New vs Used - Ford Mustang GT vs 2007 Audi S5

One of the brilliant things about depreciation is that as a car’s age increases and its price drops, it opens up a whole new world of potential competitors.

The Audi B8 S5 is a perfect example. When it was sitting in showrooms shiny and new, it was competing for buyer attention with the likes of the BMW 335i and Mercedes-Benz CLK350.

Almost a decade on, the closest competitor we can find is Ford’s new Mustang GT. Yes, thank you, if you’ve quite finished laughing, let us explain. When it debuted in October 2007, the S5 launched with a rev-happy 4.2-litre V8 producing 260kW/440Nm and, unusually for an Audi, a six-speed manual gearbox.

An extra 800cc endows the Mustang with another 46kW/90Nm, but the extra 100-or-so kilograms it carries means the two are surprisingly close in outright pace – just two-tenths separate them according to our VBox. They’re closer than you might think in terms of dynamic behaviour, too. We found the S5 to be a great tourer with a delicious high-revving V8, strong brakes and a surprising amount of adjustability but lacking that final degree of feedback – all comments that could apply to the latest Mustang.

Of course, there’s a peace of mind that comes with having a new car and its associated warranty, but research indicates there aren’t too many nasty surprises with the S5. Owner forums suggest the 4.2-litre V8 is a hardy unit, though it can suffer from carbon build-up, but there are reports of clutch issues with early manual cars.

As with any second-hand prestige car, it pays to allocate a reasonable annual budget to keeping it running, but the upside is access to one of the world’s great engines in a stylish package for less than $50K.

Here’s one we found on Trade Unique Cars

2008 Audi S5

99,260km, manual, $46,444
Lorbek Luxury Cars in Melbourne currently has two B8 S5s in stock, the Brilliant Black 2008 manual you see here as well as a Meteor Grey 2010 automatic with 88,172km on the clock for $48,950.