6 Things I’ve Learned After Living With An Audi RS3 For A Month

Here's what we've discovered just over a month and almost 1500 miles into our RS3 Saloon long-term test
6 Things I’ve Learned After Living With An Audi RS3 For A Month

The engine is a masterpiece

6 Things I’ve Learned After Living With An Audi RS3 For A Month

We’ve been asked a few times if the RS3 is worth the hefty premium Audi demands for it over the S3, and we’re convinced it is. There are multiple reasons for that stance, but I’d argue the engine makes a strong enough argument on its own to shirk the cheaper of the two go-faster A3s: it’s utterly stunning.

In a performance car landscape increasingly dominated by turbocharged four-cylinder engines, it’s an utter joy to deploy the full anger offered up by this warble-tastic 2.5-litre. Its offering of 395bhp and 354lb ft may not be much more than managed by Mercedes-AMG’s ’45’ 2.0-litre inline-four or the BMW M2’s 3.0-litre straight-six, but it feels far more potent than both.

You get a sense of what’s to come at 2000rpm as the twin-scroll turbocharger starts to wake up, but it’s from 4000rpm onwards that all hell truly breaks loose. It’s a fantastically punchy, dramatic engine, and yes, the throaty roar belted out of its twin tailpipes is amazing. Here’s hoping it sticks around for a good while longer.

When we first posted about ‘our’ new RS3 on the Car Throttle Instagram, there was a common theme in the comments: people getting angry about the gear selector. Why? Because it appears to have been styled like a manual gear lever. Do you feel quite as passionately as some of our Instagram commenters? Let us know…

It’s brilliant fun to chuck around

Nardo Grey quickly becomes Nardo Brown at this time of year if you're not careful...
Nardo Grey quickly becomes Nardo Brown at this time of year if you're not…

Using the latest version of the much-used Haldex four-wheel drive system, the RS3 is able to shove more power rewards than any of its predecessors once in Dynamic mode and in ‘ESP Sport’. It will even - under the right conditions and with enough commitment - oversteer under power. But on the road that’s not been our experience - we had a handful of moments when it felt like a tiny bit more power has gone to the rear than the front, but that’s it.

But that’s not to say it succumbs to understeer at the slightest provocation. This is a neutral feeling car with a fabulously grippy and pointy front-end, and I’ve been loving the gnat-like changes in direct the chassis allows. A moveable rear-end is not the be-all and end-all, as some petrolheads would have you believe.

It has a volume control in a silly place

6 Things I’ve Learned After Living With An Audi RS3 For A Month

For reasons I don’t particularly understand, the volume control for the infotainment system is sat pointing upwards, just to the right of the gear selector. As a consequence, on numerous occasions I’ve knocked it with my leg, either turning the volume right down or cranking it up to an ear-splitting level. It’s more of an issue in a UK car, being right-hand drive and all, but in any case, it seems a weird, unintuitive place to put it.

You have to be careful how you option it

6 Things I’ve Learned After Living With An Audi RS3 For A Month

With its £44,700 base price inflated to £59,475 with some rather liberal option box ticking, you’d think ’our’ RS3 would have a want-for-nothing spec. But no. It doesn’t have electric seats, front or rear parking cameras, adaptive cruise control or adaptive dampers. So what options does it have exactly? A load of stuff you don’t really need, is the answer.

We’ll do a detailed run-through of what is and isn’t necessary soon, but the £4700 carbon ceramic brakes, the £1600 top speed limit increase and the £650 carbonfibre-trimmed engine cover are all things we’d happily ditch, saving nearly £7000 straight off the bat. You could then add much of the luxury car ‘must haves’ this particular RS3 is missing, and still end up with a lower on-the-road price.

Saloon cool factor means practicality sacrifices

6 Things I’ve Learned After Living With An Audi RS3 For A Month

If I were in the market for an RS3, there’s no question that it’d be the saloon version. There’s nothing wrong with the Sportback, but a £45k hot hatchback just doesn’t compute in my head. A £45k junior super saloon, on the other hand? I’ll say a hearty hell yes to that, even though the cars are identical other than body style. A saloon’s just cooler, isn’t it?

The trouble is, you will be making a practicality sacrifice if that’s your choice. Official boot capacity is actually similar (and not exactly generous, it must be said), but the opening on the saloon body makes loading a pain, and quite obviously you don’t have the flexibility of the Sportback’s longer roofline to play with when it comes to loading particularly bulky items.

