2017 Audi A5. The Coco Chanel of Coupes.

We met Frank Lamberty in Porto last year at the launch of the second-generation Audi A5. He is certainly a man with the broadest of shoulders. Charged with improving the exterior design of delectable original Audi A5 into an updated design, he had two onerous responsibilities. The first was not to screw the whole thing up and the other to better the Walter de Silva original creation – the car this legendary automotive designer picked as his own personal favourite work.

One year on, and we were intrigued to test the new A5 Coupe after all the launch hoopla had died down. Our car was an A5 Coupe 2.0-Litre S-Line 190bhp with a 7-speed S-Tronic automatic gearbox at €66,123 with €10,473 of extras over the original car’s €55,650 entry price (the A5 range starts at €48,090). Normally, we’d decry a manufacturer loading a press car as not being representative of a typical car. But in this case, we’d have fought tooth and nail had any of the extras been taken away. Certainly, they were pricey but as the week’s test went by they became ever so useful and made the time behind the wheel tremendous.

Our car arrived as a 2.0-Litre 190bhp S-Line specification in a dark grey charcoal or what Audi calls Manhattan Grey. Is this the finest proportioned Coupe on sale today? We’ll let you make up your own mind on that one, but the new A5 Coupe gets our vote. It’s the Coco Chanel of Coupes – fabulously proportioned and with just the right air of dignified class.

"It’s the Coco Chanel of Coupes – fabulously proportioned and with just the right air of dignified class."

It’s also a Coupe for the stressed-out soul. Irrespective of your gender, you will – and we’ll guarantee this one – drop a few heartbeats per minute when driving in town. All the controls, particularly the steering, are exceptionally light and relaxing to use. We even tested this ourselves by driving the car from Sandyford to Molesworth Street in Dublin’s clogged city centre. The challenge was this. Except for putting the seatbelt on, putting the car in D and releasing the electric parking brake how far could we drive into the centre of town with just our right hand steering the car (naturally, our left hand was hovering gently over steering wheel like a greyhound dog in the traps) before we’d need to use it. One mile? Okay, maybe two miles? In fact, we managed to negotiate several irresponsible cyclists and aggressive buses without having to grab the steering wheel with both hands at any time on the journey into Dublin’s city centre. A lot of this was due to driving with 100% concentration and anticipating every hazard before they even happened and also the clever way the A5 Coupe is set up.

Rest assured, when you get out of town as we did two Saturdays ago and drove all the way to Kelly’s Hotel in Rosslare, the Coupe does reward good inputs. It had been a long time since we visited the hotel and using the fingerprint recognition on the satellite navigation was effortless, the way we scrolled the destination on the top of the rotary switch was a joy to use. It’s certainly one of the best on sale. On the trip down we had time to try the Audi Drive Select. If we’re brutally honest the differences are minimal and the car is set up for refined distance driving. If you crave a barnstorming Coupe with rear wheel drive fun, choose the BMW 4-Series. It’s very good, but the Audi A5 feels a lot more complete - a premium feeling Coupe. We appeared to arrive just after breakfast time at Kelly’s Hotel with guests looking grumpy and some distinctly comatose. As this is not a Hotel Review we’ll say we did like the friendly staff. Though broken locks on toilet doors and tired carpets were a disappointment. We were just as happy to get back into Hotel Ingolstadt and hit the road.

Cruising back to Dublin we managed 46.8 mpg at a steady 100km/h. Over the next few days that average improved to 53 mpg which is excellent. It was this cool, calming nature of the A5 we liked so much. The cosseting seats and cabin features like the excellent Virtual Dash and rotating heater controls that clicked with a weighty crispness that would better some high-end Hi-Fi systems. This is haptic engineering at a disturbingly high level. We’ll just come out and say it, shall we? The A5 Coupe’s cabin is, near-as-dammit, perfect.

"We’ll just come out and say it, shall we? The A5 Coupe’s cabin is, near-as-dammit, perfect."

Another thing happened over the week of testing the car. Every time we went out in it, we felt it necessary to try and dress that bit sharper. It was Canali suits at dawn for every drive to the office. Frankly, we can’t remember the last time a press car forced us to raise our sartorial game in such a deliberate way. Doubtless, if you’re a female owner, be it may your best Chanel jacket and jeans for daylight hours and Elie Saab if evening dining is in the diary. Nope, we’ve no idea why either. The A5 Coupe is that kind of car - a statement of good taste. Ensuring the owner is admired from afar as being successful, without shouting too much about it.

Which leads us to a conclusion. The second-generation Audi A5 Coupe is so well-heeled, so well-constructed and soothing to drive that you start believing it’s the perfect two-door German concierge in a stressed, burnt-out world. Perfect? Of course, not. Nothing’s perfect. But the A5 Coupe comes close. Nice work, Frank.