Four years ago, at about this time, I finalized all of the paperwork on and got the keys to my brand spanking new Sprint Blue 2011 Audi S5 at Sunset Audi. 35,200+ miles later, the S5 has treated me quite well over the past four years, with no major issues, a few things that needed to be taken care of due to TSBs on the S5.
The time between my “Three Years of #LoveMyS5” post last year and today hasn’t been all that exciting on the #LoveMyS5 front. The only real piece of drama was that a repair on a tire failed during the first major “heat wave” in the area. The timing of finding the flat tire was not exactly a great one as I noticed it a few hours before a Portland Thorns match at Providence Park. Thankfully, I always take the MAX light rail to the games, so not having a car with a flat was not huge problem. So, before I got ready to head out, I called Audi Roadside Assistance and scheduled a time for them to come out and swap the flat with a spare while I was at the match. I had someone at home to supervise the swap and made sure everything else was okay.
The next day, I drove the car to America’s Tire, which is where I got the set of Michelin Pilot Super Sport tires with a warranty, and they swapped the flat tire for a new one at the cost of just a new warranty on the tire (less than $30). The tire tread difference between the two tires was very minimal due to having winter tires on the S5 (more on that below), so I didn’t have to swap out all four tires.
As I mentioned above, the S5 had been running on winter tires for a good part of the winter due to the cold weather and a bit of snowfall. The only concern that I had about driving the S5 in the snow (and later packed snow and ice) were the other drivers on the road being stupid. Thankfully, there were no incidents of people slamming into my S5, but there were a couple of close calls.
The only time that I didn’t choose to drive my S5 during the snowfall was to go to the Portland Auto Show held at the Convention Center. I chose not to drive due to the already clogged up roads and it was quicker to hop on to MAX and trudge through the mostly unswept sidewalks around the Convention Center.
Not everything was snow angels and hot chocolate when it came to the snow and ice. I had to make liberal use of lukewarm water in order to get the drive side door to open, due to the window getting frozen stuck. That is one of the inherent problems with frameless door windows, where the window needs to slide down just a hair when the door opens and slide up when the door closes.
Back in late December 2013, BoldRide.com was interested in featuring my S5 as part of their “Your Ride” section of their blog. They sent over a list of questions for me to answer and I sent back my responses and a few photos and it got posted on their blog.
Outside of the, previously, regular visits to Portland Cars and Coffee, my S5 was part of only one car show this past year: the Option5 Car Show IX. Most of the cars at that particular car show were classic American iron and muscle cars that have been restored to beautiful condition. I think I could count the number of Audis that were there on one hand.
I have not made any further modifications to the S5 in the past year, due to budget restrictions and lingering thoughts of if/when I will be looking at replacing the S5 with another car. Over the past few months, I have been thinking about it a lot more and figuring out what might be on the horizon. I won’t be making a switch to a new car for another three or so years, and since not much is known about Audi’s product cycle that far out, I only have a rough list of what cars I’m thinking about:
- Next-generation, B9 RS 5
- Next-generation TT RS or RS 3 (the latter would only be considered if a Sportback version will be sold in the US)
- Next-generation S6
- Next-generation A7 TDI or S7
Having been spoiled by the S specific creature comforts of the S5, particularly the seats, it will be hard for me to go with a non-S or non-RS model. I also know that I will most likely be losing the manual transmission when I move to a next-gen Audi. The RS 5 and the new A3/S3 no longer have a manual transmission option in the US and it’s not likely that we’ll see one with the B9 RS 5 or the next-gen TT RS or RS 3.
I’ve been taking a liking to the larger S6 and A7 family as I am getting to the point were I want usable rear seats for people and/or cargo and a slightly larger trunk for carrying photography equipment. I was not sold on the cargo space of the Q5 when I used it as a photography support vehicle for Quattrofest 2013, and my general disdain for crossovers, means that any Audi crossover would be struck off of my want list.
I guess it is a good thing that I have several years to ponder on what I might replace my S5 with. That gives me that amount of time to continue to love it and to have fun driving it as my daily driver.
Additional photos of my S5 taken between last year and this year: