive cruise control traffic, sign recognition, lean keep assists around you camera It's all in there, and it's all really good, much like when the human is in control, the safety systems are nice and smooth all the time, there is hardly any wrinkle anywhere.
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Now if you're not too keen on old goody two shoes over here, there are some lively competitors.
The Mercedes-AMG C 63 is a little more frenetic and kind of ready to snap at a moments notice.
And then there's the BMW M3, which is these days so full of character flaws, I'm not even sure it's a good car anymore.
Yet both of those cars are only available as sedans.
If you want a hatchback that performs like this, well there is no competition.
There is only zoo.
I mean, there is only the 2019 Audi RS five Sport back.
Sure it might annoy you to high heaven with how perfectly it does just about everything but, At a base price of 74,200 and an [UNKNOWN] just ten bucks shy of 100 grand, perhaps it's not obscene to expect perfection.
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