2025 Audi S5 Is Worse Than It Was Five Years Ago

Our 60-0 mph braking run shows a worse regression in performance for the S5. In 2020, the car stopped in a respectable 106 feet. This time around, the new car took 114 feet. That might also be due to the nearly 400-pound weight gain compared to the old model. Finally, on the 200-ft skidpad, the new S5’s 0.94 g figure is decent, but again worse than the 0.97 g figure from the 2020 S5. You get the picture; the numbers don’t tell a great story.

Interestingly (or worryingly, if you’re Audi), this is the second time in recent memory we’ve tested an S-badged Audi sedan that did worse than the car that came before it. The last S6 failed to impress or improve on its V8-powered predecessor.

Even with our extremely thorough testing process, we still think that a car is more than just a sum of its performance figures. So did the S5 redeem itself on our handling circuit? Sort of. The S5 carried impressive speed through the majority of our test track, but the car felt like it was constantly trying to figure out where to send the power. Sometimes it decided to understeer and push forward despite our demands at the wheel, and sometimes it wanted to kick its tail out — every lap was a bit different from the one before it.