We'll make no secret that we love the A5 Sportback. With a shape somewhere between an Aston Martin Rapide and a Bentley Continental GT but the size of the more livable A5, it's really a perfect setup. We'd take ours in 3.0 TDI S-line trim were they sold in the U.S. but alas they're not. Well, that might be a possibility says Autoblog in a story this week.

The report, along with suggestion of a TDI version of the A8 is by the normally very reliable Damon Lavrinc so we're wondering his source. Why? Well, we think he's spot on with the A8 part. A 3.0 TDI is being very seriously considered for America and we'd put our money on that coming to fruition.

The part that we're more interested in, the part about the A5 Sportback, is categorically untrue according to our intel source. The A5 Sportback, at least in current form, is a bit of forbidden fruit for America because when the American market was dropped from the A5 Sportback business plan word is Audi designers were granted more liberty to do an even more aggressive sloping rear roofline that you see on today's car.

According to our source, the car wasn't designed with U.S. rear occupent crash criteria in mind and making it work for America would be a costly endeavor that would also see a car decidedly less aggressive in appearance. For this reason, the business plan as it applies to today's car does not work.

As the story references the A7 and Audi's plan to measure the car's success, one has to wonder if Lavrinc's source is referencing the next generation model be it the 2013 product improvement (facelift) or the eventual successor further out. It's doubtful that Audi would make such a structural change to the product improvement or P.I. but perhaps with the 'B9' generation it could happen.