Audi S3 Saloon Review & Prices

The Audi S3 Saloon is a classic ‘Q’ car — by which we mean a car that appears to be a humble four-door family saloon, but which actually has rip-roaring performance under the skin. Think of it as being like one of those 1990s Subaru Impreza Turbo tearaways, but one that’s been to a posh school, and then a posh tailor.

Inside, it’s fairly easy to tell the S3 Saloon apart from its humbler A3 Saloon brothers, thanks to high-backed sports bucket seats which come with gorgeous quilted Nappa leather trim. Audi has long since gone for an all-digital cabin layout, so you get a big screen in the middle of the dashboard for infotainment, and another screen for the driver’s instruments, plus a head-up display projected onto the windscreen. Thankfully, Audi has stuck with proper physical buttons and switches for the air conditioning, though…

The front of the S3 Saloon’s cabin is very comfortable, and beautifully made (as you’d expect from an Audi) but the back seats aren’t compromised too much, and are quite roomy, although no-one will actually be able to get comfortable in the middle-rear seat.

The S3 Saloon has one big practical let-down, though — it might look like a spacious four-door saloon from the outside, but the boot is tiny, eaten into by the mechanical bits for the four-wheel drive system.

That four-wheel drive system — which is badged as quattro, but isn’t a ‘proper’ Audi all-wheel drive system, instead using multiple clutches to send power to the back wheels — has been upgraded this time around, and uses a new torque-distributing differential between the back wheels. As Jennifer Aniston used to say, here comes the science part; that differential can work out which of the rear wheels is in a better position to cope with the engine’s power, and send extra grunt its way. It can also be used to help the S3 Saloon turn into a corner sharper, by speeding up the outside rear wheel.

The upgraded four-wheel drive system arrives at the same time as a power boost, which pushes the 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine to 333hp. The seven-speed ‘dual-clutch’ automatic gearbox remains the same (Audi calls it S-Tronic) but there are changes to the suspension too, which is 15mm lower than that of the standard A3 Saloon’s, as well as being stiffer.

Without the option of adaptive suspension, that would normally make a car like this unbearably stiff over bumps, but Audi’s engineers have worked wonders so that while the S3 Saloon certainly feels solid, it’s never too hard nor too harsh. In fact, it’s really well judged as a balance between everyday comfort and back-roads fun.

Fun is the right word — this is the most enjoyable S-badged Audi car we’ve yet driven, thanks to sharp steering (Audi calls it Progressive Steering, because it’s quick from lock-to-lock but doesn’t feel twitchy when you only want a small bit of steering input at higher speeds), that clever rear differential, and a sense of poise and enjoyment that makes this S3 Saloon an utter delight on a twisty British B-road.

The S3 Saloon is also not as thirsty as you might expect. Thrash it, and unsurprisingly it will easily dip below the 20mpg mark, but we actually managed to squeeze better than 40mpg out of the S3 Saloon when driving it gently.

Of course, driving it gently is hardly the point of the S3 Saloon, but Audi’s upgrades and updates have produced a truly excellent all-rounder, capable of thrilling you on the right road, but also keeping you comfortable when you’ve got a long motorway run or just need to nip into town for the shopping. That’s the essence of a good ‘Q’ car, and this S3 Saloon is one of the best.

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The S3 Saloon is pretty well priced relative to its main opposition. A BMW M235i Gran Coupe is about £1,000 cheaper (depending on equipment options) but then again it’s also around 26hp shy of the S3’s power output. A Mercedes CLA AMG 35 is a good bit pricier than the S3, to the tune of almost £5,000 and, like the BMW, is less powerful. However, the slightly less slinky A-Class AMG A35 saloon is closer to the Audi on price, being around £1,000 more expensive. It’s worth remembering that the recently-updated VW Golf R, which uses all of the same mechanical bits as the S3, is about £2,000 less expensive.

The S3 Saloon is currently only available in one trim level — Black Edition — so if you want the higher Vorsprung equipment level, you have to go for the five-door S3 Sportback hatchback. It’s also worth noting that through Carwow’s bargain-hunting software, we were able to find a BMW M340i — a bigger, faster, more powerful car altogether — for very similar money to an S3 Saloon with options, so make sure you do your homework before buying.

The Audi S3 Saloon is seriously fun on a twisty road and surprisingly refined and comfortable elsewhere. Shame there’s no adaptive suspension option like on the five-door S3 Sportback hatchback

In town

There is a hole in the S3 Saloon’s options list and that’s adaptive dampers. Without the option to switch the suspension to a Comfort mode, it can be a bit on the firm side around town. To be fair to the Audi, it’s definitely firm rather than harsh, but you will feel all the ripples and bumps.

The S3 Saloon’s compact size does pay dividends in town though, as it’s easy to slot in and through gaps, and it’s not a hassle to park, helped by the standard-fit parking assistant, which can help you find a space big enough and automatically steer you into it. As long as you’re prepared to put up with the firmness of the suspension, the S3 Saloon is perfectly handy around town.

On the motorway

Firm the S3 Saloon might be, but it’s not uncomfortably so, and for long motorway journeys the Audi engineers seem to have judged the suspension balance just right as it’s plenty comfortable enough.

That’s helped by superb sports front seats, and obviously the sheer power on offer is seriously handy when it comes to picking up speed to merge with fast-flowing motorway traffic or dispatch a line of slow-moving trucks up a long incline.

The surprise is that the S3 is actually pretty refined too — that wasn’t always the case with previous versions — and it’s even economical. If you drive the S3 Saloon very gently, you can get better than 40mpg, although 30-35mpg is more likely on motorway runs.

On a twisty road

In the past, fast Audis have been rapid in a straight line, but disappointingly heavy-footed and unrewarding around corners. That’s definitely not the case with this S3 Saloon — in fact, this is the most fun-to-drive S-badged Audi we’ve ever driven.

That clever new torque-splitting rear differential is the special sauce that makes the difference. As you accelerate out of a corner, you can feel the outside rear wheel being fed big spoonfuls of power to help balance the car, and it’s just a hugely satisfying sensation.

The S3 Saloon feels up on its toes, but it’s still comfortable enough and well-balanced enough to tackle a British B-road, and with very strong brakes too (massive 357mm discs, 17mm bigger than standard, up front with uprated brake callipers). It’s a seriously talented car, this, as well as just being fast.

The S3 Saloon has plenty of space and storage in the cabin, but the boot has shrunk

Up front, aside from the fancy seats and nice S-model trim, the S3 Saloon’s cabin is much the same as you’d find in any Audi A3, which is a good thing as that means there’s plenty of space. The door bins are massive, and there’s storage under the front seat arm rest, plus two decent cupholders as well as more storage and two USB sockets in front of the gear selector.

Space in the back seats

The S3 Saloon might be quite a compact thing on the outside, but you’d not know it from the back seats, where headroom and legroom are perfectly fine. Maybe not massively generous, but fine.

Again, there are well-sized door bins which are easily big enough to hold a large bottle of water, and there are storage nets in the backs of the front seats.

There’s not really enough space to fit a third person in the back seats though, as the outer seats are heavily sculpted and that eats into the room available in the middle, plus there’s a chunky transmission tunnel so that the four-wheel drive system can send power to the rear wheels.

Boot space

The S3 Saloon looks like a practical car, but when you open up the boot, there’s a bit of a problem. A standard front-wheel drive A3 saloon has a perfectly useful 425-litre boot. The S3 Saloon, though, has to squeeze both that clever rear differential and a sports exhaust under the boot floor, and the only way to do that was to raise up the floor, removing a full 100 litres of space, leaving you with just 325 litres. Even then, there’s still quite a deep loading lip to navigate. A shame that there’s not an S3 Avant estate, but we guess you can’t have everything.

The overall design of the S3 Saloon’s cabin is ageing now, but Audi has done just enough to keep it up to date

The Audi S3 Saloon’s basic cabin architecture is starting to look a bit old now, but Audi has kept it just the right side of fresh thanks to an update to its screens. There are digital displays for both the infotainment and the driver’s instruments, as well as a head-up display. Thankfully, Audi has resisted moving the air conditioning controls to the screen, so those are still proper buttons and are all the better for that.

The main infotainment screen is tolerably easy to work with, although the fact that every function is controlled with icons which are just plain white on black with red highlights makes it a bit dull at times. The driver’s instrument panel gets S-specific instruments, which are a bit like those used by the legendary Audi R8 supercar.

Cleverly, there’s an option on the touchscreen which allows you to change the shape of the running lights that sit within the headlights and the brake lights, giving the Audi an extra touch of personalisation.

As standard, the high-backed and hugely comfortable front sports seats get quilted Nappa leather trim, which looks rather decadent, and which is repeated for the back seats. The steering wheel, which is a sporty S-badged affair, can be had with an optional flat-bottom, like a racing car, but we prefer the simpler round version. The old S3 Saloon came with rather hard and shiny carbon-fibre trim on the dashboard, but this new S3 gets lovely soft Alcantara fake suede instead, which is a big improvement.

Audi’s other update is to change the automatic gear selector for the seven-speed S-Tronic gearbox from a big toggle switch to a small lozenge-shaped thing, lifted from the Q4 e-tron electric SUV. We preferred the old toggle switch, to be honest. There’s a whole load of S logos scattered about the place, and a red surround for the engine stop-start button, just to remind you that you’re not in a regular A3.

At minimum, the S3 Saloon has CO2 emissions of 186g/km, which is pretty high and it means your first year’s road tax is very high, and you have to pay extra in your annual tax because this Audi costs over £40,000. Benefit in Kind isn’t kind to the S3 Saloon either — at minimum it will cost company car buyers £286 per month.

Where the S3 does score, though, is fuel economy, which might be rather surprising for an uber-hot saloon with 333hp. The official consumption figure is 34.4mpg, but on our test, driving gently, it was easy enough to get the S3 to return better than 40mpg, which is remarkable for such a potent performance machine.

The Audi A3 model range, as a whole, picked up some solid scores when it was safety tested by Euro NCAP, bringing home a five-star rating. That included an 89% score for adult occupant protection, an 81% score for child occupants, 68% for vulnerable road user protection, and 73% for its electronic safety systems. There are two ISOFIX points for child car seats in the back, and having anchors for ISOFIX in the front passenger seat is a no-cost option.

The S3 Saloon comes as standard with an alarm and an immobiliser, but as ever with a desirable high-performance machine, it would be worth investing in a tracking device.

Mechanically, the S3 Saloon should be fine — the engine, the gearbox, and the four-wheel drive system are all used in other Audis and in other VW Group models such as the Golf R, so they’re well-proven. The only issues which have historically affected the S3 have been the touchscreen and digital display, which have been known to get an attack of the blanks, and sometimes that doesn’t go away with the usual switch-it-off-and-on-again routine.

Audi did quite poorly in the most recent Driver Power reliability survey, coming 6th from bottom.