If you think about it, the Audi A5 Sportback isn't a niche car at all: combining a coupé, a saloon and an estate hardly makes a specialist product - it's every car to every man, woman and dog. If it works, that is.

For now we can only judge it by what you're looking at here, but the A5 Sportback is essentially a massive hatchback, moulded in the same vein as the also odd new BMW 5 Series GT, while being mercifully easier on the eye. The Beemer swaps the 'coupé' part of the A5's triple nature for 'SUV', which is where the two fundamentally differ. Still, they're both supposed to be a premium product for people with the unusual combination of money and children.

The Mercedes-Benz CLS springs to mind too, but that's different because it's a four-door to the Sportback's more practical five. So, let's get down to business: how practical is the A5 Sportback? Or to put it another way: why shouldn't I just buy a (significantly cheaper) Audi A4?

Well, the A5 is strictly a four-seater, but you get almost the interior space of an A4 wrapped in a package that's altogether lower and better looking. Audi seems to be saying there'll be just enough room for two regular grown-ups in the back, but by the look of the interior shots there's a distinct headroom price to pay for the A5's rakish profile. The boot is big though, at 480 litres, compared to 490 for an A4 Avant - justifying Audi's 'estate' claim. It loses out big time with the seats folded though: 980 litres against 1,430 litres.

Launch in October will see a choice of three TFSI petrol engines and three TDI diesel units slotted under the bonnet, with a further trio to follow by the middle of next year. The diesels are of 2.0-, 2.7- and 3.0-litre capacities (the latter pair with six-cylinders apiece), with power outputs at 168bhp, 187bhp and 337bhp respectively. A 141bhp 2.0-litre TDI will follow. Petrol power is familiar too, with 2.0-litre TFSI and 3.2-litre V6 lumps featuring, outputs ranging between 178bhp and 263bhp. That's a lot of numbers, so we'll leave it there for now.

Much of the chassis and body architecture is carried over from the A5 coupé, including the suspension setup and use of aluminium for the front wings to keep weight down. And of course, quattro four-wheel drive will feature on the higher-powered versions, while the bigger diesels will come as standard with a seven-speed S-Tronic twin clutch auto. There's an eight-speed Multitronic gearbox on the options list too.

Prices kick off at around £26,000, going up to just over £36k for a 3.0-litre TDI variant. An S5 Sportback is in the pipeline too and rumour has it that a V8-powered RS edition is on the horizon, but we'd never perpetuate such unsubstantiated tittle-tattle.

Mark Nichol - 16 Jul 2009