2023 Audi S5 Sportback - Reliability and Build Quality (8 Months Later)(Owner POV) 

You need to pull all seasons on. You can’t drive in the winter with summers on. Had the same problem with the drive malfunction. Audi said it’s a common issue. I just restarted it and it worked. Also had the sunroof issue. It needs extra lubricant added to the plastics and it won’t happen again.

Damn, that is one good looking car! Small issues, worth it for that beast.

Interesting. I bought my first BMW in 1996 and it was CPO. I've only bought CPO for Euro cars ever since because I've learned that after two or three years of leased life, the car has all the bugs worked out. All the updates, all the supplier quality TSBs, all of that is done by the time its 3 years old. So, when you go in and buy a 2020 Audi today, it will be solid as a rock.

I had a 21' Audi S5 like yours, but in Turbo Blue. I think it's a very well built car overall, but here are some the the minor issues I have experienced. I bought my S5 brand new and owned her for about 6 months. The first issue was how gentle the paint was. Any little rock on the highway would chip the paint. I had lots of little chips along my hood. The interior gloss plastic near the cupholders started to scratch up very easily, despite me being very careful with the car, in addition to regular cleaning. There was also some sort of dashboard - vent resonance and vibration when I was in Dynamic mode, around 4,000 rpm's. The car also didn't like heat. It uses the same intercooler as an A5. After a few consecutive acceleration runs, you could see that the performance would start to get worse, so I would suggest installing a Wagner intercooler. The gas pedal response was also not the best at times, especially with the delay off the line, although I never had any issues due to that.

How’s your car now?

Instead of paying for a 1500 dollar winter package (nothing is free of charge), why don’t you upgrade to a good all season or even snow tire for the winter and then install your summer tires when winter is over? Sounds to me you need to learn how to drive better on winter roads. If your time are too big, try a compatible meatier tire with more width and different aspect ratio so you don’t have so much of a stretch. Carbon fiber is made with epoxy resin, large temperature variations and UV rays will cause hairline fractures. Start stop technology is terrible and stupid for a car engine, turn it off before each ride or better yet, get a tune and get rid of it entirely. Most engine wear comes from starting an engine. Your putting unnecessary load of the starter motor not to mention if the car was stopped for several minutes and now it turns on and you floor it at the light, oil pressure doesn’t have time to build up properly as the oil needs to be pumped from the sump, through the filter and be pushed through oil galeries to rotating components and bearings so as a result you aren’t properly lubricating your engine as your building rpm which can lead to oil starvation killing your engine.

Everyone's complimenting but I am just confused on these complaints. This is quite literally a "Build Quality" video mainly. #4: Carbon Fiber cracked? Maybe it was drilled in the wrong location from factory? I mean thats what that looks like to me. Audi should be able to replace it in that case since it's quite literally there fault. #3: Valid complaint. #2: If this happens again, simply turn the car off after it closes. No way it can open without power unless for some odd reason it decides to send power ONLY to the sunroof but that would make no sense. Surprised you didn't try this? I mean it wasn't mentioned. After that however, yeah it requires some service. #1: STOP USING THAT AUTO START/ENGINE OFF BULLSHIT. I don't understand why people leave that on in the first place. It does NOT save shit. It's like constantly turning your phone screen on after you lock it. It quite literally works the same on everything I've ever owned. It drains it faster. Cars are no different regardless of advertisement.

Sorry about the current issues on your car. Some punk deliberately scratched a x in my fender and it's deep in the clear coat. Hopefully Audi can buff it out.

Thank you again for the informative and high quality videos, we appreciate it.

Dude, if you live in a cold climate with bad roads and don’t have a proper set of winters that can take a bit of punishment… that seems like a rookie mistake to me.

Does the standard 4 year warranty cover all your issues minus the tires and random dying issue as they can’t replicate it. Did they replace the spoiler? I’d like to see how this park assist works.. I ordered a 2024 S5 Sportsback. I’m gonna PPF the entire car.

Nice car ..i live in germany and have driven the 2023 A5 S line for about 3000 miles ..A very nice car .I experinced some small isues like you where my theroy is its a software bug glitch ..i turned the car of and back on and it reset itself ..

Beautiful car dude. That color combo is 🔥. There’s crap that happens with every car. I have a c7 corvette the hud would go out every year like at least once. I would have to pull the fuse for 15 secs to reset it. It was so annoying. My 2023 Explorer ST wouldn’t start with 1/4 of gas parked backwards in the driveway because of the incline. Most annoying shit ever. I had to fill the tank a little more with a spare gas can to start it because couldn’t figure how to get the thing in Neutral

The sun-roof malfunction was most likely some obstruction in the way ; debris, or a piece of paper etc. You should be able to get a new rear spoiler under warranty! And, that arm rest as well. Don't settle for that, those are QC flaws.

