Audi RS3 Review & Prices

This is the Audi RS3, a hot hatch with a snarling five-cylinder petrol engine making a ludicrous 400hp, posh yet sporty styling and one of the best driving experiences of any of its alternatives – and an update for 2025 means it’s better than ever.

The Audi RS3 manages to seamlessly blend upmarket sophistication with a fiery, fun-loving character. It’s a bit like dressing an MMA fighter up in a three-piece suit.

If high horsepower hatchbacks are your thing, you might also consider alternatives such as the similarly frenetic Mercedes-AMG A45 S, or the slightly more sensible Volkswagen Golf R. There’s also the Honda Civic Type R if you fancy something even more driver-focused, or the BMW M2 if a rear-wheel drive coupe tickles your fancy.

What the Audi RS3 shares with each of these cars is suitably sporty styling, with the 2025 update bringing a new look front grille and headlights that can display patterns such as a chequered flag. You get functional air intakes up front and a diffuser at the rear, with quad-exit exhaust pipes showing this is no regular A3.

This theme continues inside, with a new steering wheel with a flattened top and bottom and bright red shortcut buttons for your sportiest driving modes. The sports seats get a soft microfibre and Nappa leather upholstery, and for the first time in the RS3, you get the option of carbon-backed bucket seats.

Audi’s infotainment system is pretty slick and easy to use, with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto easy to sync up. There’s a new Virtual Cockpit in the latest model, with some RS-specific graphics such as the RS Runway mode, which displays a vertical rev counter that rushes towards you as you accelerate. It takes some getting used to but adds some theatre.

It’s relatively spacious inside, with good legroom and headroom wherever you sit, though those in the back might find the chunky sports seats block the view ahead. Boot space isn’t great, because the clever mechanical bits eat into the boot floor – at 281 litres you lose about a third of the capacity of the regular car, and you’re well down on what most alternatives offer.

But those mechanical bits are so good they’re worth losing a bit of boot space over. You get an all-wheel drive system with a clever Torque Splitter, which can distribute power to whichever wheels can make the most of it, or subtly use the brakes to improve the car’s cornering ability. As a result, the RS3 feels incredibly agile on a twisty road, and gives you confidence to power out of corners without worrying about losing control.

At the heart of the car’s driver engagement is the 2.5-litre engine. It’s a five-cylinder unit that gives the RS3 a unique character, both in the way it aggressively delivers its power and the raw, rumbling sound as you accelerate.

However, thanks to the driving modes on offer, you don’t feel like you have to compromise everyday refinement to have this wild side available. Pop the car into its Comfort setting and it’s about as relaxing to drive as any regular hatchback, doing an admirable job of soaking up bumps in the road. About the only compromise is motorway driving, where there’s a bit more tyre noise from the big alloy wheels and sporty rubber.

Updates for 2025 are subtle, but it’s a case of it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. This is a fantastic hot hatch to drive and one of the best all-round performance cars you can buy right now. If you’re interested you can check out the latest Audi RS3 deals on Carwow, or get a great price on a used RS3 from our network of trusted dealers. You can also browse other used Audis, and when it’s time to sell your current car, Carwow can help with that, too.

The Audi RS3 is actually reasonably priced in comparison with alternatives – the Mercedes-AMG A45 S and BMW M2 are both close to £65,000 in their basic forms, but you can get the RS3 for (just) under £60,000.

That said, a Volkswagen Golf R is about £15,000 less, though you get less power, less interior quality and less badge appeal, too. The Honda Civic Type saves you about £10,000, but it’s nowhere near as nice inside and feels more compromised in everyday driving in the pursuit of exhilarating performance.

Fun on a twisty road yet comfortable and relaxing when required, though tyre noise is noticeable at higher speeds

In town

Take one look at the Audi RS3 and you might expect one of those performance cars that’s horrendously uncomfortable around town – but that’s not the case.

At slower speeds, the large 19-inch alloy wheels do transfer some bumps into the cabin, but these impacts aren’t too bad. And with adaptive dampers specified, the sports suspension can be softened off into Comfort mode to help you better waft over those craggier stretches of road. The RS3 doesn’t feel too wide despite its chunky body kit, so navigating traffic isn't much of a problem.

On the motorway

It’s motorway speeds that highlight the only minor compromise (other than fuel costs, of course) that the Audi RS3 has over the regular version. That’s because there’s a bit more road noise from the large wheels, though it’s certainly not unbearable.

You get adaptive cruise control as standard, which comes with lane-centring so you don’t drift over the white lines.

On a twisty road

Audi RS3 models of old felt rather like blunt instruments, with monumental power and a chassis that couldn’t handle it. This latest model couldn’t be further from that, because it feels totally locked down on a twisty road.

There’s loads of clever technology working together beneath the car to manage how the power is sent to the wheels, so you get maximum grip and confidence to power out of a corner. You can even fiddle with the settings to get a more rear-focused setup to give the car a sportier feeling.