It can be reasonably economical

6 Things I’ve Learned After Living With An Audi RS3 For A Month

We have managed to squeeze 34mpg out of the RS3 on a few longer runs, but the cruising economy of that greedy 2.5-litre engine will rarely creep much above the 30 mark. Kick its head in on a good bit of road, and you’ll be in the mid teens, or worse. Overall we’ve averaged 26.6mpg over 1380 miles, and most of those have been motorway miles. Not terrible, but the BMW M2 we ran last year fared better on those motorway journeys.

What else would you like to know about RS3 life? Let us know in the comments!

Comments

Nishant Dash

It’s a fantastic car! The i5 sounds like a mini v10 (you can kill me if ya want).
.
.
.
It shoulda had a manual though 😥

01/14/2018 - 10:57 |
38 | 2

i5? dont they use the v5 format anymore like the older VAG models?

02/02/2018 - 01:02 |
0 | 0
Anonymous

Such a cool car! Would have this over the M2 or the A45 any day!

01/14/2018 - 11:06 |
20 | 2
HAYABUSA

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

It’s a fantastic car but I just can’t like the Audi design.. I just find it to be so bulbous and bloated somehow.
Now the M2 and it’s sharp edges on the other hand 😍😍😍

01/14/2018 - 11:31 |
10 | 0
TheMindGarage

Now please VAG, stick this engine EVERYWHERE. In an Arteon? A Golf? Maybe even in a 718? Even if it needs to be slightly detuned to avoid stealing sales from within the group, it’d be a welcome change from turbo 4s.

01/14/2018 - 11:52 |
112 | 0

Inline engines simply won’t fit into a 718, but Arteon should 100% have a 5-cyl version.
Hopefully will see a Tiguan R and a new Q3 RS with this engine too: might actually be quite fun in an SUV.

01/14/2018 - 12:04 |
44 | 0

Arguably not quite the right character for the Arteon, which is probably why they’re testing a new turbo VR6 (see attached link!). It’s also - I’m told - an arse to package because the block sits very far over to one side in the engine bay.

But yes - the more cars it’s in the better! First VW it’ll be in will be Tiguan R I should think

01/14/2018 - 13:04 |
2 | 0
Anonymous

This engine features in the 700kg Donkervoort D8 GTO RS

01/14/2018 - 12:41 |
2 | 0
🎺🎺thank mr skeltal

Honestly, I don’t like this car. It doesn’t look that good (they took a Jetta, made it look like literally every Audi of the last 5 years and put on some carbon fiber accents that don’t make it any better). It has less space on the inside than a Golf, which is definetly nothing to be proud of. The wost of all is the price tag though. 45k is more than what some people earn in an entire year, and everything that’s above the bare minimum of what a 2017 car should have is an option that’s twice as expensive as it should be. That’s all fine if you think so, but the one reason why I’ll never buy an Audi is that the selector knob for the menus scrolls up when turning it clockwise. Seriously, what where they thinking? Literally every other manufacturer has it the correct way; turn clockwise to scroll down, as it should be, but Audi does it different for the sake of being different without sparing one second to think about if that makes any sense.

01/14/2018 - 13:23 |
4 | 20
Anonymous

Fun fact: the car comes equipped with 255 in the front and 235 at the back!

01/14/2018 - 18:01 |
6 | 0
Anonymous

I would like to know, if it’s worth paying the premium over a well specified VW Golf R in terms of day to day performance and use-ability.
An RS3 would be on my radar if I could justify the price, it gets close to BMW M and Porsche 718 territory far too much considering it’s close relations can be had for a more economical figure.
Is it really worth the premium over the cars in the other group that share its DNA when you take into account what else can be had for similar money?

01/14/2018 - 19:37 |
0 | 0
adam thompson

I will never understand the people getting bent out of shape over a shift boot on an automatic. If anything, it keeps dust and other things from falling into and gunking up the gate

01/14/2018 - 22:52 |
6 | 0
Anonymous

Hey there.
I’m looking to buy either an RS3 or a TT RS, I’m curious why you’d skip on the carbon ceramic brakes?

This is one of my “must have items”!
Less unprung weight (and upfront no less! ), fade resistance for hard/track driving.
Am I missing something?

01/15/2018 - 09:59 |
0 | 0
Daniel Busker

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

werent those brakes super squeaky? maybe to annoying in daily driving

02/02/2018 - 01:05 |
0 | 0
Anonymous

Such a cool & fantastic car! The i 5 sounds like a mini v 10. Would have this over the M2 or the A45 any day.

01/17/2018 - 07:59 |
0 | 0

Topics

Manufacturers

Sponsored Posts