The random dying issue is very common and well known issue with all Audi's with the 12v (the system in the B9.5) and 48v mild hybrid system. The dealership in my area has several cars just sitting on the lot waiting for the ISG to be replaced, repair cost is about 4-7g's depending on which Audi it is. My buddy's A6 had that 3 days after new car warranty ran out, luckily he had cpo warranty. Repair took 3 weeks coz of back order on parts. Basically the starter generator fails and it causes the battery to die out as well, the car will just refuse to start after that. The advice i received when i picked up my S5 was TURN OFF the auto stop system as its a ticking time bomb.

I had the BMW x3 M40i and that also had some of these weird software issues. The car once throwing front collusion warnings at me even though it was an empty road. Thank God it didn't do the auto brake.

Stumbled on your channel and loving your b9.5 S5 content man! I have a 22 s5 sportback P+ with the same OEM CF bits and was super interesting hearing your owner experience. I’ve had similar experiences with the low profile tires, chipped my rear right wheel hitting a rough spot on the freeway going faster than I probably should’ve been and had a pot hole blow out on my front left tire. I skipped the wheel and tire coverage so was a bit painful to replace a blown out tire. Looking into a set of 19 inch OEM Rasmus wheels and all seasons when I can get around to it. Also had a similar issue with the sunroof, it wouldn’t close for me and kept popping up, kept up for 3 days and the day I take it in to the dealer of course it was back to normal and they couldn’t find anything wrong. Lately I’ve been having the active lane assist malfunction popping up randomly but typically goes away after toggling it off and on again and hasn’t impacted driving at all but she definitely has a case of the electric gremlins. Been documenting and taking pics to build a case for the dealer but other than that Love the car and hope to hold on to it as long as I can. One thing I’d recommend is dropping some PPF or clear vinyl on all that piano black on the the console, has saved me the agony of watching the scratches build up. Keep up the awesome vids and stay safe out there. 🫡

Please keep us posted. I'm currently looking to purchase this car

Sorry about your troubles. Why not change to all season 275/30/20 - I believe it will fit and will better protect the rims.

2019 s5 coupe only had a pcv valve problem

That's why I would always turn off auto start stop first thing getting into the car, lol

Is there a way to permanently turn off the auto start? Had that on a rental - super annoying. Plus I hear it’s actually bad for the engine.

I can kind of related to this unfortunately. Owner of a fully loaded 2022 RS5 with 6k miles on it and last week the volume scroll knob just stopped functioning. Was not able to fix it with anything I could do so I am taking it to the dealer next week. It is really weird. These computers are baaaad…

Audi do make good looking cars

I live in Canada, put smaller rims/Nokian tires for winter time on my 2019 RS5

The same exact thing just happened to me in my 2022 A5! I was at a light and my car just stopped and didn’t want to work. Same warning lights came on. Made me want to trade my car in!

From all you've mentioned you don't have any issues. You just don't know your car.

Just got a 2023 A5 Sportback and live in PA. I didnt get the tire package and now im worried about that. Guess ill have to keep an eye out for potholes. Get the cable to disable the start/stop feature since it cant be done with obd11. Got mine from enthusiastbrands.

LEMON. Your steering wheel stitching looks frayed as well. what a POS. I hope it's a lease.

Such a good looking car!!

@alwayscreativevideos I have the 2023 S5 Coupe and Apple Car Play (Wirelessly connected) will not stay connected. The blue tooth connection keeps dropping and man its beyond frustrating. Have you experienced this? Matter of fact has anyone here had that issue?

Dude, that sucks. I can well imagine how frustrating and disappointing it must be to have your car fail in those ways so soon after buying it. I've had a similar, though not quite as bad, experience with my BMW 4 series, which I got in Dec. 2022. Problems range from radio buttons needing to be pressed two or three times to change a channel to Apple Car Play failing to connect to outside cameras and lane keep assist completely failing. The protective coating I paid $2k for started to peel off over the summer. That at least is covered by warranty, but still, this is not what I expected from a luxury car manufacturer. Your car does look awesome, by the way.

