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RPM TV Website | March 22, 2024

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One-day Test: Audi S3 Sportback

Audi S3 Sportback Audi S3 Sportback Audi S3 Sportback
Adam Schoeman

Review Overview

Overall
9

Excellent package

Excellent package with usable power and enough safety nets to make you feel like a super star. A little too surgical for my money but the car I would recommend to all those around me.

When the Audi A3 was originally launched, it was the first and last word in premium hatchbacks. There was simply nothing else that could touch the refinement and badge envy in a hatchback form factor. It might have been based on the Volkswagen Golf 4 platform, but Audi positioned it perfectly by employing the flagship Golf 4 GTI’s mechanicals for its mainstream A3 1.8T.

Back then, Audi also released its own take on the ultimate hatchback – the S3. It used a 1,8-litre turbocharged engine that produced 165 kW in its final tuning (a lesser version was available at launch, and was later upgraded), and due to it being turbocharged and therefore offering a lot of torque, it was able to punch in a far higher weight class than expected.

There was a problem, however: while we love performance hatchbacks, the early 2000s trend to release them in three-door configurations only harmed their everyday usability.

One of the great things about a hatchback is that you can easily squeeze in five adults and some stuff in the back, or fold down the seats and rival most SUVs in terms of height-restricted packing space.

But it’s difficult to call something ‘practical’ when you need a degree in people-folding to fill up the rear seats.

Enter the next-generation A3, and the debut of the A3 Sportback. The Sportback, now a standard Audi designation, indicated that the car had two more doors than expected, and in the case of the A3 Sportback, this meant a practicality-pleasing five-door layout.

Audi S3 Sportback

Audi S3 Sportback

This time around though, there was also more competition in the premium hatchback market. BMW had released its 1-Series and while it was rear-wheel driven an not packaged as well, it meant that Audi faced a very real challenger for the first time.

The same could be said for the S3, which now produced 184 kW from a 2,0-litre turbocharged engine, but had to fend off comparisons with the Golf 5 and 6 R.

In retrospect, Audi had it easy back in those days. The 1-Series is now much improved, and Mercedes-Benz has joined the premium hatch fray with its A-class. On the performance side, the latest Golf 7 R is cheaper and as well endowed as the 206 kW S3, which all of a sudden looks on the meek side next to the 235 kW BMW M135i and 265 kW Mercedes-Benz A45 AMG.

On the surface it would seem that Audi has been left behind, but ironically, almost the opposite is true. While the S3 makes do with less power than the M135i, it does offer quattro all-wheel drive, and in the weather Johannesburg experienced this week, that’s a feature that makes the S3 that much more accessible.

Driving the S3 and BMW back-to-back in the wet, I was stunned how often the traction control light appeared on the BMW, while the S3 remained steady and composed. In the wet, the TC light on the BMW might as well have been part of the ambient lighting, but I actually cannot tell you where it is located in the S3’s instrument cluster, because I don’t think it flickered on once.

Audi S3 Sportback

Audi S3 Sportback

The Merc might have all-wheel drive, but it is so much more expensive (there’s a R100 000 handicap, and that’s before you start adding options) and we have been underwhelmed with the way the AMG delivers its monstrous 265 kW to the road.

The S3 is also beautifully crafted on the inside (as long as you stay away from the more garish interior options such as the R22k flat-red seat inlays or electric white quilting). It’s minimalism at its best, with strong, clean lines with and all the high-tech trappings you would expect from a car at this level. And the five-door layout adds practicality to the equation, too.

For my money, the BMW is still the best hot hatch in this segment, but that’s because I enjoy the liveliness of the BMW’s rear and the way the torque and power transitions so smoothly that you’re never caught out-of-boost while downshifting.

For anyone else I would recommend the S3 Sportback (and even the vanilla A3, for that matter). The S3’s quattro system makes its safer and easier to use that 206 kW more of the time, and when you’re spending more than R500 000 on an everyday car, you want to maximise the use you get out of it.

The S3 Sportback does that, and more.

Review Overview

Overall
9

Excellent package

Excellent package with usable power and enough safety nets to make you feel like a super star. A little too surgical for my money but the car I would recommend to all those around me.

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