Coupled with the performance from the five-cylinder engine, it feels more driver-focused and refined than a Mercedes-AMG A45 S with the agility of the BMW M2. Impressive stuff.

Passenger space is decent for those in the front and the back, but the boot is pretty small

Even though this is an extremely sporty car, the RS3 is still a hatchback, so in-cabin practicality is pretty good. There are large door bins and plenty of cubby holes. However, the cup holders are a bit useless as they don’t hold your drink very securely so it sloshes around.

The front sports seats wrap around your sides and have strong bolstering to keep you comfortable when you’re going quickly round a corner. They’re also well cushioned and very adjustable thanks to electric seat controls.

Space in the back seats

Space in the back of the Audi RS3 is respectable, with decent headroom and legroom. That being said, particularly tall passengers may find headroom to be a bit tight, and those chunky sports seats do block the view forwards.

Still, four adults should be able to fit in the RS3 easily enough. Five passengers might be a bit of a push, though, as the middle seat is on the small side, and the prominent transmission tunnel takes up a fair amount of space.

As for practicality, you get netting on the back of the front seats, and some good-sized door bins – all of which helps make the RS3 more than practical enough for most people.

Boot space

Audi has sacrificed a lot of storage space in the RS3 to fit the clever all-wheel drive system. In fact, you lose about 100 litres of boot space by going for the RS3 over the A3. You get a total of 281 litres, which is a good chunk less than the 370 litres you get in an Mercedes-AMG A45 S, and some way off the 410 litres in the Honda Civic Type R.

The RS3’s driver-focused interior makes it easy to focus on the road ahead, but it isn’t as exciting as other hot hatch cabins

Audis are known for having cabins that play it safe style-wise, and although the RS3’s cabin is a nice place to be, it’s a bit dark and simple next to the likes of the A45 S – which is all about visual wow-factor. You can add colourful trim upgrades to give it a lift, though, which appear across the air vents, on the seats and the steering wheel.

That steering wheel is new for 2025, and gets a flat bottom and top to give it a sporty look. There are red drive mode buttons so you can quickly select the car’s Performance modes, which are a useful addition, unlike the touch-sensitive wheel controls that are too easy to activate mistakenly on the move.

The RS3 gets a 12.3-inch digital instrument display alongside a 10.1-inch infotainment touchscreen, which is housed within the dashboard rather than mounted proud of it.

Audi’s infotainment system certainly works well in the RS3 and it’s all very simple to use on the move. You can also use either Apple CarPlay or Android Auto if you want to.

Sticking with the instrument screen, Audi has introduced a new display mode with the RS3 called ‘RS Runway’. Designed to look like a runway, the vertically-aligned rev-counter and speedometer bars move towards you from the top of the screen as you accelerate, rather than moving away from you or round a dial. It just looks odd.

Still, at least you don’t have to rely solely on the touchscreen to control a lot of the car’s basic features. You still get plenty of buttons and switches for the climate control and chassis setup, all of which means you spend less time taking your eyes off the road if you need to make a few quick changes.

The Audi RS3’s 2.5-litre five-cylinder engine produces 400hp and 500Nm of torque. Power is down on the AMG A45 S’s 421hp and new M2’s 460hp, but at this point it’s all just numbers on paper, because the Audi still feels ludicrously quick for a small family hatchback. Not long ago these were the sort of outputs you’d expect from a supercar.

Fuel consumption might not be your highest priority when considering a hot hatch as powerful as the Audi RS3, but it’s worth mentioning. Officially, the RS3 will return 31mpg – high 20s should be reasonable in everyday driving, but expect that to drop quickly if you’re making the most of the power on tap.

CO2 emissions are around 200g/km, which means the RS3 falls into one of the higher first-year Vehicle Excise Duty bands. It also faces the annual extra cost for cars costing more than £40,000 which must be paid in years two to six after the first registration.

The RS3 has not been specifically safety tested by Euro NCAP, but the A3 it’s based on was rated five stars out of five, scoring 89% and 81% for adult occupant and child occupant protection respectively.

You get selectable drive modes so you can adapt the car’s driving characteristics to the conditions, as well as all the usual driver assistance features such as automatic emergency braking and lane-keep assist.

Audi has a fairly average reputation for reliability, and had a disappointing 27th place finish out of 32 manufacturers in the 2024 Driver Power owner satisfaction survey.

The RS3 specifically is sold in such small numbers that it’s not easy to build a full picture of how likely it is to go wrong. However, there are no recurring tales of woe from owners, and being based on the A3, itself sharing many components with other popular Volkswagen Group models, means it shouldn’t need regular trips to the local mechanic.

The RS3 comes with a two-year unlimited mileage warranty, with a limit of up to 60,000 miles in the third year. You can extend this to fourth and fifth years for a little extra cash, too.