You need a set of dedicated snow tires/rims

Very informative, thank you

I appreciate you making the video on the tires. I live in a state where it's snows also. Both my friends have S4 so I was really looking into the S5 coupe or the face-lift S4. How's the car been. I heard it's reliable

Sorry to hear about the problems. The car still looks great! Quick question -- what radar detector and dashcam combo are you using? I assuming the cylindrical object to the right of the radar detector is a dashcam. And where/how did you install it?

I've got a 2018 S5 and it's been fantastic. A couple flukes, like driver door window shattered randomly, but otherwise 50k miles and no problem. I think your car shutdown because the software had an issue, hopefully an update will fix that. The only real complaint I see is the stitching. Audi needs to take care of that. Good thing you got wheel and tire protection. Hopefully the potholes don't affect the bearings.

How comfortable is the S5? I got rid of my ATS 3.6 coupe, which I loved its look, but it was killing my back. The seats were not comfortable for commuting.

It's only 8 months. Come back in 8 years.

The start / stop is a starter and alternator killer. Don’t use it. I have an A6 and my son a 2022 S5 prestige. Same color as yours. The first thing we do when we climbed in the car is turn off that darn thing.

As you know cars are basically computers. I encountered the same issue on my 2012 Avant, the car basically went into neutral and I came to a stop. Called a tow truck. In the interim I shut the ignition off, waited a few minutes. Started the car, everything was fine. Got charged for the tow even after I canceled. Oh well. I have the same year as your Audi, just bought a 2023 S5. Curious why your Speedo display is different than mine.

I used to own a 2017 F5 Quattro and it was perfect! Interior quality was way ahead of BMW and Mercedes. I now own a 2019 W205 Mercedes and the interior quality is just shocking…

So a part under warrantee broke and the dealer will fix it? Doesn’t sound like the car broke as the title suggests. It’s good to know about these issues but the title of your video is a but alarmist.

You did right to persevere. The window must have detected some kind of 'grit' obstruction and re-opened. Like many complex things if they go wrong, switch off and on. I rarely use stop start due to my fear of no start. Useful videos. Pete. UK.

Thank you for the info. Audi has not had a great reputation for reliability.

Ive had BMW, Mercedes but not yet an Audi. Ive really had no issues, however both were leases and I never kept them longer than 2 years. I afraid of these issues that German vehicles have a history of having. So in general...Amazing cars when they are fully operational. Since then I drive a Lexus RC and Ive never looked back

Turn the “auto” button off or get a tool to stop it. Carbon fiber packaging? Could have brought aftermarket parts bro.

Thank you for sharing your experience. Great looking car but bad what happened. Hope you have had better time with it since then ?

Hey brother. Do you think it is possible to get the RS5 digital tachometer with OBDEleven? I mean the one you have on S5 looks similar to the RS5 one but it doesn't give you shift lights. Can you get the shift lights with the S5?

Ahhh and I was this 🤏🏽 close to buying one 😂😅

I gave this same exact car...love it

Sunroof you are opening by intention 😂😂😂 good try trolling Audi 😂😂😂 People like you don't deserve Audi 😂

Those are SUMMER continental tires. Not meant for weather below 50 degrees 😅. You need different tires for winter 265/30r20 all season lmao

Not a problem for me - but really appreciate you bringing up the consideration of environmental and local factors. Good stuff man!

This is a stunning car..better than the bmw 440.

Let's get some Screen ProTech on your S5

You could always insure the tires when the car is new at Discount tire for like $180 and replace the tires for free whenever that happens!

Audi Sport the right team!!!

i had this happen twice to me in my 2023 A5 sportback and i took a video of it not changing gears until i let go a little

I cannot imagine replacing a tyre FOUR times. Just get winter set!!!

Can you get a meatier tire to fit that rim? Thanks for the honest review. After my wife test drove the Q5 and i saw the A/S5 in tne lot, i started seriously considering it. I get nothing is perfect but i could live without these issues.

I think ur front blinkers have an issue it’s not supposed to light that way.

The sun-roof malfunction was most likely some obstruction in the way ; debris, or a piece of paper etc. You should be able to get a new rear spoiler under warranty! And, that arm rest as well. Don't settle for that, those are QC flaws.

Where did you get your car from

Snow tires. Snow tires.

this car it's so cool that you could forgive to it everithings ...

Audi does make some of the most beautiful looking vehicles, just like BMW and Benz, but they're all unreliable endless money pits.

All the issues can be claimed under warranty

I would love to see what the headlights and laser lights look like from a car passing and afar POV.

Sounds like you’re a bad driver during winter.

So in other words never buy a Audi by Honda or Toyota and never be stranded