We already know what we don’t like about the latest Audi RS3 Sportback: the anaesthetised steering, the plug-ugly grille, the absence of a gear lever, some of the buttons, most of the vents and every bit of the flat top steering wheel. And the price, of course. Had the staff of PH bought this particular RS3, the whip round would've required an envelope stuffed with £69,575. Including £895 for the optional Ascari blue. Had we opted to take advantage of Audi’s representative 48-month Personal Contract Plan, and decided after four years that we’d like to hand over the optional final payment, the total amount payable would be £88,007 and 68p.
Needless to say, at £37,278, that final optional payment is the contractual equivalent of a nuclear deterrent (no sane person would push the button), but still - reading to the bottom of the RS3’s spec sheet, it’s hard to immediately square the thought of £88,007 and 68p - or even £69,575 - with the real-life prospect of what is undeniably still a C segment hatchback. Increase that budget by just 8 per cent and you could have a Porsche Cayman GTS 4.0. Buying a new Mk8.5 Golf R Black Edition would save you £23,790. This does make you think.
Admittedly, our RS3 is a Carbon Vorsprung model; the entry-level version beneath it starts at £60,135, a figure that actually undercuts the equivalent Mercedes-AMG A45 S by £3,610. And nor are we bellyaching with much gusto: after all, it is heartening in 2025 that both Audi and Mercedes will still sell you a petrol-powered five-door hatchback with 400hp and sub 4 second 0-62mph times at all. That availability has much to do with bottom-line profitability, clearly; nevertheless, in a world with precious few conventional sports cars left, the continued presence of either car in local showrooms almost feels like a minor miracle.
Thus the reason for welcoming the latest RS3 to the PH Fleet is twofold: firstly, to see if it lives up to that giant price tag over time, or wilts under the weight of it. And secondly, regardless of that outcome, to.savour it for all the ways we already know it’s brilliant. Because make no mistake, once this lifecycle is done and dusted, we'll almost certainly never see its like again - or at least not with the 2.5-litre inline-five that made the car singularly desirable in the first place. It’s been raising the hairs on the back of PH necks since 2011; after nearly 15 years, no matter what the case for owning a brand-new RS3 in 2025, its engine has well-earned a long, gushing goodbye.
The nearness of its demise is reflected in Audi’s reluctance to do much with it. The turbocharged 2,480cc motor is much as we found it in the previous generation: peak power arrives at 5,600rpm and is sustained until 7,000rpm. There’s a lull in the action a long way before that - unaided by an accelerator pedal that wants pushing down a long way down in its default setting before finally accepting that you’re after the good stuff - but by 2,250rpm, 369lb ft of torque comes on terrifically strong and doesn’t let up till the horsepower is ready to seamlessly receive the baton. Neither 174mph (accessed by the Carbon Vorsprung spec) nor 62mph in 3.8 seconds seems remotely far-fetched.
For now though, just a few weeks into ‘ownership’, it is the more tangible parts of the Vorsprung premium that have immediately impressed. Specifically the upgraded 19-inch ’10-cross-spoke’ (as Audi describes them) alloys, a dazzling, arch-filling reminder of just how naff the matt black standard wheels must look in comparison - and its adaptive dampers, cruelly denied to the base model, which deliver roughly the sort of bump absorption you’d expect from riding a memory foam mattress down a flight of stairs.
Of course, this typifies the sort of ‘ease of use’ that Audi has intentionally sought in this generation of RS3 - almost certainly a result of customer feedback accrued in previous years - and that aspect of the facelifted car is foregrounded every time you turn it on. And, indeed, for the full length of a recent trek to the Peak District in support of the Cupra Leon versus Audi S5 test we ran last month. It says much already about the car that I can’t recall a single covetous glance in the direction of either fast wagon, even with a four-hour return journey in the offing. Obviously I didn’t have a wardrobe to shift, but still - the time when you’d chew through your own arm to switch places with an Avant driver is long gone.
Consequently, we do not need three months to know that the RS3 is very easy to rub along with. Instead, it’s all about where the car ranks among other similarly powerful big-ticket options in 2025, and, more broadly, where it now sits in automotive history. Because while its legacy as the original mega-powerful, five-door hatch is virtually guaranteed by default, the RS3 bookmarks an era already being supplanted by five-door, mega-power EVs that threaten to make its level of performance look modest. Has it still got sufficient special sauce in its twilight years to make them all seem like oversized golf carts? Let's find out.
Car: 2025 Audi RS3 Sportback Carbon Vorsprung
Price as tested: £69,575 (comprising Ascari blue, metallic £895)
Run by: Nic and Matt
On fleet since: Feb 2025
Mileage: 1,760
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